SG Arrival Card waived to speed up land border crossing
Change for S'poreans and some others will ease movement across land borders with Malaysia
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Toh Ting Wei
With the long Good Friday weekend approaching, Singapore has taken steps to speed up immigration clearance at its land borders and make it easier for travellers to enter the Republic.
Over the longer term, the move will also smoothen the way for Malaysian workers to enter Singapore and ease the labour crunch, observers said.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said yesterday that Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will no longer have to fill in an online health declaration when entering the country via its land checkpoints.
Large crowds are expected to form at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints this weekend.
Hotels in Johor Baru are reporting a surge in bookings from Singaporeans looking for a weekend getaway, while Malaysians are still returning home in numbers to reunite with their families.
ICA said the move to waive the SG Arrival Card requirement at the land borders factors in the volume of traffic at the land checkpoints.
The land checkpoints are used predominantly by Singapore residents and long-term pass holders. In contrast, the air and sea checkpoints are used by travellers from around the world, said the ICA spokesman.
"There are no plans to lift the health declaration requirement at air and sea borders at this juncture, as it remains an important way for us to detect upstream infectious diseases of concern that might be imported by travellers from a wide range of countries," the spokesman added.
To qualify, eligible travellers entering Singapore via its land borders must not have travelled to any country or region in the restricted category - deemed to carry a higher risk of Covid-19 infection - in the past seven days. No countries are on the list at the moment.
All other travellers arriving via the land checkpoints are still required to submit their health declaration via the SG Arrival Card e-service within three days of their arrival in Singapore.
This group includes non-fully vaccinated Singapore residents and all short-term visitors.
ICA also said that travellers who are planning to enter Malaysia via land during the Good Friday weekend should factor in additional time for immigration clearance.
"At the peak of the Good Friday long weekend period in 2019, travellers departing Singapore via the land checkpoints by car and motorcycle had to wait for up to three hours and 1½ hours, respectively," said ICA. "Those arriving by car had to wait for up to one hour during the same period."
The authority urged travellers to avoid departing Singapore between 4pm today and 2am tomorrow, as well as between 5am and 1pm tomorrow.
Since the reopening of the land border on April 1, traffic jams and long queues at the checkpoints have become a regular sight at the Causeway once again. Last weekend, pictures of the congestion at the Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints were shared on social media.
Mr Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), said the eased travel declaration requirement will help Malaysian workers travel to Singapore more seamlessly.
"A very big number of workers, who support the daily operations of many businesses, cross the Causeway daily," said Mr Wee.
"Both businesses and the Malaysian workforce working in Singapore will welcome this and certainly look forward to greater relaxation of measures as Singapore increasingly opens up."
