Photo: There are 10 Autogate that have been installed and tested at the international terminal, Tan Son Nhat airport. Of these, 5 machines serve exiting procedures and 5 machines serve immigration procedures. (Lao Dong)

Autogate is an automatic entry/exit gate control system implemented at five international airports in Vietnam, namely Da Nang, Noi Bai, Cam Ranh, Tan Son Nhat, and Phu Quoc International Airport. Instead of queuing in line for ground staff to check manually, Vietnamese citizens and foreigners now can easily go through Autogate with advanced technologies including facial recognition, passport scanning, and extraction of information from electronic chips to autonomously ascertain the identity and details of passengers during entry or exit from the country. 

The Autogate application is hoped to help expedite immigration procedures, decrease the number of employees working at airport security desks, and improve security measures all at the same time.

The only limit in this initial phase (about 2 years) is that Autogate only allows Vietnamese nationals with valid passports (Diplomatic passport, Official passport, or ABTC card) and foreigners with valid residence cards or temporary residence cards issued by authorized Vietnam government agencies.

Instructions on using Autogate system in Vietnam's international airports (Data source: The Tan Son Nhat International Airport Border Gate Police)

After 6 months, most of the concerns and problems related to Autogate arising from… passports. Vietnameses came back to their home country from overseas often forgot to check whether their passports are chip based or not. If not, they have to register to use this system beforehand. 

“Normally, if a passenger registers at a convenient time such as morning shift, afternoon shift, or night shifts that are not too late, the leader on duty will immediately approve the request. In the case of passengers registering manually at the airport, too late at night, if the unit leaders are not awake at the right time, there will be no one to review”, said one staff working in Tan Son Nhat International Airport. 

Other problems such as scanning glitch, wrong data, inconsistent information, etc of the Autogate system have also caused confusion among Vietnameses and foreigners. The authority in Tan Son Nhat International Airport explained that the Autogate system requires a long time to perfect its data collection function, as well as the user's proper passport information. Namely, there are many cases where passengers have incompatible passport features, passports that are too old, or images that do not match their current face due to editing or aesthetic surgery, etc. 

Overall, Autogate may not have been meeting the expectations of Vietnamese nationals at the moment, especially foreigners who wish to enter Vietnam with ease; it is still in the first phase and there’s a chance to improve in the near future.