Malaysia scraps travel insurance requirement for travellers from Singapore

From 1 April, fully vaccinated travellers from Singapore will not need to purchase travel insurance when entering Malaysia by air or land.

Singapore and Malaysia are preparing to reopen their borders to the world from 1 April 2022, allowing fully vaccinated travellers to enter without quarantine.

Quarantine-free travel between the two countries is already possible via the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) agreement, but from 1 April the VTL will be replaced by an even simpler process, with Malaysia waiving the on-arrival test and allowing pre-departure ARTs for travellers from Singapore (Singapore has already scrapped on-arrival testing and accepts pre-departure ARTs for arrivals from all over the world).

Malaysia has now confirmed that travel insurance will not be required for travellers entering by air or land from Singapore, scratching yet another item off the to-do list. 

No travel insurance necessary for travellers from Singapore

Travel insurance will not be required for travellers from Singapore

Travellers to Malaysia are required to have travel insurance with a minimum coverage of US$20,000 for COVID-19 medical treatment, unless they belong to one of the following categories

  • Malaysian
  • Long-Term Social Pass
  • Expatriates Pass
  • Student Pass
  • Study Pass
  • Resident Pass
  • Permanent Resident Pass
  • Spouses of Malaysian citizens
  • Foreign workers including foreign helpers
  • MM2H

However, the Malaysian Health Ministry has announced that fully vaccinated travellers from Singapore are exempt from the travel insurance requirement as well, regardless of whether they arrive by land or air. For avoidance of doubt, children aged 17 and below are considered fully vaccinated, regardless of actual vaccination status.

While purchasing travel insurance is still a good idea in general, this will be a welcome development for travellers intending to make day trips across the land border. 

As a reminder, Singapore will also remove its travel insurance requirement for fully vaccinated short-term visitors (from all over the world, not just Malaysia), effective 1 April 2022. 

VTF: Singapore scraps travel insurance requirement for tourists

Procedure: Travel to Malaysia

Travellers from Singapore to Malaysia must:

When verifying your vaccination certificate, be sure to enter your name exactly the way it appears on the certificate. If there’s a hyphen, put the hyphen. If there’s a comma, put the comma. Any differences will cause the verification process to fail.

  By Air By Land
Pre-Departure Test ART within 2 days of departure N/A
On-Arrival Test N/A N/A

In terms of testing, air travellers to Malaysia from Singapore are required to take a professionally-administered ART within 2 days of departure. For avoidance of doubt, this can also be a video-supervised ART administered by a tele-medicine provider in Singapore. 

24-hour tele-supervised ARTs now available in Singapore

There are no testing requirements for land travellers to Malaysia from Singapore.

Procedure: Travel to Singapore

Travellers from Malaysia to Singapore must complete the SG Arrival Card within 3 days of arrival, where information on the following will be requested:

  • Personal particulars
  • Vaccination status (not required for those vaccinated in Singapore)
  • Health declaration

If you were vaccinated in Malaysia, you can upload the digital certificate for COVID-19 vaccination on the MySejahtera app. 

They will also need to download and register for TraceTogether (Android | iOS). This is required for checking into venues and displaying your vaccination status. 

In terms of testing, air travellers from Malaysia to Singapore are required to take a professionally-administered ART within 2 days of departure. This can be done via a tele-medicine provider like CLEA. 

  By Air By Land
Pre-Departure Test ART within 2 days of departure N/A
On-Arrival Test N/A N/A

There are no testing requirements for land travellers to Singapore from Malaysia.

Conclusion

Malaysia will scrap its travel insurance requirement for fully vaccinated travellers arriving from Singapore by air or land, which should further simplify the travel process especially for day trippers. 

There is no longer any travel insurance requirement in the opposite direction either, following Singapore’s decision to scrap it for fully vaccinated travellers as well. It means you can travel between Singapore and Malaysia uninsured, though it’s always a good idea to get coverage nonetheless. 

For further details on quarantine-free travel between Singapore and Malaysia by air, refer to the post below. 

Complete Guide: Singapore – Malaysia quarantine-free air travel from 1 April

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Ortloc

I just completed the verification of my vaccination on MySafeTravel and the uploading of the insurance certificate is still a requirement. Until this is changed, travellers planning land travel would still have to purchase insurance to complete this step.

edit: there is an “I do not have travel insurance” option, but I do not know if the vaccination verification will be rejected if that is chosen.

Last edited 2 years ago by Ortloc
Dave

I did choose “I do not have travel insurance” but could proceed as expected and had my QR code verified.

Last edited 2 years ago by Dave
Vin

Where did you see the I do not have travel insurance” part in the mysafetravel? All I see is to select Berjaya, Zurich or I have my own policy.

Chai

Me too. There is no option for “I do not have travel insurance”. I am trying to call the hotline but no answer.

Y C

Actually, if there is a hyphen in the name, you need to ditch the hyphen when typing the name into the system. Actual DP after 2 hours calling the helpline

C F

Do we still required to do PCR / supervised ART 48 hour prior travel to Malaysia by land?