Singapore airport goes fully passport-free with biometric clearance

A passport is no longer needed for clearance at Changi Airport, where biometric clearance has been fully implemented across all four terminals, leading to an average passport-less clearance time of 10 seconds.

A release from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) says “arriving and departing Singapore residents can clear immigration by simply using facial and iris biometrics, without the need to present their passport. All foreign visitors can also enjoy the convenience of passport-less clearance when they depart Singapore.”

Foreigners arriving in Singapore will still need to present passports, and are advised to carry passports with them when traveling. But the so-called new clearance concept (NCC), which uses biometric identifiers, will not require pre-registration.

Idemia provides facial and iris recognition technology for the ICA’s automated biometric clearance lanes – specifically, its Augmented Borders Suite of ID-Look devices and back-end systems. The company has been involved with Changi Airport since before it was Idemia, providing face-based biometric control systems for the facility since 2016.

Last year, Idemia signed an agreement with the technology department of Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs to form a strategic partnership to develop biometrics and forensic products for homeland security use cases.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  facial recognition  |  IDEMIA  |  iris biometrics  |  Singapore