Australians flying into Singapore’s Changi Airport can now use automated ‘e-passport’ immigration lanes at Terminals 1 and 2, with T3 and T4 due to follow by the end of January 2023.
While previously a perk of registered frequent visitors, the country’s Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has now done away with the registration process and opened this time-saving ‘fast track’ to passports of some 40-odd countries.
That extensive list includes Australia, New Zealand, the UK and USA, Canada, India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and all EU member countries.
(For a full list of passports eligible for Singapore’s fast track immigration, visit the ICA website’s Automated Clearance Initiative page.)
As there’s no longer any special registration needed, almost any traveller with an Australian passport arriving at T1 and T2 can veer towards the e-passport lanes rather than joining the line for manual immigration clearance, without completing any paperwork apart from the digital SG Arrival Card.
There’s one caveat, says the ICA: “passengers must be aged six and above.”
A spokesperson for the Changi Airport Group tells Executive Traveller that expanded use of the Automated Immigration Lanes, which is already available at T1 and T2, “will be progressively rolled out to the other terminals (T3 and T4) by the end of January 2023.”
