Your full guide to Singapore’s Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL)

Following successful pilot Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with Brunei and Germany from early September 2021, the Singapore Government has significantly expanded the quarantine-free scheme, and for the most part, aside from an early Omicron ‘blip’, has also progressively eased the requirements for travellers, like testing.

There are now 32 countries on the VTL list, most allowing two-way quarantine-free trips for those fully vaccinated against COVID-19, by clearing a pre-departure test before flying to Singapore, followed by a self-test within 24 hours of arriving.

Here’s how the VTL list currently looks, with a wide range of countries offering quarantine-free travel, including both regional and long-haul options.

Singapore Vaccinated Travel Lanes

2-way quarantine-free

🇦🇺 Australia
🇩🇪 Germany
🇰🇭 Cambodia
🇨🇦 Canada
🇩🇰 Denmark
🇫🇯 Fiji
🇫🇮 Finland
🇫🇷 France
🇬🇷 Greece
🇮🇳 India
🇮🇱 Israel
🇮🇹 Italy
🇲🇾 Malaysia
🇲🇻 Maldives
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇵🇭 Philippines
🇶🇦 Qatar

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇰🇷 South Korea
🇪🇸 Spain
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
🇸🇪 Sweden
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🇹🇭 Thailand
🇹🇷 Turkey
🇦🇪 UAE
🇬🇧 UK
🇺🇸 USA
🇻🇳 Vietnam

1-way quarantine-free
(to Singapore)

🇧🇳 Brunei
🇭🇰 Hong Kong

🇮🇩 Indonesia

Updated: 16 March 2022

Here’s our detailed rundown of the process for vaccinated travellers heading to and from VTL countries, covering the latest requirements for arrivals in Singapore.

Singapore Vaccinated Travel Lanes

Key Features

• Must be fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine in Singapore, or any VTL country, or any EU member state, or any non-EU countries that have joined the EU DCC system
• Must have an accepted digital proof of vaccination
• Must have remained in a VTL country or countries and/or Singapore for the last 7 days
• Travel to Singapore on designated ‘VTL flights’ (full list here)
• Unvaccinated children aged 12 or below are eligible when travelling with fully vaccinated adults
• Short-term visitors and Singapore work pass holders must apply for a VTP in advance
• Pre-departure and on-arrival COVID-19 tests (except for children aged 2 or under) replace quarantine / Stay-Home Notice (SHN) in Singapore
• Those recovered from COVID-19 in the last 7-90 days are exempt from all testing when travelling to Singapore and and SHN in Singapore

Eligibility

To be eligible to travel from a VTL country to Singapore quarantine-free, you must fulfil the following criteria:

* Returning Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents who are fully vaccinated will automatically qualify and will not need to apply for a VTP in order to travel under the VTL.

Overall, two COVID-19 tests are required – one ART / PCR before departure and one ART within 24 hours of arrival.

In turn, the usual 7 days of SHN at home when arriving from VTL countries is not required.

Vaccination certificate requirements

When the VTL with Germany was first introduced, travellers had to be fully vaccinated in either Singapore or Germany, which was (perhaps deliberately) quite restrictive in those early days, while the scheme was being used as a pilot.

Good news with progressive expansion is that passengers travelling on a VTL flight can now show their digitally-verifiable vaccination records from a range of sources, provided they have been fully vaccinated in any VTL country, or in Singapore.

For those vaccinated in 🇸🇬 Singapore, you can provide:

• Vaccination status on the TraceTogether or HealthHub app; or
• Vaccination certificate(s) issued by the Singapore Ministry of Health; or
• For work pass holders or short-term visitors with records in Singapore’s National Immunisation Registry, successful verification of their records on the Vaccinated Travel Pass (Air) application portal

For those vaccinated in 🇪🇺 European Union Member States, or non-EU countries that have joined the EUDCC system (listed here), you can provide:

• EU Digital COVID Certificate (EUDCC) of vaccination, showing the final dose in the vaccination series.

For those vaccinated in any other VTL country (e.g. Australia, India, Malaysia, UK, etc…) accepted proof of vaccination is country-specific.

A full list of acceptable proof of full vaccination issued in these countries is available here.

Children 12 and under

The VTL is open to unvaccinated children aged 12 or under, based on the calendar year of arrival in Singapore.

For example, for arrivals in 2022 those born after 1st January 2010 will not be required to provide proof of vaccination to board designated VTL flights.

Unvaccinated children must be travelling with fully vaccinated adults to be eligible. Unaccompanied minors are not permitted on designated VTL flights.

This rule applies to children who are short-term visitors, long-term pass holders, Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents, and therefore eligible tourists can also travel with younger children to visit Singapore as a family, as well as any Singapore resident families returning.

Children aged 12 or below must comply with all other VTL conditions, including the 7-day travel history requirement, pre-departure and on-arrival testing, but in the case of short-term visitors they are not required to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP).

Children aged 2 or younger in the year of arrival in Singapore (i.e. those born on or after 1st January 2020 for arrivals in 2022) are exempt from the pre-departure COVID-19 ART/PCR testing requirement overseas, and the on-arrival COVID-19 supervised ART test within 24 hours of landing.

Children aged 13 and above in the current calendar year will need to be fully vaccinated to use the VTL.

You can travel to VTL countries on any flight

You won’t find any VTL designated flights from Singapore to a VTL country, because the requirement only applies to those arriving in Singapore.

Exception: 🇲🇾 Malaysia

Those using the VTL to take a trip to Malaysia will also have to take designated VTL flights from Singapore for quarantine-free entry to Malaysia on that bilateral scheme.

A full list of designated flights from Singapore to Malaysia is available here.

If you’re based in Singapore and taking an overseas trip to a VTL country, you can take a nonstop flight or transit only in another VTL or a Category 1 country en-route, to keep your 7-day travel history ‘clean’ for your return journey eligibility (unless your stay in VTL countries will be more than 7 days).

If you’re based overseas and are visiting Singapore using the VTL, it doesn’t matter what flight you take at the end of your trip to return home, subject to the prevailing arrival restrictions (based on travel history) of your destination country.

Travel within the ‘VTL Zone’
(but be careful!)

You can retain your quarantine-free arrival privileges in Singapore using the VTL on your return provided you have remained only within VTL countries (or Singapore itself) over the last 7 consecutive days before your VTL flight back to Singapore.

The only exceptions are Malaysia and South Korea, where you’ll need to have remained in Singapore itself for at least 14 days prior to travel, before setting off for those countries on a VTL trip.

How is 7 days counted? Singapore counts your arrival day in a country as ‘Day 0’. If you enter the ‘VTL Zone’ from anywhere other than Singapore or a Category 1 country you will therefore have to spend a full 7 nights in VTL countries to be able to declare a ‘clean’ 7-day travel history and be eligible for a VTL flight to Singapore.

For example, if you fly from Portugal (non-VTL) to France (VTL) on 1st April, then remain in France, you should not take a VTL flight to Singapore before 8th April.

Trips can therefore incorporate several European countries (e.g. both France and Italy) and even more adventurous journeys like Singapore – France – Canada – USA – Netherlands – Singapore.

Only the final flight to Singapore must be a VTL-designated service.

You must be careful not to stray outside VTL countries, if your VTL flight to Singapore is within 7 days, since your travel history must include only Singapore and/or VTL countries during this period.

Given that many of these countries in Europe share a land border, you could unknowingly fall foul of the requirements.

Pro Tip: Be especially careful when taking train journeys in Europe between VTL countries. Some of these (e.g. Paris – Amsterdam) pass through non-VTL countries (e.g. Belgium), voiding your eligibility to use a VTL flight to Singapore in the next 14 days.

Direct flights between VTL countries are a safer bet.

If you are going to ‘stray’ to (or through) a non-VTL country on a longer trip, do so at or near the beginning of your journey, so that the relevant ‘naughty’ travel history will fall outside the 7-day window when it comes time to return home.

These requirements equally apply to residents of VTL countries wishing to visit Singapore using the scheme.

For example a US resident who returned from a trip to Mexico (non-VTL) on 1st March 2022 should not take a VTL flight to Singapore before 8th March 2022.

While the Schengen zone in Europe is ‘borderless’, and there is a ‘Common Travel Area’ between the UK and Ireland, remember you will have to make a health declaration prior to using the VTL, stating that you have only been in Singapore and/or a VTL country for the last 7 consecutive days.

False declarations can result in enforcement under Singapore’s Infectious Diseases Act.

VTL designated flights

To qualify for SHN-free arrival in Singapore, the VTL requires you to travel on designated flights from a VTL country to Singapore, operated by a wide variety of airlines.

These flights will only carry VTL passengers (no unvaccinated travellers are allowed, with the exception of children).

Remember there are no designated VTL services from Singapore to VTL countries, apart from the Singapore – Malaysia VTL.

We have a continually updated designated VTL flights page showing all the available options to use the scheme from VTL countries to Singapore.

Transit passengers on VTL flights

Since 19th October 2021, passengers transiting at Changi to a further final destination have been allowed to take designated VTL flights.

This is a slight change from the original version of the VTL, where only point-to-point passengers were allowed to board designated VTL services.

If you’re booked on a designated VTL flight but are transiting in Changi, you can therefore still travel on the flight, provided:

• You are fully vaccinated against COVID-19; and
• You hold a valid vaccination certificate in English, issued by any country.

You must also meet all entry requirements for your destination country, which may include a pre-departure test (though one isn’t required to simply transit Changi any more).

Other points to note about transiting through Changi from a VTL flight:

• Transit passengers on VTL flights do not need to apply for a VTP.
• Transit passengers on VTL flights are exempt from the 7-day travel history requirement.
• Transit passengers on VTL flights are exempt from any on-arrival testing in Singapore.
• Transit passengers on VTL flights can roam the transit area freely, shop and use the lounges at Changi Airport.

Note that if you enter Singapore on the VTL and make an unprotected connection (i.e. two separate bookings) onward to a third country (e.g. Singapore Airlines Munich to Singapore, followed by Jetstar Asia Singapore to Phuket), you will not benefit from the simplified transit process.

In this case you will have to proceed through immigration, complete on-arrival testing within 24 hours, and then self-isolate until your results come through, before being able to proceed back to the airport for any onward flight.

The VTL process

Here’s how the process works, assuming travel from Singapore to a VTL country and back again via the VTL.

Pre-departure process (Singapore to VTL country)

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Pre-departure process (VTL country to Singapore)