Since its introduction in March 2008, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA)’s electronic Appointment Booking (e-Appointment) system has been well received by users for the convenience it has brought them.

2. Starting from 15 July 2008, the e-Appointment system will be available to members of the public seeking the following services from ICA:

 Collection of Identity Cards (NRICs) for iC Online applicants and 30-year-old registrants who have submitted their applications by post;

 Submission of applications for Singapore Permanent Residence (PR);

 Collection of long term Visit Passes (VP) for those who submit their applications over the counters at ICA;

 Collection of Student’s Passes (STP) for those who submit their applications electronically.

3. Like all other e-services introduced by ICA, we have put in efforts to ensure that the system is user-friendly, and the interface is easy on the eye. In fact, users only need to go through four simple steps to make an appointment with ICA electronically. Please refer to Annex for a step-by-step guide to using the system.

About the e-Appointment system

4. The e-Appointment system is an online service that manages the appointment slots for all three Services Centres of ICA. It has the capability to pre-allocate appointments for applicants, as well as to allow them to book an appointment with ICA to complete their application processes.

5. After an e-Appointment is made, the details of the appointment will be transmitted to ICA’s queue system to facilitate the issuance of queue tickets to the appointment holders. Applicants with e-Appointments will be given priority over the walk-in members of public.

6. Launched in March 2008, this service was first made available to the following groups:

 Foreigners who are completing formalities for the issuance of long term Visit Passes applied using e-service;

 Successful PR applicants who are completing PR formalities; and

 Singaporeans who are collecting their passports.

7. To date, ICA has received more than 1,000 positive feedback from users of e-Appointment system. These encouraging responses have spurred us to extend e-Appointment to more services at the 3 centres.

How the public benefits from the e-Appointment system

8. Waiting time has been shortened to an average of less than 30 minutes. In some cases, the waiting time was even as short as 15 minutes for those collecting their passports. Previously, the queuing time could take over an hour during peak periods.

The significance of e-Appointments for ICA

9. “ICA is always looking out for ways to enhance our service delivery to benefit our customers. The introduction of the e-Appointment system has not only helped the public to better manage their time when planning a trip to the ICA Building, it has also helped to alleviate the heavy workload of ICA officers by spreading the flow of customers more evenly throughout the day. ICA will be making e-Appointment services available to an even larger group of people later this year,” said Mr Eric Tan, the Commissioner of ICA.

END OF NEWS RELEASE

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
14 July 2008


ANNEX

How to use the e-Appointment system in four simple steps

The e-Appointment system is available on ICA’s website at http://www.ica.gov.sg. To make an appointment with ICA, users should have the following information on-hand (where applicable):

 NRIC number;
 Date of issue of NRIC;
 Foreign identification number; and/or
 Last three digits of the application reference number.

Step 1: Select a service that is applicable to you



Step 2: Click on an available date




Step 3: Select a time-slot



Step 4: The system confirms your appointment date and time…

and you’re done!