Following the Election Department’s (ELD) announcement on 23 June 2020 about the General Election, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has experienced a huge surge in demand for Identity Card (IC) services, especially the replacement of ICs, collection of new ICs and change of address. The demand for these services has surged by between 40% and 140%.

2        ICA has received more than 1,000 IC related requests daily since the announcement. This surge is compounded by a higher volume of IC-related applications following the end of the Circuit Breaker, as ICA services were scaled back during the Circuit Breaker.

3        ICA has deployed additional manpower to manage this surge in demand. ICA will also be delivering ICs to the homes of Singapore residents who have made IC applications between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2020, to reduce the volume of people turning up at the ICA Building. In addition, ICA will prioritise the processing of applications for the replacement of ICs (e.g. from those who have lost their ICs, or whose ICs are damaged), which means a corresponding delay in the processing of requests for re-registration of ICs.  The former is more important in the context of the upcoming General Election, as the IC would be the primary means of identity verification for the purposes of voting.

4        We would also like to bring the public’s attention to the ELD’s statement issued on 27 June 2020 (at Annex), that Singapore citizens may produce their passport in lieu of their IC for identification purposes, when they register at the polling stations to vote. In addition, for General Election 2020, the address on the poll card which registered voters will receive, will be based on the Register of Electors with a cut-off date of 1 March 2020. As such, registered voters will be assigned their polling stations based on their registered addresses as at that date, and any changes of address after that date will not lead to a change in their assigned polling stations.

5.       For Singaporeans who require services at the ICA Building, ICA would like to remind them not to go there without making a prior appointment. In particular, those who wish to collect their ICs for urgent reasons should make an appointment via ICA’s e-Appointment service, or obtain an ICA permission email for entry into the ICA Building via the electronic form : “Request for ICA Services in view of COVID-19” at https://go.gov.sg/ica-services. Only those who receive an approval appointment email through either of these two platforms will be granted entry into the ICA Building.

6        As for those who need to report a change of address, please note that they can do so at a Neighbourhood Police Post or Neighbourhood Police Centre.  They do not have to go to the ICA Building.

7        We thank Singaporeans for their patience and understanding.

IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
27 JUNE 2020

ANNEX