SINGAPORE: Travellers arriving and departing Singapore by car via Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints can use QR codes instead of passports for faster and more convenient immigration clearance beginning March 19.
Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said instead of handing their passports to ICA officers at the car counter, they will only need to have scanned a single QR code which they generate before arriving at the checkpoint, for all the travellers in the car.
It said to use the QR code for immigration clearance, travellers will need to download the MyICA mobile application on their mobile device and populate their passport details in the application to generate a unique QR code.
The application can be downloaded for free from either the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android).
It said Singapore residents can either auto-populate their passport details via SingPass when they access the MyICA mobile application or use the built-in camera function in the mobile application to scan the Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ) of their passport biodata page.
“Foreign visitors who have visited Singapore before can use the built-in camera function within the MyICA mobile application to scan the MRZ of their passport biodata page to auto-populate their passport information,” it said in a statement today.
The MRZ is the two or three rows of characters at the bottom of the passport biodata page.
However, first-time visitors and those re-entering Singapore using a different passport from their last visit to the country will need to present their physical passport for immigration clearance and will only be able to use a QR code for immigration clearance on their subsequent trips.
ICA said travellers in the same car can populate their passport details and generate one group QR code for immigration clearance.
The agency said the QR code initiative allows travellers to enjoy a faster and more convenient experience, with estimated time savings of around 20 seconds for cars with four travellers, to approximately one minute for cars with 10 travellers.
“Even after this initiative is rolled out, travellers can still opt to present their physical passport to the ICA officer at the counter, as per current practice,” it added.
The ICA said it plans to progressively extend the QR code clearance to the other clearance zones at the land checkpoints as this will allow travellers in other means of conveyance to also enjoy faster and more convenient immigration clearance.-Bernama
