New ICA service centre with 24/7 kiosks will allow for breezier passport and IC collection

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is building a new Integrated Services Centre that’ll allow individuals to collect official documents any time, day or night. The 10-story building is slated to be ready by 2023, and will be located at the open-air car park that neighbors ICA’s current premises on Kallang Road, which will be upgraded once the new building is up.

This means that the carpark next to the ICA building will shut from next January to make way for the construction of the new centre, TODAY said.

Redesigning its service experience for customers, the “one-stop” centre will allow for more convenience, with tech-savvy, 24/7 self-service kiosks for you to collect different documents. A new iSmart system will store documents securely using robotics, identify visitors, and hand over their identity cards or passports, all within the span of 15 minutes, Channel NewsAsia said.

This would be a whole lot more efficient than the current system, where customers have to make appointments, wait in line with a queue ticket, and head to the service counter manned by an ICA officer before they can retrieve their document. All during office hours, too.

These upcoming changes were revealed by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam at ICA’s annual workplan seminar on Friday.

Other initiatives include electronic arrival cards and contactless immigration clearance for Singaporeans departing or returning to the country from 2022, with new automated lanes verifying identities via iris and/or facial biometrics.




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