Passport Renewal Requests During COVID-19 Pandemic

48 Mr Abdul Samad asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many requests for renewal of Singapore passports have been made during the COVID-19 pandemic period; (b) whether ICA has the number of passports that expire during this period or will be expiring soon; and (c) whether there will be a waiver or review of passport renewals in view of the non-travel period during this pandemic.

Mr K Shanmugam: About 673,000 passports expired in 2020. As at end March 2021, close to 70%, or about 464,000, of these passports have been renewed. The validity of a passport cannot be extended after it has been issued. This is a requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which does not allow any changes to a passport once issued.

While the validity of an existing passport cannot be extended, ICA has recently announced the issuance of 10-year validity passports from October 2021. This is double the validity of the current five-year passports, but the passport application fee remains the same at $70.