Singapore opens ‘fast track’ arrival lanes to Australian passports
Skip the immigration queues and maximise your time between touch-down and satay.
By David Flynn, December 12 2022
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.”
25 Oct 2019
Total posts 4
This is the best news I've heard today!
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 66
Now I won’t feel as smug as I watch all the other Aussies in line as I glide through the fast track lanes (thanks to my registration). Good for everyone else though ;)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2013
Total posts 144
I'm going there in two weeks, with two kids, 10 and 8, let me keep you updated, unless we get someone else who can share their experience.
05 Mar 2015
Total posts 419
Great timing, am in Singapore right now, and it's so nice to be back! Arrived on QF yesterday, straight through the automated passport lane on my new passport, worked like a charm.
07 May 2015
Total posts 40
Changi is really 'funny' in the queues at immigration on arrival. Sometimes I land at T1 or T3 and the lines are massive, sometimes there's no queue at all and I walk straight to an open lane. I'm sure with so many countries now being allowed to use these e-passport gates they will remove many of the staffed manual processing booths and replace them with more automated gates.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
30 Aug 2018
Total posts 13
I used one at T1 last night, it's a welcome change from the time consuming manual process.
Just a heads up, they aren't the same machines the locals/Singaporean's use (on the right hand side of the hall). These are separate ones for foreigners which are identical to the gates you go through on departure. They are installed right at the back so not immediately visible from the escalators.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Jul 2016
Total posts 56
Great news! I'm taking my elderly Mother to Europe, with Singapore stopovers, in May. Phew...
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