SINGAPORE: Starting from Jan 30, 2026, Singapore will be streamlining the process of entry into the city-state, following a record-high number of people who were refused entry from January to November of this year.
Numbers cited in a report from The Straits Times on Sunday (Dec 21) showed that for the first 11 months of the year, 41,800 foreigners were disallowed from entering Singapore’s borders. This figure is almost 26% higher than all of last year and 46% higher than in 2023.
Next year, things are set to become even more difficult for high-risk travellers who intend to come to Singapore.
In late November, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that beginning from Jan 30 next year, it will be issuing No-Boarding Directive (NBD) notices to airline operators at Changi and Seletar Airports. This is “to prevent undesirable or prohibited immigrants, and those who do not meet Singapore’s entry requirements, from boarding flights bound for Singapore.”
Importantly, these NBD notices are meant to enhance Singapore’s border security.
At the moment, high-risk travellers to Singapore are identified before they arrive at checkpoints through the use of advanced traveller information, including information provided in the SG Arrival Card (SGAC), flight manifests, and other sources of data.
When these travellers arrive, they are subjected to even stricter checks when clearing immigration.
By next month, however, ICA will begin issuing NBD notices to airlines against identified prohibited or undesirable travellers. When these airlines receive such notices, they should not allow these travellers to board their flight to Singapore.
Aside from identified prohibited or undesirable travellers, NBD notices may also be issued against travellers who fail to meet the city-state’s requirements for entry, which include having a travel document with at least six months’ validity as well as a valid visa.
“The NBD allows ICA to prevent identified prohibited or undesirable travellers whom we are aware from advance traveller information that they are headed to Singapore, from boarding the flight for Singapore. This strengthens Singapore’s border security by keeping potential threats from reaching our shores in the first place,” ICA added.
From next month onward, Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, and AirAsia will be implementing NBDs to prevent travellers from boarding their flights. By March, other airlines will follow, ST added.
If a traveller is disallowed from boarding their flight to Singapore, but they still want to travel to the city-state, they may write to ICA (via the ICA Feedback Channel) to seek approval for entry, before they arrange a new flight to Singapore. /TISG
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