How to Enter Singapore During the Pandemic…Maybe

This is an attempt at a comprehensive list on how to enter Singapore during the Covid pandemic as I understand it and to be clear, I am not clear. Singapore has been working towards a goal of living with Covid which I greatly admire. I’m beginning to long for the days when Covid and its variants were not the headline every day as most of you probably are as well.

Okay, so do not take my word for it and you should definitely be sure to check out the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) overview before making plans to visit Singapore. I’ll do my best to try and capture all of the requirements in my own, layman terms. Our first hurdle was to get a VTL flight of which there are only two out of the States, one from New York and one from Los Angeles. Guess which one we got? If you guessed New York because it’s on the east coast and we live in Virginia which is also on the east coast you would be wrong. Instead, we are flying to L.A. to catch the VTL to Singapore.

A second hurdle was to get a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP). This was accomplished by sending our flight itinerary along with passport and vaccination status. Our girls are under 12 and so are not, as of yet, asked to comply with vaccines. Some visitors to Singapore will also need a visa but I have been assured we do not. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve checked out for most of this process.

We also need to be able to provide proof of health insurance in case we do get Covid and need medical treatment. Speaking of Covid (as if I weren’t already), we need to take a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test two days before our flight and procure a test result certificate. We also need to schedule a PCR test at Changi Airport which we will take upon our arrival. Also, at Changi Airport is where we get the TraceTogether tokens that we will use to do contact tracing (what a novel idea!). These will be used for the foreseeable future while living in Singapore.

Alright, so now we’ve arrived in Singapore and we have taken our PCR test. We now must go directly to our hotel and stay in isolation until our test results come back negative, God willing. Assuming our PCR test is negative we then must take unsupervised self-administered tests on days 2, 4, 5, and 6 along with supervised self-administered tests on days 3 and 7. Of course, if any of these tests come back negative, we must isolate immediately and then take a PCR test to verify the results. Also, it should be stated that we cannot do anything until after we have taken each of the required tests on the aforementioned days and the results are negative. Failure to comply with any of the rules set in place could result in fines, imprisonment, and/or expulsion from Singapore.

Marcus has been the hero in all of this as my attention and anxiety has been focused on the actual move. I just print things as requested and then go back to drinking and packing, not necessarily in that order. In my defense, reading through the list of requirements set forth by Singapore makes my head spin so writing this out has been helpful. With all of the moving parts we just need to cross our fingers that we have done everything we need to do and comply with Singapore’s rules correctly.