Many S'poreans unable to register on passport-free app on 1st day of Johor QR code clearance

Many Singaporeans experienced difficulties on the first day Malaysia trialled its passport-less immigration clearance at the Johor Bahru checkpoints.

When Zaobao went to Johor's Bangunan Sultan Iskandar checkpoint on the morning of Sep. 22, nearly all the Singaporeans crossing the border shared that they were unable to use the MyNIISe app and complete the registration.

Some could not scan their passport to register, while others had trouble just loading the app.

Zaobao's own reporters have similarly been unable to scan their passports to register on the app since downloading it on Sep. 20.

The MyNIISe app

On Sep. 18, the Malaysian government announced the trial run for its National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) would begin on Sep. 22, at the two land checkpoints in downtown Johor Bahru and the Second Link.

The initiative is expected to enable faster, smoother travel, and ease congestion at both land checkpoints, according to the chairman of the Johor Infrastructure, Transport and Communication Committee.

When a first-time user on the MyNIISe app creates an account, the steps include scanning their passport photo page and passport biometric data chip.

Difficulties

As at Sep. 22, the MyNIISe app has a 1.1 star rating from 290 users on the Apple app store.

Most of the reviews are one-starred, complaining that the app takes a long time to load, especially when it gets to the stage of scanning the passport.

A Facebook user named Farid Yaacob posted on the Malaysia-Singapore Border Crossers Facebook group expressing frustration that he needed to go through the "very troublesome" registration multiple times for each person in his group so that the app can generate a group QR code.

He felt that "using manual passport at car counter is faster and less troublesome then trying to form a group QR code" with the new app.

Many comments under his post echoed him, saying that they were also stuck at the passport-scanning stage.

However, a few said they managed to successfully register, and added that it was probably because they used the Malaysian network.

A man Zaobao interviewed had been trying to get his passport scanned on the app for some days, and still failed to do so by the time he arrived at the border on Sep. 22.

"Honestly speaking, I am not surprised," he said, "because I had a similar experience previously when registering for the VEP."

Top images from Zaobao and Facebook