Singapore entry requirements: visa-free stays, SG Arrival Card, customs

Who can visit without a visa, and for how long

Singapore's Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) publishes the list of passports that need a visa. The UK, Ireland, the EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil are not on it, so their ordinary passport holders can visit without one. That is not a promise of entry: an ICA officer still clears you at the border.

There is no fixed number of days by nationality. The officer decides, and the e-Pass you receive by email after immigration states how long you may stay; it is the only figure that counts. Foreign ministries give a guide to what is usual:

• UK: normally 30 to 90 days.
• Ireland, Canada and Brazil: up to 30 days, according to their foreign ministries.
• US and New Zealand: up to 90 days.
• Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland: up to 90 days, according to their foreign ministries; Italy says less than 90 days.
• Australia, Spain, Finland, Belgium and Romania: no visa needed; go by the number of days on your e-Pass.

Staying longer, and what a visit pass does not cover

If you want to stay beyond the date on your e-Pass, you can apply to ICA online once your short-term visit pass has 14 days or less left. ICA decides whether to extend it and for how long, so do not book a later flight until it agrees.

A visit pass does not allow work, paid or unpaid, or running a business in Singapore, unless you hold a work pass or the activity is on the official list of work-pass-exempt activities.

Passport and what to carry

Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months when you arrive. Every traveller, children included, needs their own travel document; group (collective) passports are not accepted. ICA does not set a number of blank pages, because the visit pass is now sent digitally rather than stamped.

ICA asks short-term visitors to carry enough money for the stay and proof of onward travel, meaning a ticket out and any visa you need for the next country. It names no fixed cash amount and does not ask for a paid hotel booking; your address in Singapore goes on the arrival card.

If you have been in a country with a risk of yellow fever in the 6 days before arrival, including an airport transit of more than 12 hours there, you need a yellow fever vaccination certificate.

The SG Arrival Card and the automated gates

Every foreign visitor submits the SG Arrival Card (SGAC), which includes a health declaration, whether arriving by air, by sea or overland. Submit it within 3 days before arrival, counting the arrival day: for a 30 June arrival, ICA's own example allows it from 28 June. It is not a visa.

The SGAC is free. Use only ICA's SGAC e-Service (eservices.ica.gov.sg/sgarrivalcard) or the MyICA Mobile app; ICA says paid commercial services that offer to file it for you are not affiliated with it. Passengers who transit or transfer at Changi without passing through immigration do not file one.

At the airport, foreign visitors aged 6 and over with an ICAO-compliant passport (an e-passport) valid for at least 6 months can use the automated immigration lanes, whatever their nationality and without enrolling first. Then collect your bags and walk through Customs.

Medicines, vapes and chewing gum

Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) lets visitors bring in up to 3 months' supply of personal medicine without approval, provided the medicine does not need approval and is not prohibited. Carry the prescription or a doctor's letter and keep the medicine in its original pharmacy-labelled packaging. Medicines with controlled substances need HSA approval first: apply at least two weeks before you arrive. Passengers staying airside in transit need no approval, but prohibited medicines remain prohibited.

Vapes are banned. E-cigarettes, vaporisers and their parts cannot be brought into Singapore. Since 1 May 2026 the maximum fine for buying, using or possessing one is S$10,000, up from S$2,000, and importing them can mean prison. Do not pack one, even to pass straight through.

Chewing gum cannot be imported either, except dental or medicinal gum approved by HSA.

Customs: alcohol, cigarettes and cash

Visitors aged 18 or over who have spent at least 48 hours outside Singapore can bring in one of these duty-free alcohol combinations for their own use, but not if they are arriving from Malaysia. Clearing Malaysian immigration on the way, for example on a bus or the train from Johor Bahru, counts as arriving from Malaysia.

• 1 litre of spirits and 1 litre of wine
• 1 litre of spirits and 1 litre of beer
• 1 litre of wine and 1 litre of beer
• 2 litres of wine
• 2 litres of beer

Cigarettes, cash and airport charges

There is no duty-free allowance for cigarettes or tobacco: you pay duty and GST on every pack, even Singapore duty-paid cigarettes you are bringing back. Declare cash and bearer instruments (such as traveller's cheques) worth more than S$20,000 in total when you enter or leave; this is a reporting rule, not a limit on what you may carry.

Singapore charges no separate arrival or departure fee at the counter. Changi's passenger charges are built into your ticket price: for a flight leaving Singapore they come to S$65.20 until 31 March 2027 and S$70.20 from 1 April 2027 (the passenger service and security fee, the aviation levy and the airport development levy). Passengers who only connect at Changi pay less.

Arriving overland or by sea

From Malaysia you cross at Woodlands (the Causeway, also used by the Shuttle Tebrau train from Johor Bahru) or Tuas (the Second Link). The SG Arrival Card applies here too. Bus and car passengers can usually clear immigration with the QR code in the MyICA app, but first-time visitors and anyone using a different passport from their last visit show the passport instead.

The land checkpoints get very congested in school holidays; ICA warned of heavy traffic at both for the September 2026 break. The new RTS Link train between Johor Bahru and Woodlands is not yet carrying passengers: Malaysia and Singapore say service is expected in February 2027, subject to safety certification and final approvals.

Leaving Singapore for Malaysia, you will need Malaysia's own arrival card (MDAC); see Malaysia entry requirements.