ICA urges year-end travellers needing to renew passports to apply now or risk staying home

SINGAPORE — The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has urged Singaporeans with year-end travel plans to submit their passport applications early if their passports have expired or have less than six months' validity.

In a press release on Thursday (Aug 18), ICA said: “This will avoid another surge for application of passports towards (the) end of the year and provide sufficient time for ICA to meet the demand for year-end travels.

“Singaporeans who submit their passport late will risk not being able to collect their passport in time for their travel.”

The authority had seen a surge of passport applications in March as countries reopened their borders to tourists and Singapore relaxed its Covid-19 travel restrictions.

On May 11, ICA told TODAY that the number of passport applications had risen to more than 7,000 a day — more than three times the 2,000 daily applications it received before the Covid-19 pandemic. At its peak, 14,000 passport applications were made in a day.

It issued more than 5,000 passports daily, almost triple the number in 2019 before the pandemic, describing it as an “unprecedented rate” in June.

This prompted the authority to review its processes, including limited walk-ins to the ICA Building for applicants who have been notified to collect their passports, provide supporting documents or resubmit photographs.

ICA said that passport applications can be submitted online via its website, or the MyICA Mobile application.

“To avoid unnecessary delay, Singaporeans who choose to take a photo of themselves for passport applications are advised to refer to the photo guidelines on ICA’s website,” it said in a reminder.

“Applicants with (a) photo that does not meet the passport guidelines will be required to resubmit a new photo.”

It added that some common reasons photos are rejected include having a non-white background, being laterally inverted and not current.

Applicants may check their application status via the ICA website or MyICA Mobile, and will receive an email or pink notification card from ICA when their passport is ready for collection.

“They may then proceed to make an appointment online to collect their passport from ICA Building or any of the 29 designated post offices. There is no additional fee for passport collection at the post offices,” ICA said.

Applicants with enquiries about passport matters may refer to ICA’s "frequently asked questions" webpage, contact the passport hotline at 6812 5555 or use the live chat function on ICA’s website.