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Enhanced Immigration Automated Clearance System
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
Singapore

The Problem

Singapore first implemented Immigration Automated Clearance System (IACS) in Dec 1997. IACS provides automated immigration clearance of less than 12 seconds. Eligible travelers have to register at 4 IACS Card Centres. Registered IACS users were issued with smart cards in which their bio-data and fingerprint images were stored. The smart cards are used as tokens for clearance at IACS lanes. As at Dec 2005, IACS had registered about 120,000 users.
On 26.3.06, the IACS system was upgraded with implementation of document readers. This upgrade has allowed IACS system to read passports and smart cards for automated clearance. The system is then known as eIACS (enhanced Immigration Automated Clearance System). The upgrade has resulted to a significant increase of registered users from 120,000 to 3,000,000, overnight. About 2,800,000 of the registered users are Singapore citizens. They are not required to register to use eIACS. They can use their valid passports for automated clearance at the eIACS lanes.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
There were 76 IACS lanes to provide automated immigration clearance for 120,000 travelers. With eIACS implementation, there are 88 eIACS lanes to serve 3,000,000 travelers. eIACS provides a more efficient automated clearance for registered travelers. ICA (Immigration & Checkpoints Authority) only built 12 new eIACS lanes. The other 76 IACS lanes were upgraded to eIACS status. This has resulted in significant reduction in cost of implementation but a significant increase in utilization of automated lanes. In general, the project spent about S$2 only to allow each registered traveler to clear through eIACS lanes. The crowd at the manual lanes is also reduced.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The concept of eIACS was discussed through regular meetings held over a period of about 6 months. Representatives for diverse fields of immigration work were selected to form the eIACS Project Team. The Team also worked with representatives from external agencies in Singapore. Several IT vendors were consulted on technical options and feasibility for implementation. Several in-house tests were conducted to ensure that eIACS meets stringent operational requirements. We also conducted a month trial at the busiest checkpoint participated by real travelers. The trial was successful and eIACS has won one internal award and 3 national awards for being a very innovative project.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
With heightened security threats from terrorist activities and increasing volume of travelers cleared by ICA, we have decided to categorize travelers into low-risk and high-risk groups. The low-risk or known travelers refers to those already registered with ICA i.e. we have their identities, biometrics, etc in our databases. The high-risk travelers are those that are unknown i.e. they are social visitors to Singapore. Thus, it would benefit ICA to automate the clearance of known travelers to free available resources to perform critical secondary immigration checks. About 70% of total travelers cleared by ICA per year are known travelers.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The objectives were to provide a fast and efficient automated immigration clearance to a large number of travelers without incurring high cost of implementation as well as not to compromise security at the borders.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
eIACS employs appropriate technology to enhance immigration clearance process. The document readers are locally developed and they have capability to detect forgery. eIACS also leverages on fingerprint biometric technology to verify travelers. All checks were done at back end or database level which is very secure.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
All checks performed by eIACS are done at back-end or database level. Rather than relying on the data stored in a token e.g. in the chip of a smart card, eIACS retrieves a traveler’s data from several databases managed by ICA. During clearance at eIACS lane, a registered traveler produces his document and ‘live’ fingerprint image. eIACS will verify that the traveler’s passport is in order and authenticate his fingerprint with respective databases. Each clearance is also monitored by intelligent CCTV system. Only genuine travelers are able to clear through eIACS.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The eIACS concept of clearance can be applied to any area that requires a tighter control of access for large number of visitors.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The success of the project depended on close co-operation amongst team members as well as external parties. It was difficult to change the mindset of members and users-alike, who still prefers the use of tokens for verification. It was also difficult to implement the system and ensure that security is not compromised. Being the Guardians to Singapore’s Gateway, ICA is to ensure that no undesirable persons enter or wanted persons leave the country undetected. eIACS is one of our best kept secrets in combating terrorism and providing an efficient clearance for large number of travelers.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Chua Poh Keyong
Title:   Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +65 63916530
Institution's / Project's Website:   +65 62976329
E-mail:   chua_poh_keyong@ica.gov.sg  
Address:   ICA Building 10 Kallang Road #08-00
Postal Code:   208718
City:   Singapore
State/Province:   Singapore
Country:   Singapore

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