Earlier today, Singapore announced that eight additional countries would be added to the VTL scheme from 19 October 2021, increasing the total number of two-way quarantine-free travel options to 10.
Before that happens, there’ll be an update to Singapore’s border restriction categories from 13 October 2021, which sees eased restrictions for travellers from the Maldives, Switzerland, Turkey and more.
Latest Singapore border measures
Here’s the latest summary of border measures for travel to Singapore, effective 13 October 2021.
| 🛂Singapore Border Restrictions by Category |
|||||
| Cat. I | Cat. II | Cat. III | Cat. IV | VTL | |
| Short-term visitors | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Application required | ATP | Details on ICA website | VTP |
||
| Pre-departure PCR test | ✖ | ✔ 48h |
✔ 48h |
✔ 48h |
✔ 48h |
| On-arrival PCR test | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SHN | ✖ | ✔ 7D (home or hotel) |
✔ 10D (home or hotel)* |
✔ 10D (hotel) |
✖ |
| ART during SHN | N/A | ✖ | ✔ D3, 7 |
✔ D3, 7 |
N/A |
| Post-SHN PCR test | N/A | ✔ D7 |
✔ D10 |
✔ D10 |
N/A (from 19-Oct) |
| *Must be fully vaccinated to do SHN at home | |||||
| Category | Countries/Territories (From 13 October 2021) |
| I |
Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan |
| II | Australia, Austria (new), Bahrain (new), Belgium (new), Bhutan (new), Brunei, Bulgaria (new), Canada, Croatia (new), Cyprus (new), Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt (new), Fiji (new), Finland, France, Germany, Greece (new), Iceland (new), Ireland (new), Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein (new), Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway (new), Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia (new), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (new), Turkey (new), UK (new), USA (new), Vatican City (new) |
| III | Estonia (new), Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Slovenia (new) |
| IV | All other countries/territories |
| VTL | Current: Germany, Brunei From 19 Oct: Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK, USA From 15 Nov: South Korea |
As a reminder, Singapore recently cut its maximum SHN duration to 10 days, and also shortened the relevant travel history assessment period to 14 days.
The relevant restrictions depend on your 14-day travel history, with the rules of strictest country applying. For example, if you travel from Canada (Category II) to Singapore via Dubai (Category IV), Category IV rules will apply.
To recap, here’s the relevant SHN measures, depending on your 14-day travel history and vaccination status.
| 💉 SHN Measures by Category and Vaccination Status | ||
| Fully-Vaccinated | Unvaccinated | |
| VTL | No SHN | Not allowed |
| Category I | No SHN | |
| Category II | 7-day SHN (home/hotel) |
|
| Category III | 10-day SHN (home/hotel) |
10-day SHN (hotel) |
| Category IV | 10-day SHN (hotel) |
|
Here’s what I see as the most interesting developments in the latest set of border restriction updates.
Turkey moves to Category II
If you recently bought one of Turkish Airlines’ deep discount Business Class tickets to Europe (starting from just S$1.4K!), you’re in luck.
Turkey’s upgrade to Category II means it follows similar quarantine protocols as most of Europe, i.e. a 7-day SHN at home regardless of vaccination status. It’s just a shame there’s no VTL with Turkey, but even so, this is great news for anyone who took a punt on these tickets last month.
If you bought one of Etihad’s discounted Business Class fares, sit tight. The UAE is still a Category IV country, so you’re still looking at a 10-day SHN should you transit through Abu Dhabi on your way back to Singapore.
Maldives moves to Category III
| Edit: OK I’ve just double checked and this upgrade happened on 2 October. But anyway, still a great option to have! |
Need to get away from it all? The Maldives has been upgraded to Category III, which means that fully vaccinated travellers can opt to serve their 10-day SHN at home, instead of in a hotel (you need to be vaccinated to visit the Maldives anyway).
Singapore Airlines is operating daily flights to the Maldives on SQ 432 and 438, on the Boeing 737-800 NG planes it inherited from SilkAir.
An alternative to SHN
If the idea of an SHN is unpalatable to you, there is a potential workaround, albeit more expensive.
By travelling to a VTL country and staying there 14 days, you can then proceed onwards to Singapore on a VTL flight and avoid an SHN on arrival. This of course assumes that the VTL country accepts travellers from your point of origin without quarantine, but you’ll find that’s the case for the majority of countries listed here.
| 🌎 VTL Countries |
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|
|
While you’ll almost certainly incur some incremental costs compared to a 10-day SHN in Singapore (S$1,450), I’m sure there will be those willing to pay for 14 days of relative freedom, versus 10 days of confinement.
The only catch is that you’ll need to present a recognised vaccination certificate to board your VTL flight to Singapore. Apart from Singapore’s own vaccination certificate, this also includes:
- EU Digital COVID Certificates (EU DCC) issued by any VTL country/region
- Smart Health Cards (SHC) by issuers in the United States and Canada on the CommonTrust Network
- National Health Service (NHS) COVID Passes on the NHS mobile app
- Vaccination status on the BruHealth app
It’s currently possible to get your third country vaccination converted into an EUDCC in:
- France: Non-EU visitors can apply to convert their vaccination certificate into a Health Pass (i.e. EUDCC) before arrival
- Germany: Non-EU visitors can visit a pharmacy (apotheke) and get their certificate converted into an EUDCC (YMMV; not all will accept non-EU certificates)
I imagine more European countries will soon offer this capability as well, which opens the possibility of third country nationals using this route.
Conclusion
It’s great to see Singapore progressively easing its border restrictions, with a 7-day home quarantine option soon available to two dozen European countries. Add the seven European countries in the VTL scheme, and it’ll soon be a straightforward affair to travel to Singapore from Europe sans quarantine.
Of course, the real prize here is the expansion of the VTL, which opens up a whole new world of travel opportunities for Singaporeans. While the VTL isn’t without its problems (high costs of testing, children below 12 can’t go, you could get stranded overseas for 14 days), we’re still a heck of a lot better off than we were 12 months ago.
Exciting times indeed.
Sad the TK Italy Biz class deal is gone…
You’re missing Greece on Cat 2!
thanks for the heads up! Greece is a big one indeed.
Hi, just wish to let you know that it is not true that traveler can travel to a VTL country, stay there and come into SG via VTL lane. This is only applicable for Singaporean *returning* to Singapore. For foreigners, you have to be vaccinated in a VTL country before they will approve the VTL pass, *irregardless* if you’ve stayed in a VTL country before coming to Singapore
You can help verify it too as my friends are all unable to make it to Singapore even though they’ve been working in Germany (but non-German nationals)
that’s why there’s the added caveat that you will need to get your vaccination certificate converted into something recognised by singapore, i.e. an EUDCC.
I tried this but it looks like this will not work. I am vaccinated in Switzerland, and went to a German pharmacy to get a German EUDCC – which they generated for me without too much problems. However, when doing the VTL application you need to upload QR codes that are related to your actual vaccinations (1 for each jab), and not the QR code on the EUDCC. You can get these using the German CovPass app. But when I uploaded them to the VTL application the system told me my vaccination certificate is issued by a different country than… Read more »
Hi how about India. Just to check is it under Cat 4. Which vaccination certificate was recognised for India to Singapore
Just called ICA, the restrictions for India has not been lifted.
Complicated article to read…. Its so confusing…. Even if borders are open
Hi Aaron, excited that Turkey is on Cat II! Opens up the efficient J-class ticket via Istanbul option. If you have time, can you write an article to talk about how many tests that would imply for a Singaporean trying to say transit back from Germany (or other Cat II) countries, back to Singapore. Would transit in Istanbul, require more tests in Istanbul?
Waiting for Maldives to get on Cat 1 or VTL sigh. Why why why it’s so much safer to go maldives due to the fact that every atoll is 1 resort and basically we go there for isolation anyway. 😛