The Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) is a system supporting the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs: it assists in decisions for visa and passport issuance and helps establish a person's eligibility for overseas services.
It is used by U.S. Department of State passport agencies and consular posts as well as U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other border inspection agencies to perform namechecks on visa and passport applicants to identify individuals who may be ineligible for issuance or require other special action.
According to a report in October 2002: "The State Department indicated that at most overseas posts, consular officers relied primarily on the CLASS name check system to detect possible terrorists and did not place a special emphasis on using other elements of the visa process ..." The CLASS name check was historically done after reviewing the applicant's passport and other documents, and after an optional interview.
The number of namecheck records in CLASS increased fivefold from 48,000 in September 2001 to approximately 260,000 in June 2005, according to consular officials.
However, the absence of specific information in CLASS about the nature of crimes (which made it difficult to distinguish between serious and minor crimes) made it hard for consular officers to use CLASS for rapid visa processing as of 2005.