The present invention provides a system and method for authenticated-user access, the system including an optical device proximal to an entrance adapted to capture a biometric credential of an individual user, a communication network adapted to receive from and send signals to the optical device, a portable communication device associated with the individual user, the portable communication devicein connection with the network and a processor adapted to receive the biometric credential of the user and to match the biometric credential with a previous pre-authorized biometric credential, of the user and to send an authorization key to the portable communication device responsive to the match to provide the individual user with a time-limited access key to the entrance.