Sanjiv Kapoor's tweets have caught the attention of Twitter users.
If you’ve travelled internationally via aeroplanes and if you do so frequently, you know that one of its most agonising aspects is the time it takes to clear immigration. It is a hassle and can sometimes leave a bad taste in your mouth. Sanjiv Kapoor, the CEO of Jet Airways, in a tweet thread, recently revealed that he was able to clear the immigration at Heathrow International Airport in London in just 10 short seconds!
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Yes! Seconds, not even minutes! He was able to do that owing to his e-enabled passport. Essentially, the e-enabled passport is a passport with a chip installed that contains all the biometric information of the holder.
This happens because of facial recognition technology that processes passengers at an extremely high speed. Furthermore, owing to these facilities, there won’t be any departure immigration required for passengers. The US Global Entry program is available to Indian passport holders at a fee.
Taking to Twitter, Mr Kapoor said, "Cleared London Heathrow arrivals immigration in 10 seconds thru the e-passport kiosks. Global Entry-enrolled? Clear US arrival immigration in 10 seconds using facial recognition. No departure immigration for the UK and US. This is the way to go, Digital!"
He further shared, "Incidentally US Global Entry is open to Indian passport holders too. One has to enrol and pay a fee."
"With technology and services like e-passport kiosks and Global Entry, there is absolutely no human interaction required for arrivals immigration. Purely automated and digital. Long lines are when you don't have this and need to be manually processed by an immigration officer," he noted.
Last year, Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (Consular and Diaspora), Ministry of External Affairs said that e-passports would be fully functional in India by 2023.
