Glossary

Each Member State must designate an N.SIS Office, which is the central authority responsible for the national side of SIS in that Member State.

The N.SIS Office is also responsible for the security plan, business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan for the national side of SIS.

A voluntary programme established by each Member State in order to allow third-country nationals, or nationals of a specific third country, who do not enjoy the right of free movement under Union law to benefit from the facilitations made when crossing the external border of a Member State.

Name specifying the national facilitation programme (NFP) of the Member State concerned.

An authorisation issued by a Member State which does not apply the Schengen acquis in full with a view to an intended stay on the territory of that Member State for a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period.

The national supervisor shall be defined at Member State level. During fall-back procedures, the border authority shall contact the national supervisor for further guidance and exchange of information.

A National Uniform Interface (NUI) is defined by the EES Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 in each Member State based on common technical specifications and identical for all Member States, enabling the connection of the EES Central System to the national border infrastructures in the Member States in a secure manner.

The quality of the facial images, including near infrared ones, shall comply with the thresholds specified in the technical specifications and with the image requirements of ISO/IEC 19794-5:2011 Frontal image type. The quality of the facial image shall be assessed at national level at the time of capture prior to their transmission to the EES Central System. For more information consult the following link: www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:19794:-5:ed-2:v1:en

National Institute of Standards and Technology

NIST Fingerprint Image Quality (NFIQ) 2 is open source software that links image quality of optical and ink 500 PPI fingerprints to operational recognition performance. NFIQ 2 quality features are formally standardized as part of ISO/IEC 29794-4 and serve as the reference implementation of the standard. This information can be consulted in the following link: www.nist.gov/services-resources/software/nfiq-2

Under international human rights law, the principle of non-refoulement guarantees that no one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm. This principle applies to all migrants at all times, irrespective of the migration status.