KUALA LUMPUR: The Saudi Visa Bio app developed by the Saudi Arabian government to facilitate the registration of haj and umrah pilgrims from Malaysia to the country is in line with Lembaga Tabung Haji's transformation plan or Hijrah24, which stresses the digitalisation of haj management.

       Tabung Haji Haj Executive Director Datuk Seri Syed Saleh Syed Abdul Rahman said the introduction of the application was meant to speed up the process of immigration and customs inspections by improving the process of passport scanning, face and fingerprint (biometric) scanning, in addition to time savings for pilgrims arriving in the Holy Land.

       He said such innovation was commendable, and any improvement effort must be allowed to continue in the future to ensure better services for the haj pilgrims.

       "Malaysians are very fortunate because the Saudi Arabian government had chosen Malaysia as one of the earliest countries to implement the pilot project of the app,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (March 30).

       The Saudi Visa Bio app was currently in its first phase and would use fingerprints or faces to complete the Umrah or H visa issuance process. It was launched in Malaysia last Monday (March 28).

       Saudi Arabia was the first country in the world to use biometric registration technology through smartphones for electronic visa issuance. - Bernama