Singapore passport

Singaporean passport Pasport Singapura  (Malay) 新加坡护照 (Chinese) சிங்கப்பூர் கடவுச்சீட்டு (Tamil)
The front cover of a contemporary Singaporean biometric passport.
Date first issued	20 June 1966 (first version) 15 August 2006 (current biometric version)
Issued by	Singapore
Type of document	Passport
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility requirements	Singaporean citizenship
Expiration	5 years after issuance
Cost	S$80

The Singaporean passport is a travel document issued to the citizens of the Republic of Singapore. It is issued by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore. Only Singaporean citizens can apply for this passport. The Singaporean passport ranks second in terms of travel freedom worldwide.

Singapore's passport is a favourite target for counterfeiters, due to the relatively liberal visa requirements for Singaporean travellers, and the tendency for immigration to clear Singaporean passport holders more quickly. The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority thus adopted several measures to foil forgers, including digital photos and special ink since October 1999, and the Biometric passport from August 2006.

The Singaporean passport is valid for a period of five years for passports issued since April 1, 2005 and ten years for passports issued before 1 April 2005. Before biometric passports were issued in August 2006, passports for male citizens between 11 and 18 were only valid for two years, and had to be renewed or replaced every two years. Biometric passports cannot be modified due to the "write once" policy by ICAO. A new passport is valid for a total period of five years. For the renewal of a passport that has a validity of nine months or less, the new one will have a validity of five years plus the remaining validity in the old passport. However, if a passport is being renewed with a validity of more than nine months, it will be valid for five years and nine months. To travel overseas, a passport must be valid for at least six months.

Since 15 August 2006, all newly issued Singaporean passports contain biometric features (BioPass). A major reason for this addition is to comply with the requirements for the US Visa Waiver Program. The features also help to prevent forgery and minimise the abuse of Singaporean passports. The biometric passports contain 64 pages, unlike the machine readable passports, which contain 96 pages. It costs S$80 for a passport, with the higher cost due to the special features encoded into the passport. There is a ten dollar rebate if one applies for the passport on the Internet, by post or by deposit box with applicants having to collect the passport personally.