Changi Airport has fitted machines at all four of its terminals, allowing travelers to pass through immigration without showing their passports.
As stated by the ICA, data shows that almost 1.5 million travelers have been facilitated through immigration without having to use their passports under this initiative.
Entering into his full discourse, Senior Assistant Commissioner Alan Koo, ICA’s Airport Commander, said this move has reduced the average clearance time per traveler by 60%—from 25 seconds to just 10 seconds.
As an officer in charge of profiling and investigations, CI Firdaus used to perform a manual assessment and interview travelers before granting immigration clearance.
“When I came here, everything was done at the counters manually,” he recalls.
The new system has also helped the officers address potential language barriers with foreign travelers since common foreign languages like Bahasa Indonesia and Mandarin are integrated into it. Under the program, Singapore citizens, permanent residents, and long-term pass holders may get through immigration by their facial and iris biometric scans. However, children below six years cannot be enrolled in the system because their features are not fully developed for reliable authentication of their physical and biometric characteristics.
The same system can be utilized when foreign visitors leave the country because, upon their arrival, their biometric details are captured, but they would always be required to present their passports at entry to Singapore.
The ICA urged travelers to bring their passports with them because the document may be required by the immigration offices of other jurisdictions. This system will also come into place at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre this December itself.