Singaporeans who are visiting Australia can now skip long queues at the immigration counters at the country’s eight international airports after Canberra extended the use of its facial recognition technology to travelers from Singapore.
“Customs and Border Protection is launching a trial to allow Singaporean e-passport holders aged 16 years and over to use SmartGate self-processing facilities in Australia’s eight major airports.” Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb explained.
“The extension to Singaporean travellers will make them the first Asian nation to use this state-of-the-art technology.” The minister added.
Singapore will be the first country in Asia to benefit from this system as it is only currently available to Australians, New Zealanders, and United Kingdom citizens holding permanent resident Australian visa and to United States & Swiss electronic passport holders under trial arrangements.
The following are the participating airports:
- Adelaide
- Cairns
- Brisbane
- Darwin
- Gold Coast
- Melbourne
- Perth
- Sydney
In 2013, more people from Singapore visited Australia than any other country in Southeast Asia. There were 385,300 visitors from Singapore, an increase of 12.1 percent more than the previous year.
For inquiries concerning Australian visa applications, you may call the Australia Immigration Specialist at +65 62990246. For the Australia PR application, please complete our migration form for a free assessment if you need to know your eligibility to migrate to Australia from Singapore.