Immigration eyes shift to E-gates

The Bureau of Immigration is now planning to replace half of its manual counters with Electronic gates to increase the efficiency of its airport operations.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco announced this Monday (4 September) after requesting an increase in the BI's budget.

According to the BI, it follows a 45-second immigration processing time for travelers, adopted from the Guidelines on Advance Passenger Information published jointly by the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

While the 45-second standard is meant for check-in counters to allow for manual keying of passenger data, BI has committed to and placed an obligation on itself to process passengers within that time frame.

Tansingco said that the BI's IT programs are lined up to further reduce the processing time without compromising national security.

He added that the procurement of E-gates has been included in the BI's approved information systems strategic plan for 2024–2026.

The E-gates, which are identical to those used in advanced countries, can reduce processing time to as little as 8 seconds per passenger. When compounded, this would greatly speed up the traveler's processing time.

The BI chief claimed that currently, the Bureau only has 21 E-gates, which are distributed throughout the arrival areas of all major international airports in the country, with the majority of them placed at the NAIA.

The Bureau is preparing to purchase E-gates beginning in 2024, and by 2026, it expects to have a total of 43 E-gates established across the country.

The agency estimates that this project will cost 1.9 billion, which is required to keep up with equivalents elsewhere.

"E-gates are now the standard in most countries," Tansingco said. "We want things to be faster and more efficient to better improve the experience of our travelers," he added.

Meanwhile, Tansingco said that their operations are prepared for the expected influx of passengers during the Christmas season.

He added that the "Ber" months are here again, and because of this, they expect a higher volume of arriving and departing passengers.

Tansingco also shared that apart from deploying hundreds of immigration officers, with the latest batch of graduates numbering 108, the BI has in place the Rapid Response Procedure, executed in all international ports of entry and exit during peak hours or critical periods, to address the sudden influx of travelers by augmenting the number of officers assigned at a specific terminal through the mobilization of other IOs assigned at other offices.

Mobile counters have also been deployed to process passengers despite the limited immigration space in our airports as compared to the allocated immigration space in other countries.

The BI also announced that within the year, it intends to open green lanes at the departure area, which will cater to airline crew, frequent travelers, and OFWs.