When it comes to understanding their customers, no other organization does it better than the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA). So it really doesn’t come as a surprise when ICA garnered the ”Service Innovation” category award in the Government Technology Award 08, organised by FutureGov, on 17 October 2008.

2. Billed as Asia Pacific and the Gulf regions’ most significant IT award in the government sector, the Government Technology Award 08 saw more than 450 nominations from government, education and healthcare organisations. This award recognises the creative uses of technology in the public sector organisations and those organisations that align people, process and technology to deliver best practice outcomes.

3. A radical paradigm shift in mindset is the main driving force behind ICA’s winning nomination – the eVisitor programme. This innovative programme allows foreigners to apply for a wide range of immigration facilities such as an extension of stay, application of visa, long-term visit pass or student’s pass from the comfort and the ease of their own home. The tangible results from the implementation of the e-visitor program? A significant cost saving and cost avoidance of up to $1.2 million per year for the government. The customers reap the most benefits from the program with a total estimated saving of $2.1 million per year and close to 1 million hours reduction in waiting time.

4. In recent years, ICA has seen a considerable growth in the visitors’ base. This can be attributed to the Singapore government’s efforts to promote the country as a tourism, educational and medical hub and coupled with Singapore’s naturalisation efforts to augment the country’s population. The increase in demand for immigration services from visitors are evident in the rise in applications for Visit Pass and Student’s Pass. There was an increase of 89% from 280,000 applications in year 2003 to 530,000 applications in year 2007.

5. ICA’s e-visitor program consists of a spectrum of e-services with streamlined processes to make it more convenient for foreigners to visit and stay in Singapore. The process kicks in even before a visitor arrives in Singapore with SAVE (Submission of Application for Visa Electronically), an online visa application portal, which allows a visa required national to apply for an entry visa via internet. Used in tandem with e-Visa, one can easily print the visa from home without the need for the local sponsor to courier the physical visa stickers to the applicants. Once the visitor arrives in Singapore, extension of visit pass can also be swiftly applied using the e-XTEND (Electronic Extension of Short Term Visit Pass) system without the visitor having to worry about finding their way to ICA.

6. The robust programme also looks into the needs of visitors who seek long term stay, with e-VP (Online application for long term Visit Pass) and SOLAR/SOLAR+ (Student’s Pass Online Application and Registration). As far as possible, the friendly designs of the systems reduce the need for applicants to make multiple trips to ICA. These e-services are fully-integrated with our e-appointment system where a pre-allocated appointment will be given to the successful applicants to minimize their waiting time. In summary, the seamless e-Visitor programme integrates the multiple functions for visitors to create a delightful and wholesome experience on their stay in Singapore.

7. “ICA is truly honoured to be presented with this award as it represents our continuous efforts to delight our customers with easy-to-use and convenient online services. More importantly, these online services are developed without compromising security. In fact, as opposed to the physical endorsements on travel documents, having the information residing within ICA’s secured network means a greater control over the integrity of the data.” said Mr Eric Tan, Commissioner of ICA.


IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
21 Oct 2008