The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has revised its passport issuance procedures. The current resources devoted to managing long lines and on-site requests will be reallocated to accelerate passport processing and issuance. As a result, ICA will only accept walk-ins for applicants who have been contacted to obtain their passport, present supporting documents, and resubmit photographs beginning on 13 June 2022.
Since March 2022, the ICA has been generating and issuing passports at an unprecedented rate in response to an increase in passport applications. Currently, they give more than 5,000 passports per day, about three times as many as they did before the implementation of Covid in 2019. Additional personnel have been redeployed to process and produce passports around the clock to address the increased demand.
The number of people who come to the ICA Building to collect their passports and make other inquiries has also increased. Visits to check on the status of passport applications and requests to accelerate the process of applying for or collecting a passport are examples of these types of interactions. Because of this, the lines at the ICA Building are long, which has necessitated hiring more ICA officers to assist with crowd management and other services.
To get access to the ICA Building, applicants for passports are required to present one or more of the following documents: E-appointment booking for passport collection at the ICA Building requires manual collection slips for passport collection; alternatively, an online notification or pink notification card indicating their passport is ready to be collected can be provided to the customer. On the other hand, an email notification is used to resubmit supporting papers, and online information is used to resubmit images when submitting or resubmitting documents or photographs.
In addition, applicants who need to collect their passports from the ICA Building are encouraged to do so on their own to reduce the number of people waiting in line at the ICA Building. People of any age who require exceptional support, including children, the elderly, and others, are permitted to have one additional person accompany them.
ICA also recommend qualified candidates collect their passport at one of the 27 post offices rather than at the ICA Building to avoid the lines there. When applicants pick up their tickets at the post office, they won’t be charged any additional fees.
Passport applicants with additional questions should contact ICA through alternative channels:
- Applicants who want to check their passport application status can do so by logging onto MyICA. When an applicant’s passport is ready, the ICA will send them an email or a pink notification card, and they can go to the ICA Building or specified post offices to pick it up.
- If applicants need to travel quickly, they can file an expedited passport application online at https://go.gov.sg/passportrequest.
- Applicants with more questions about passports should consult our FAQs or contact us via Live Chat (Live Chat hours: 8 am – 5 pm on Mon – Fri, 8 am – 1 pm on Sat).
Those unable to accomplish the tasks and do not have proxies may visit the ICA Building for assistance in submitting their passport-related appeals online.
Officers from the ICA are working hard to process the passport applications. The management is seeking the Singaporeans’ understanding of their new process, which will only accept walk-ins for passport concerns. The preceding exclusively applies to passport services and has no bearing on other ICA services.
