Last Updated on 2022-09-15 , 9:40 pm
Back in June 2022, many locals who had not made passport renewal appointments were turned away as workers at the Immigration & Checkpoint’s Authority (ICA) struggled to manage the surge in applications that resulted in snaking queues of Singaporeans forming like there was free bubble tea to be expected at the end.
With the loosening of travel restrictions in Singapore since April, more and more locals have been renewing their passports in preparation of travelling abroad once again.
Previously, the ICA had announced that the wait for new passports could take up to six weeks. It’s now been shortened to a duration closer to how long it takes to get a reply from your crush—just two or three days.
It also appears that citizens can now walk in to the ICA building to renew their passports and identification cards without making appointments beforehand.
Citizens Have Taken Notice of the Shorter Wait Times
Zalina, a 42-year-old housewife, spoke with 8 World about her recent experience with applying for new passports for her children. She said that she went onto the ICA website last Thursday (8 September) to renew the passports of her 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son.
Just three days later, she received the email notification from the ICA that the passports were ready for collection.
Noor Ain Masaid, a 35-year-old home-based entrepreneur, said that in order to avoid the peak travel season that happens at the end of every year, she chose to renew her passport online last Friday (9 September) evening. She received a collection notice at noon today (13 September).
“The process is very fast,” she commented.
Some may not know this, but you can also choose to collect your passport at selected post offices within a 4-day collection window, albeit it will take longer to get to you.
She revealed that due to her restricted mobility, she could only select the option to collect her new passport from the post office near her home, and that the soonest collection date offered was early next month
“[The passport collection date] differs depending on the earliest appointment date offered by the SingPost branch near your home. For instance, in my case, if I chose to pick it up from the Sengkang post office, the earliest available slot is the 4th of next month.”
ICA Now Accepts Walk-Ins
When Goody Feed visited the ICA building today, people can be observed walking in without a need for appointment.
However, the area for passport collection remains crowded, while the IC collection queues were slightly shorter.
We can only imagine how long these lines would be if the ICA had made an official announcement that they were now open for walk-ins.
Oops, I guess this article isn’t exactly helping with that.
Goody Feed has contacted the ICA for more information on the new walk-in process and wait times, and will provide an update here if they respond.
You can also watch this video to know more about this topic:
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