Singapore passport
Encyclopedia
Travel document
A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international treaty organization to facilitate the movement of individuals or small groups of persons across international boundaries...
issued to the citizens of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. It is issued by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority
Immigration and Checkpoints Authority
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Singapore Government.-Overview:...
of Singapore. Only Singaporean citizens can apply for this passport.
The passport is a popular target for counterfeits, due largely to the relatively liberal visa requirements accorded to Singaporean travellers to destinations such as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the tendency for immigration to clear Singaporean passport holders more quickly. It thus adopted several measures to foil forgers, including utilizing digital photos and special ink since October 1999, and the Biometric passport from August 2006.
Validity
The Singaporean passport is valid for a period of five years for passports issued since April 1, 2005 and ten years for passports issued before 1 April 2005. Before biometric passportBiometric passport
A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...
s were issued in August 2006, the passports for male citizens between 11 and 18 were only valid for two years, and had to be renewed or replaced every two years. Biometric passports cannot be modified due to the "write once" policy by ICAO. A new passport is valid for a total period of five years. For the renewal of a passport that has a validity of nine months or less, the new one will have a validity of five years plus the remaining validity in the old passport. However, if a passport is being renewed with a validity of more than nine months, it will be valid for five years and nine months. To travel overseas, a passport must be valid for at least six months.
Biometric passport
Since 15 August 2006, all newly-issued Singaporean passports contain biometricBiometric passport
A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...
features (BioPass). A major reason for this addition was to comply with the requirements for the US Visa Waiver Program
Visa Waiver Program
The Visa Waiver Program is a program of the United States Government which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. The program applies to the 50 U.S. states as well as the U.S...
. The features also help to prevent forgery and minimize the abuse of Singaporean passports. A biometric passport contains 64 pages unlike the machine readable passports which contains 96 pages. It costs S$80 for a passport, with a higher cost due to the special features encoded into the passport. There is a ten dollar rebate if one applies for the passport on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, by post
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
or by the deposit box with applicants having to collect the passport personally.
The biometric passport is valid for 5 years for first time applicants, compared with 10 years for previously issued passports without biometric features before 1 April 2005. Also, the new passport does not accept modifications such as extensions of validity, and the updating of photographs due to ICAO's "write once" policy. In a break from long standing practice, the passport number is now unique to each passport, instead of being identical to the holder's NRIC
National Registration Identity Card
The National Registration Identity Card is the identity document in use in Singapore...
number. Children are no longer allowed to travel on their parents' passport.
The biometric passport project cost the Singaporean government a total of S$9.7 million.
National Service issues
All male citizens are required to be conscripted for two years as National ServiceNational Service in Singapore
Conscription in Singapore, called National Service , requires all male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents who have reached the age of 18 to enrol in the military...
. Previously, the Singaporean government had a policy of limiting the passport validity of boys aged 11 and above, up to their enlistment. To travel, the boys had to apply to extend for 9 months extensions of the validity of their passports. Such extensions were added with a rubber stamp. The stated objective of such exit control measures is to deter NS-evasion, and to act as a "psychological reminder" of the NS obligations.
Since the new biometric passport does not permit such modifications, a decision was made by the Ministry of Defense
Ministry of Defence (Singapore)
The Ministry of Defence is a ministry of the Government of Singapore entrusted with overseeing the national defence needs of the Republic of Singapore. It is the headquarters of the Singapore Armed Forces...
to do away with limited-validity passports to avoid the inconvenience and costs imposed on families of the boys. The other exit control requirement, i.e. the need for exit permits, still stands. Exit permits are still required for overseas trips which last longer than three months.