Singapore to roll out facial recognition for motorcyclists at land checkpoints after trials

SINGAPORE: The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will roll out facial recognition to all automated motorcycle lanes at Singapore's land checkpoints, following trials.

Facial images will replace fingerprints as the primary biometric identifier.

Since January, ICA has been conducting trials to use facial recognition for immigration clearance at some motorcycle lanes in the arrival zone of Woodlands Checkpoint.

From Mar 31, this will be rolled out to 18 automated motorcycle lanes in the arrival zone of Woodlands Checkpoint, before it is extended to all 70 automated motorcycle lanes there.

The initiative will start at Tuas Checkpoint in the third quarter of the year.

The move is part of ICA's plan to provide a more seamless and secure immigration clearance experience for travellers, said Superintendent Eliane Chee, senior assistant director of the operations development branch at ICA.

"This is especially useful on rainy days, when wet fingerprints are harder to detect," she added.

Singapore residents, long-term pass holders and foreign visitors who have previously entered Singapore will be able to use the facial recognition feature. 

First-time foreign visitors and those re-entering Singapore with a different passport from their previous trip will need to undergo manual immigration clearance, where their faces and fingerprints will be scanned and recorded. 

They will then be able to clear immigration through the automated motorcycle lanes using the QR code generated via the MyICA mobile app and facial recognition for subsequent trips.

More than 150,000 motorcyclists and pillion riders took part in the trials, and their feedback was used to improve the clearance experience, ICA said. 

"Based on the feedback and ground observations, ICA has enhanced the system’s ability to detect when facial features are obstructed – for example, by face masks or sunglasses – and introduced on-screen prompts to guide motorcyclists and pillion riders to remove these obstructions to enable facial scanning," said the authority.

As of Mar 15, 62 per cent of motorcyclists and pillion riders use QR code clearance at Singapore's land checkpoints.

"ICA would like to encourage more motorcyclists and pillion riders to use QR codes generated via the MyICA mobile application for convenient passport-less immigration clearance," said the authority.

As more travellers adopt QR code clearance, overall traffic movement through the checkpoints will speed up, reducing waiting time, it added.

"Travellers must continue to carry their passport as ICA may still require them to produce their passport for verification. 

"They must also update their QR code if they have changed their passport. Otherwise, the QR code will be rejected during immigration clearance," said ICA.