Consular Lookout and Support System

Overview
The Department of State’s Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) is an automated system developed and maintained by Consular Affairs (CA), which is used by the Department of State, Passport Agency centers, and U.S. Consulates. This system is used to perform name-checks of visa and passport applicants in support of the issuance process and U.S. border security.

Access to CLASS is made available to other authorized US Government agencies upon request. CLASS operates as a central processing system from two processing centers. CLASS currently uses small server hardware set up in a server farm array. CLASS completed its migration off of the mainframe hardware in 2008. The newer small server platform of CLASS is operational (also known as eCLASS) and can be migrated to other locations and is currently being considered as a name check option by several other agencies. The eCLASS system is an evolution of CLASS.