In this article, we consider the T 2 chart with double sampling to control bivariate processes (BDS chart). During the first stage of the sampling, n 1 items of the sample are inspected and two quality characteristics (x; y) are measured. If the Hotelling statistic for the mean vector of (x; y) is less than w, the sampling is interrupted. If the Hotelling statistic is greater than CL1, where CL1>w, the control chart signals an out-of-control condition. If , the sampling goes on to the second stage, where the remaining n 2 items of the sample are inspected and for the mean vector of the whole sample is computed. During the second stage of the sampling, the control chart signals an out-of-control condition when the statistic is larger than CL2. A comparative study shows that the BDS chart detects process disturbances faster than the standard bivariate T 2 chart and the adaptive bivariate T 2 charts with variable sample size and/or variable sampling interval.