Passport, IC collection in just 5 minutes with ICA's new robots

System delivers documents to self-service kiosks, saving manpower and time

- Christine Tan

It now takes about five minutes to collect a new passport or identification card via the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) self-collection kiosks, compared with 11 minutes in the past.

The time savings are thanks to robots, which zip around storage shelves to retrieve these documents and deliver them to the kiosks.

More than 100 of these disc-shaped devices are part of ICA’s integrated smart document management system (iSMART), launched in July 2025.

The Sunday Times went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the system at the ICA Services Centre (ISC) in Crawford Street on Dec 22.

The centre began operating in April 2025 and is adjacent to the old ICA building, which is under renovation.

ISC’s senior manager of customer operations Aruna Morgaya said that before the new kiosks were set up, some people faced unpredictable and long waiting times when collecting their identification documents.

They had to queue alongside others who had more complex cases, such as those who had lost or damaged their passports.

Ms Aruna said: "It could be quite frustrating because they would not be able to have a sense of their schedule for the day."