Brunei Boosts Passport With Cutting-Edge Technology
By Ubaidillah Masli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Bruneian travellers can expect faster processing times and enjoy more security as they pass through immigration checkpoints, equipped with the new Brunei Darussalam Biometric Passport which was introduced yesterday by the Immigration and National Registration Department.

Also known as the e-passport (electronic passport), the new travel document will, in time, replace the previous version's MRP, or Machine Readable Passports, which have been in use since 1993. The MRP's can still be used up to their respective expiry dates.

Several new features have been incorporated into the biometric passports, which are in line with the guidelines set by the international Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). A 72 kilobyte micro-processor chip will be embedded into the biodata page.

Each applicant for the new passport will have their 10 fingerprints stored onto the chip, as well as a facial image, which required for the applicant to take a `live' shot at the Immigration and National Department.

The chip has a relatively small memory capacity since it only needed to store images of the fingerprints and the ‘live' photograph.

The processing and comparison of the information stored on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip with that of the actual person will be conducted by the software available at the immigration posts. This ensures that the passport holder is who he or she claims to be.

The photo of the passport owner will also be laser printed onto the biodata page in a monochrome effect and thus, the photograph cannot be forged or altered once printed. The RFID chip was also encoded as an added safety feature.

A layer of polycarbonate material called Pecsec, will then be used to cover the biodata page.

Among the security features present on the new passports were the Double Watermark, Anti-copy features, and Step Printing.

'Micro-text' have also been placed on strategic locations within the passport pages, which were difficult to see by the naked eye. These features were some of the steps taken to prevent forgery attempts.

Other changes have also been made to the new passport, which have not been applied to the MRP's. The biometric passports will have a validity period of five years, instead of 10. The period has been shortened in order to anticipate any new developments in these passports. The passport number will no longer correspond to the identification number. Instead, a `unique' serial number will be administered to each biometric passport.

Applicants are required to fill forms at the Travel Documents Division of the department and a fee of $60 will be charged. According to the Clients' Charter (TPOR), a biometric passport will take three day to be ready.

Prior to the launch of the biometric passport, a trial-run was also conducted during the month of February, earlier this year.

A total of 50 e-passports were assigned to cabin crew members of Royal Brunei Airlines. According to feedback from the crew members, they were granted entrance into other nations without encountering any difficulties. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with