Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Derrek]

Date August 26, 2004


According to the Justice Ministry on Monday (August 23), the government will be implementing an electronic passport verification system for travelers at the International Airport of Korea located in Incheon in 2005 in order to avoid any cases of passport forgery and to enhance immigration procedures by reducing the time for the immigration procedure.

By the end of this year, the electronic passport verification system, known as the Machine Readable Passport (MRP), will be established at all the immigration desks in the airport. Operations of the system will commence after test runs, even as early as February, according to the ministry.

The machine has the capability to read bar coded personal information from passports and simultaneously have the information gathered compared to the previously saved information in the server of airport authorities of the passport holder for verification. According to the ministry, immigration records of passengers and any other additional information will be saved automatically in the server.

At present, in order to travel overseas, Korean travelers are required to fill out immigration and emigration cards and present them to the immigration desk at the airport for confirmation, however once the system is in place, travelers will not be require to do so any more, the officials added.