1 April 2022 will mark a watershed moment in Singapore’s reopening, as the country scraps its tightly-controlled Vaccinated Travel Lanes and welcomes all fully vaccinated travellers under the Vaccinated Travel Framework (VTF).
For Singaporeans, this means that for the first time in two years, the restriction isn’t on our side of the fence. It’s no longer a question of which countries Singapore will accept, it’s a question of which countries accept us!
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| โ๏ธAt a glance: Vaccinated Travel Framework (Starts: 1 April 2022) |
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| ICA: VTF Checklist |
Fortunately, there are currently 175 countries and territories that will accept fully vaccinated Singaporeans without quarantine. Unless you’re dead set on travel to China, Japan or Taiwan, you’re bound to find something that works.
In this post, we’ll look at two things:
- How to find out which countries accept you without quarantine
- How to learn about the applicable pre-departure and on-arrival regulations
Where can I travel to?
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| Sherpa |
For a quick overview of which countries are open to travel, I use Sherpa, a tool that tracks travel restrictions by origin, vaccination status and nationality.
While Sherpa is generally reliable, it struggles to categorise certain countries properly. For example, it incorrectly states that Singaporeans still need to quarantine upon entering South Korea and Thailand, and that testing is required for Greece and India (you may be randomly tested on arrival, but that hardly counts).
As of March 2022, fully vaccinated Singapore residents can visit 175 countries and territories without quarantine.
| ๐ How is “fully vaccinated” defined? |
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The definition of fully vaccinated varies by country, but in general refers to 14 days after completing the primary regimen of a recognised vaccine. If you’ve been vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty or Moderna, you don’t need to worry- virtually every country recognises it. Sinovac and Sinopharm can be more marginal. You can use Visa Guide’s vaccine checker tool to see if your vaccination is accepted in a given country. Booster jabs may be required for travel to certain countries, should a certain period (typically 6-9 months) have passed since the completion of your primary regime. |
No test or quarantine required
84 countries and territories do not require a COVID-19 test nor quarantine.
Instead of reproducing the entire list, I’m going to focus on the countries most relevant to travellers from Singapore:
- Australia (testing on arrival may be required by certain states)
- Cambodia
- European Economic Area (except Poland)
- India
- Maldives
- Saudi Arabia
- Sri Lanka
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
Test required, but not quarantine
91 countries and territories require a pre-departure COVID-19 test, but no quarantine.
Once again, I’m going to focus on the countries most relevant to travellers from Singapore
| Country | Pre-Departure Test (time before departure) |
| ๐ซ๐ฏ Fiji | ART (24h) |
| ๐ฎ๐ฉ Indonesia | PCR (48h) |
| ๐ฒ๐พ Malaysia | ART (2 days) [For travel from SG] |
| ๐ต๐ญ Philippines | ART (24h) |
| ๐ถ๐ฆ Qatar | PCR (48h) |
| ๐ฐ๐ท South Korea | PCR (48h) |
| ๐ป๐ณ Vietnam | ART (24h) |
| ๐บ๐ธ United States | ART (1 day) |
Countries that will join this list shortly include:
- New Zealand (from 2 May 2022)
Countries still closed
The following countries are still closed to tourists:
- China
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- New Zealand (ends 2 May 2022)
- Taiwan
What must I do before travel?
Sherpa provides an overview of entry requirements by country, but for the most reliable information, refer to IATA Travel Centre’s Timatic tool. This is the same source that airline agents consult at the check-in desk.
While Timatic is powerful, it’s not very user-friendly. Information is presented in long, wordy paragraphs, and it may take multiple reads to understand what it’s saying.
Sometimes, “no” doesn’t even mean “no”! Take Indonesia for example- the first bullet point says passengers can’t enter, then in point three it says they can, provided they enter via certain airports!
So Timatic really requires careful reading, and for a more reader-friendly format, you can also try Singapore Airlines’ Travel Advisory tool. Do note that updates here may lag Timatic by a couple of days.
Travel to Singapore
From 1 April 2022, fully vaccinated travellers will be able to enter Singapore without quarantine under the Vaccinated Travel Framework. They can enter on any flight, and transit in any country en route.
| โ๏ธ Vaccinated Travel Framework |
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| Fully Vax. & Unvax. Children โค12 |
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| Unvax. |
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| *Children aged 2 or under in the current calendar year are exempt |
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Unvaccinated travellers will still be required to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test within 2 days of departure to Singapore, which can either be:
- A professionally-administered PCR test
- A professionally-administered antigen rapid test (ART)
- A self-administered ART remotely supervised by an approved ART provider in Singapore (when departing from certain countries, for SCs, PRs and LTPHs)
FAQs
Does transit affect things?
Possibly. When travelling out of Singapore, transit in a third country may affect your eligibility for quarantine-free treatment upon arrival at your final destination. You’ll need to read the relevant entry restrictions carefully (I typically google “CountryX covid19 entry restrictions”)
When travelling back to Singapore, transit has no impact on your eligibility for quarantine-free treatment, provided you’re fully vaccinated.
As a LTP holder, do I need approval to enter Singapore?
Not anymore. LTP holders no longer need to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass to enter Singapore ever since 22 February 2022.
Where can I do my pre-departure test when travelling overseas?
For a full list of the cheapest options to do a pre-departure test in Singapore, refer to the article below.
Cheapest pre-departure COVID-19 ART and PCR tests in Singapore
Where can I do my pre-departure test when returning to Singapore?
Pre-departure testing is only required for unvaccinated travellers.
If you’re a Singapore citizen, permanent resident or long-term passholder, you can do a remotely-supervised tele-ART by a Singapore-based provider when returning to Singapore.
Cheapest overseas tele-ARTs for pre-departure testing to Singapore
Resources
Here’s a list of resources you can refer to when checking travel restrictions.
- IATA: COVID-19 Travel Regulations Map
- Kayak: International Travel Restrictions by Country
- MFA: COVID-19 Travel Restrictions
- Sherpa: Travel Restrictions by Country
- Singapore Airlines Travel Advisory Tool
- Visa Guide: Vaccination Checker
Conclusion
From 1 April 2022, fully vaccinated Singaporeans can return home from anywhere in the world without quarantine. This means the restriction now lies on the other side of the table, and with 175 countries and territories allowing quarantine-free entry, you won’t be short of options!
Well, unless you only want to visit Japan.
Man, I miss Japan.
Awesome piece, Aaron! Super useful! ๐๐ป
Considering UAE vaccination rate is high + low cases, it’s kind absurd that it still falls in cat 4.
I suspect it’s also because the UAE is a global transport hub, so even if a high % of their population is vaccinated, you may run into others at the airport who are not (vaccination is not required to transit in Dubai)
Plus promoting the UAE to Cat II or III would bring Emirates and Etihad back into the Singaporean market (i.e. to fly to the multitude of European Cat II/III countries) which is something I suspect to be undesired.
Well, so is Changi. It makes no sense.
UAE vaccination rate is high but not all vaccines produce good serology levelsโฆ.
Iceland also accepts ART – Checked Cuz I’m heading there soon ๐
thanks! have updated it.
Any chance to have Thailand and Japan to be under VTL?
Can check with my friend Iswaran
It seems SC/PR/pass holders, who get vaccinated overseas and get the record in Trace Together, cannot use VTL?
correct, that’s the rule for now.
How does transiting Changi fit into things?
The part about highest Cat applies for transit – is it your conservative interpretation or from an official source?
Itโs from the ICA website, look under โentry guideโ, item 3A, para 2.
Thanks, and apologies. Realized I asked the wrong question. I meant to ask about โtransit in a third country affecting eligibilityโ.
It does seem that Norway allows fully vaccinated people travelling from Singapore (or from anywhere for that matter, as long as they’re vaccinated) without quarantine or testing, on a close reading of this: https://www.helsenorge.no/en/coronavirus/international-travels/
So it seems possible to get to Norway, perhaps by transiting in Germany.
I guess the Sherpa website might be somewhat outdated…
Interesting… Timatic (which I hold to be the ultimate authority on such things since that’s what the check-in staff refer to) says Norway is off-limits, but perhaps we’ll hear some news soon
Hmmmm, may I know which Timatic you’re looking at? I just did a Timatic query, which produced a bunch of entry and transit restrictions, but it also says the following: This does not apply to passengers with: – a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate showing that they were fully vaccinated; or – a digital COVID-19 recovery certificate issued at most 6 months before arrival. The certificate must be: – an EU Digital COVID Certificate with a QR code issued by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (Rep.), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,… Read more »
same one as you. yup, but you’d need to provide details of your trip to france to get it approved online, not sure how strict they are about it. likewise, you may or may not be able to get it from a pharmacy in germany; what I hear is YMMV since it’s a non-EU vaccination certificate you’re presenting.
in any case you’re right, but it’d be a two step process. first to somewhere else in europe, then to norway. that may be too much trouble for most people.
Yeah. Really hoping that more EU countries (especially Germany) will let tourists get the EU green pass soon – despite your experience in Munich, I feel like I’ll be running the risk of whatever museum/train/attraction not recognising the Notarise certificate, especially once out of the big cities.
there are no direct flights between Singapore and Norway anyway
Still confused how and why Poland got upgraded to a Category II country, when it remains pretty much totally closed to travellers from Singapore itself. What is the benefit for Singapore here? There are no special relations between the two countries that I have heard of, so something is very odd about this…
Maybe because Poland is a good egg on the food security front? Quite literallyโฆ
(First imports of eggs from Poland arrived in June 2020, amid global supply chain disruptions caused by covid.)
Hi great article. I canโt find South Korea on any of the lists.
Because it’s on neither. This is only for countries Singaporeans can go.
๐
Any predictions on which countries are next best guesses to move from Cat III to Cat II ?
Malaysia 100%
Denmark and Switzerland
Indonesia probably up next
Hopefully Spain and Netherlands
UK wonโt require pre departure test for fully vaccinated individuals from 4th oct.
Great overview. One nuance that may be worth highlighting a bit more clearly is that VTL does not exempt children below age 12 from vaccination (and therefore VTL is not suitable for families with children below 12 yrs – or perhaps soon the cutoff will be 5yrs given that Pfizer seems to be getting approved for 5-11yrs). Also, Cat. II and III will allow unvaccinated children below 12yrs and those between 12-18 can also come in unvaccinated I believe as long as they get vaccinated within a month of arriving in SG.
[…] Thu: fully-vaccinated Singapore residents can visit 143 countries and territories without quarantine. https://milelion.com/2021/09/22/where-can-vaccinated-singaporeans-travel-without-quarantine/ […]
How about travel from Singapore to Vietnam next year April 2022 ? Do I have to quarantine at Vietnam if I visit my friend for 1 week ? PCR is fine for me to go 4 days before the departure .
ask Iswaran pls.
For Cat II home SHN eligibility, the ICA FAQ page that you had linked to mentions “dedicated toilet” instead of “attached toilet” or “ensuite toilet”.
My reading of this implies that you can use the common toilet in a house as long as no other person uses it (it’s not like they can enforce this anyway, but it’s your family’s own safety I guess), as opposed to forcing you to have a master bedroom with ensuite toilet setup for SHN.
Edit: they might have updated the wording since you first wrote this post.
oh so this means i can also just do a ART test in Singapore if i m heading to Italy ? No PCR is needed ?
I just want to add that for Iceland although the accept ART. But according to Icelandair website, it further says that “self test is not allowed”. I would assume this ART have to be taken at a clinic and not those you can buy from pharmacy and selftest. Am I right? Planning to go Iceland via Netherlands/Amsterdam since both are in Cat 2 and I think SHN 7-days at home to be quite bareable whenn I can work from home.
With more countries in Cat2, actually it looks like we now have more countries to travel to if we are fine with 7 days shn. This should be okay for most couples who have no kids and can work from home. Any nearby countries (non US, EU) that fall into Cat2 and allow us to enter without quarantine? Maldives seem to be a suitable choice. I already booked South Korea under VTL for Dec holidays but looking for another place for Nov travel. Too many leaves to clear. Hopefully Australia will allow SG to travel there soon!
Sorry, maldives is in cat3. Any nearby countries suitable for a short holiday? ๐
Turkey removed Singapore from its list requiring pre-departure test after Turkey is upgraded to Cat II. hmmmmm.
I wonder as months go by how do Singapore citizens get the EU Digital COVID Certificate cause that will make things so much easier.
I hope that when I fly to Italy in Feb, things will be smoother and our certs will be automatically ingested :X
VTPs can now be requested 60 days in advance.
3-60 days. updated the post, thank you!
Honest question here – without disembarking, would picking up an order at a drive-through in Switzerland en route from Italy to Germany fulfil the VTL criteria?
hmmmm. People with ABTC can travel to Indonesia without Visa. Is it confirmed? Thanks.
That’s exactly what timatic says
One noticeable missing from tele-ART is Switzerland. Why is that?
Ask the MOH and let us know.
Awese piece.
Most leisure travelers will miss Japan. Should have chance to go in the 2nd half of 2022.
Thanks for compilation! Really very useful!
Korea –> SG is eligible for Teleart now! https://www.moh.gov.sg/docs/librariesprovider5/default-document-library/list-of-approved-art-providers-for-remote-supervised-self-swab-for-overseas-travellers-(31032022).pdf