SINGAPORE — The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will begin collecting iris scans from Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PR) from Jan 1 next year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Wednesday (Dec 28).

This comes as amendments to the National Registration Act (NRA), passed in Parliament on Nov 10, are set to take effect from the new year as well.

Iris scans will be collected when Singaporeans register for their National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) at age 15, or re-register when they are 30-years-old. Scans will also be collected during passport applications and renewals.

In a statement on Wednesday, the MHA added that selected SingPost outlets will be able to collect iris images during the NRIC registration or re-registration. There are 27 selected outlets at Ang Mo Kio Central, Bedok Central, Bishan, Bukit Batok Central, Bukit Merah Central, Bukit Panjang, Bukit Timah, Choa Chu Kang Central, Clementi Central, Ghim Moh Estate, Hougang Central, Jurong East, Jurong Point, Jurong West, Marine Parade, Orchard, Pasir Ris Central, Paya Lebar, Sengkang Central, Serangoon Central, Suntec City PO, Tampines Central, Tanglin, Tanjong Pagar, Toa Payoh Central, Woodlands Central and Yishun Central.

The ICA will also be appointing some SingPost employees to serve as registration officers, said the MHA.

In November, Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs) Desmond Lee said in Parliament that the iris scans would complement the existing identity-verification methods using photographs and fingerprints.

Fingerprints, for instance, may fade as a person ages or does a great deal of manual work, Mr Lee said.

He added that some travellers found it difficult to use the automated clearance at checkpoints because of poor fingerprint quality, for example, and had to be directed to the manned counters. Iris scans, which can be done in seconds, will help get around this difficulty, and they will cut down overall waiting times in queues as well.

The amendments to the National Registration Act passed in November also allows the ICA to appoint people outside the agency, such as SingPost, to be registration officers who can perform “carefully selected” functions that include the enrolment of iris images.