Singapore will be one of the easiest countries to visit, with automated lanes allowing entry from the second half of this year and ease of testing procedures for all visitors, regardless of nationality.
VisaGuide.World reports that the Asian country will become the first country to allow visitors to enter the country without having to register in advance or present a passport before leaving the country.
All check-in procedures are completed using authentication tokens, reducing the need to carry physical documents such as passports and airline tickets.
Changes to the Immigration Bill, coupled with increased digitalization efforts and tighter border controls, are the main reasons behind new measures that will make Changi Airport the world’s first passport-free hub.
More than 160 automated lanes will be installed in 2023, and another 230 lanes will be installed in 2024. Currently, automatic lanes are only available to Singapore residents and their 60 country passport holders.
According to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), there was a significant increase in the number of travelers in 2023, with nearly 193 million people passing through all checkpoints. This is an 84% increase compared to his 2022 year, when around 105 million travelers were confirmed at all checkpoints.
Despite the increase in activity, the total number of travelers in 2023 remained slightly below 2019 levels, when 217 million travelers passed through all checkpoints.
Although the air traffic situation has not yet improved, the number of travelers visiting land checkpoints during school and public holidays has exceeded pre-pandemic levels since borders reopened in 2022, the ICA said. It pointed out.
During these periods, traffic through the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints recorded nearly 13.6 million travelers, averaging around 440,000 travelers per day. Before the pandemic, about 400,000 travelers went through immigration screening at land-based checkpoints every day.
The traveler experience remains intact and, in fact, immigration times have been reduced as the ICA has continued to transform border control, including introducing automatic lanes and making these lanes available to more visitors. has been improved overall.
However, some irregularities may have surfaced in the new measures, as the ICA reported that more contraband, forged travel documents and immigration crimes were recorded in 2023.
Contraband cases increased by 23% from 35,000 in 2022 to 43,000 in 2023, while cases of fake travel documents tripled (65 cases), although the number of cases was small.
Furthermore, the ICA stated that the increase in immigration crimes could be linked to the easing of travel restrictions and an increase in intelligence-led operations (from an average of 40 per month in 2022 to 58 in 2023). Ta.