I went to collect my new and first biometric passport as my old one is going to be expired by early next year. The embassy moved to a new address not too long ago, the new place is actually bigger and better than the previous one. Huge chandeliers hanging all around with high ceilings. 

I don't see a big difference between the old and the new one except for the very thick piece of "cardboard" which contains the biometric data.

I read that the current standardized biometrics used for this type of identification system are facial recognition, fingerprint recognition, and iris recognition. I don't know whether Singapore's biometric passport has all 3 features, especially the last one - iris recognition, highly doubt it since we are using different sources for passport photos, with different levels of resolutions, I don't think that's attainable. Fingerprint infomation can be obtained from our NRIC data. Having the first 2 features seem pretty logical and reasonable.

With a Singapore biometric passport, we are one of the 36 countries in the world (and only 4 countries in Asia are qualified for this) eligible for visa-free entry into the United States. Pretty convenient!! Visa application, anything got to do with administration, bureaucracy, etc. just frustrates me.

I don't like taking passport photos, period.



I miss the cold. I hope December will come quick!

We are having pretty eccentric weather these days. Last week was kind of chilly with grey skies and since yesterday, the sun started shining in its full glory at 32 degs celcius in the day. However, it is obvious that Summer is coming to an end with night time temperature going down to 20 degs or less.