The Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco announced on Wednesday that the electronic gates, also known as E-gates, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other major airports around the country are set to be upgraded.

Tansingco said that the BI is currently integrating airline data to connect with the e-gates to further reduce the procedures that travelers must follow.

The bureau has received multiple reports from travelers stating that they are unable to use the e-gates if their flight data has not yet been integrated into the system. As a result, passengers must switch to normal counters in order to be processed manually.

Tasingco added that as a result of the upgrade, travelers can expect the removal of the scanning of boarding passes when using the e-gates, which can further reduce the processing time for arriving Filipino passengers.

“Our e-gates are also being reconfigured to be label-free,” said Tansingco.

“Instead of printing a sticker to be attached to the passport, passengers will receive an email acknowledging their arrival. This is the best practice that we are emulating from other countries,” the BI chief added.

Tansingco shared that for 2024, as part of the BI’s contribution to Bagong Pilipinas efforts, the bureau has initiated the procurement of more E-gates to replace 25 percent of their manual operations in major international airports. They are thankful to the public for their cooperation and understanding as they navigate through the birth pains of this evolving technology to ease immigration processing.