No additional fees for passport, IC collection at post offices from Oct 1: ICA

SINGAPORE — Singaporeans and Singapore permanent residents who collect their passports or identity cards (ICs) at post offices will no longer need to pay an extra collection fee from Oct 1.

The current fee charged by Singapore Post (SingPost) — which ranges from between S$6 and S$12 — will be borne by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

In a statement on Wednesday (Sept 22), ICA added that eligible Singapore residents may make an appointment on SingPost’s website to collect their documents at any of 27 designated post offices.

However, there will be some applicants who will still need to collect their documents at the ICA Building, the authority said.

These include those who have had prior unsuccessful biometric verification in transactions with ICA. This may be caused by poor quality fingerprints or excessively wet or dry thumbs or fingers.

Applicants will be informed of the collection options available to them when their documents are ready for collection.

Mr Dominic Chua, director of ICA’s citizen services centre, said that the move was part of the authority’s “transformation plan to provide greater convenience to our customers”.

In May, ICA announced that the validity period of Singapore passports will be increased from five to 10 years for citizens aged 16 and above who submit a passport application from Oct 1.

This will reduce the frequency of passport renewals, it said then.

Passports issued to those below 16 years old will remain valid for five years.