(Jamaica Gleaner) Come June, travellers to Jamaica will have the option to go paperless through immigration and customs at the airports in Kingston and Montego Bay.
Under the initiative, travellers will be able to submit online, immigration and customs forms ahead of their arrival via a special Internet portal.
According to the chief executive officer of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency, Andrew Wynter, on arrival, the passenger will only be required to hand his or her passport to the immigration officer.
He says once cleared by the immigration officer, the passenger’s customs details will immediately become accessible by the customs officer.
“Once you clear immigration and there is no problem with you and customs and you swipe your passport and it is green then we are looking at persons who used to spend 20 minutes now spending less than five minutes. What might hold you up is the length of time it takes you to collect your bags,” he said.
Wynter was speaking on Tuesday during the ‘Cus-toms Meet the Diaspora’ online forum.
Meanwhile, Wynter said preparations have started for the expected increase in airport traffic this summer when a five per cent growth in arrival is expected.
“We are working on our third generation of kiosks and we just implemented 20 additional kiosks in Montego Bay, which have proven quite valuable and we are looking to add additional kiosks in Kingston,” he said.
Meanwhile, Velma Ric-ketts Walker, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Customs Agency said additional ‘nothing to declare’ lanes will be added for travellers this summer.
“We once had two, now, we have four so passengers are able to flow through easily, providing that they honestly declare on their customs and immigration forms,” she said.
