Bureau of Immigration (BOI) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) jointly organized the First State Level Conference on Immigration, Visa, Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) at Sonata Hall, Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram on 12th March, 2013.  About eighty participants from Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Offices (FROs), Immigration Check Post, State Home Department and NIC participated in the Conference. Technical sessions on Centralized Visa Issuance system (c-VISA), Centralized module for Foreigners Registration, Prior Reference Category (PRC), Foreigners’ Students Registration System (FSIS), C-Form Registration were conducted.

While welcoming the participants, Shri K.K Jayamohan, FRRO, Trivandrum stressed the significance of the project. Shri T.P Senkumar, IPS, Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) delivered the inaugural address. He stated that through this foolproof system, we will be able to provide a simple procedure for anybody visiting our country and at the same time it will be ensured that our national interest is also secured.  Shri S Ananthakrishnan, IPS, Inspector General of Police (Internal Security) and Nodal Officer for Foreigners’ Registration, Kerala State emphasized the Role of Foreigner’s Registration Officers at district level and also mentioned that the IVFRT project got a very important part to play seeing the national security. Shri AK Sinha, IPS, Director, Ministry of Home Affairs highlighted the contribution of various stake holders involved in the project and smooth roll out of the project within the time frame. Shri Santosh Varma, IPS, Joint Deputy Director (SIB), Thiruvananthapuram, in his speech, stressed the importance of switching over to the new system from the current manual procedure.  While addressing the participants, Dr. BN Shetty, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, New Delhi   stated that the software is built seeing the requirement of providing facilitation without compromising on security. The session concluded with the vote of thanks by Shri PV Raju, State Coordinator, IVFRT, Kerala.

Technical session Centralized Visa Issuance system (c-VISA) was given by Sh. G. Christopher, Technical Director. Features of on line visa issuance system were explained. Workflow based procedure starting with on line registration to issuance of Visa, information sharing between various stakeholders were demonstrated in this session. Shri Nagendra Singh, PSA shared conceptualization of PRC and Unique Case File (UCF) with participants.

Shri Suresh. V, Technical Director IVFRT Chennai demonstrated the C-Form & S-Form.  c-FRO system for implementation at all FRROs and FROs in the state was demonstrated live by Shri A. Ravikumar, Technical Director. Dr. N. Kannan, FRRO Chennai sharing his experiences told how IVFRT Project helps in reducing front office functions and the staff can spend more time on analyzing centralized data.