ICA to streamline immigration clearance

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will work with Changi Airport Group to divert arriving passengers to another immigration hall within Terminal 3 to alleviate congestion, should several flights land at around the same time.

The move comes after some passengers complained about long waiting times to go through immigration as the number of travellers grows due to the expansion of a quarantine-free travel scheme.

Automated lanes at Changi Airport have also been reopened as of yesterday to speed up immigration clearance for travellers.

These automated lanes were closed due to new clearance processes arising from the pandemic. For example, immigration officers had to conduct manual checks to ensure a passenger's declared travel history tallied with the travel lane he was on.

But ICA has since integrated these checks into its entry application and immigration processes, which allowed it to reopen the automated lanes. This includes the pre-arrival verification of a traveller's digital vaccination certificates via the SafeTravel portal.

While ICA is streamlining its processes, the overall time needed before a passenger can leave the airport will still be longer compared with before the Covid-19 pandemic, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told reporters in a virtual interview after his visit to the airport yesterday morning.

"With the increase in traveller volume, requirement for testing, clearances may take longer, and particularly if several flights arrive in quick succession," he said.

Changi has seen passenger arrivals grow following the start of eight new Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) this month with countries such as the United States.

Mr Shanmugam, who observed the process to clear passengers from four VTL flights, said passengers who submitted their declarations online took about 20 to 30 seconds to clear immigration using the automated lanes.

It takes about eight to 10 minutes for those who cannot use the automated lanes and have to go through immigration counters, such as very young children or tourists, he noted.

The process could take a lot longer should a cluster of flights arrive together. In an instance last week when five flights arrived at around the same time, travellers took about 90 minutes to clear immigration.

Mr Shanmugam said many passengers had not pre-filled their immigration forms.

"They queued up, they added to that time, they had to be pulled out, questions had to be asked of them, they had to fill up the forms, they had to be helped, they had to rejoin the queues," he said. "So, all these added up."

The minister added that travellers are now more aware of the need to fill up the necessary forms before arrival.

He noted that, pre-pandemic, ICA had the flexibility of moving passengers to different immigration lanes or parts of the airport when flights bunched up. Clearing immigration took about 40 to 45 minutes in such instances. There are more constraints now, he said.

Mr Shanmugam said ICA officers have been taking the brunt of complaints from some travellers. He commended the officers for their work in various front-line roles.

Travellers passing through Changi Airport will need more time to clear immigration as compared with before the Covid-19 pandemic, due to extra checks in place.

Here are some of the things that travellers should do in order to speed up their immigration clearance at the airport:

1 Prepare necessary documents

Travellers should be ready to present various necessary documents, such as a valid pre-departure Covid-19 test result or proof of vaccination.

They should also have a mobile device installed with the TraceTogether app.

2 Submit SG Arrival Card with electronic health declaration

All travellers are required to submit their health declaration to ICA via its website before arrival in Singapore.

This does not apply to those transiting or transferring through Singapore.

3 Registration and pre-payment for on-arrival Covid-19 PCR test

Travellers from Category I countries and those entering through the VTL scheme should register and pre-pay for their on-arrival Covid-19 PCR test through Changi Airport's Safe Travel Concierge.

Children aged two and below are exempted.

Toh Ting Wei

• For more information, travellers can refer to the checklists published by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority online.

"I spoke with some officers, told them to keep in good cheer, not to let some complaints affect them, do their work, and we will continue to look at processes to see how we can improve," he said.