The Ministry of Justice said on the 1st that it will expand the number of countries whose nationals can use the automated immigration inspection lanes when entering Korea through Incheon International Airport from four to 18.
The move is expected to reduce inconveniences for foreign visitors to Korea caused by long immigration wait times. As of last year, the wait time at manned immigration counters was about 24 to 35 minutes, and during peak season it reached 92 minutes. The Ministry of Justice expects about 40% of all foreign arrivals will be able to use the faster automated immigration inspection under the measure.
Incheon Airport's automated immigration inspection lanes are a system that performs immigration checks using passports and biometric data such as fingerprints and faces. Travelers go through three steps at the lane—passport recognition, fingerprint recognition, and facial recognition—or, after pre-registration, can simply have their face recognized at the lane.
Using the automated immigration inspection lanes allows travelers to complete entry and exit procedures quickly and conveniently. However, foreign nationals who wished to use the lanes had to finish immigration and then visit an external immigration office to complete the automated immigration registration process.
On the 3rd of last month, the Ministry of Justice said, "Nationals of Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (countries with mutual-use agreements for automated immigration) can now use automatic registration and the automated immigration inspection lanes together."
Within a month, 14 more countries were added to those eligible to use the automated immigration inspection lanes: the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Finland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Ministry of Justice selected the countries by considering whether their nationals allow Koreans to use automated immigration inspection, the degree of people-to-people exchanges, diplomatic relations, and the domestic situation regarding undocumented stays.
The locations for pre-registration for automated immigration inspection were also expanded beyond the west side of the arrivals hall in Terminal 1 at Incheon Airport to include the east side of Terminal 1 and the east and west sides of the arrivals hall in Terminal 2.
The Ministry of Justice plans to analyze the results of the pilot operation of the automated immigration inspection lanes at Incheon Airport in January next year and decide whether to expand them to airports nationwide. Minister Jung Sung-ho said, "We will continue to improve to provide a more convenient and positive entry experience for visitors to Korea."