One of the biggest challenges to enter Singapore with a student pass in 2021 is an entry approval (EA). Since the government has increased the COVID19 measure, all overseas international students must apply for entry approvals after they have completed the Eform16 and before they book flights to Singapore. In this article, I would like to share information and tips that I have experienced in EA application. I have discovered solutions with assistance from other students and by myself. I hope this will be useful for everyone intending to go study.
Difficulties of each country
Safe Travel announced that new applications have been reduced or halted until further notice for students from higher-risk countries. From my understanding, to be halted means for students from countries like India/Pakistan who currently are not allowed to enter Singapore, no matter whatever reasons. Thus, the only option is to wait until the COVID19 measure is changed. To be reduced means for students in other higher-risk countries who can still apply and need to be quarantined in dedicated SHN facilities, but it will be very difficult to get a spot. This is because many students around the world are snatching up for the small number of seats.
I am from Thailand which is considered a higher-risk country. What I have tried so far is to check the website every day, many times a day. I spent 22 days and managed to get EA successfully. Comparing to the no or low-risk countries, like Mainland China, they tend to be easier to apply for an EA. A student from China told me that she just reloaded the website around 10 times to get it.
Can universities apply for an EA on behalf of students?
The short answer is No. To apply for an entry approval, students must submit it by themselves via the Safe Travel portal. My university, NUS, no longer submits it on behalf of students since April 2021. I asked a Thai student, from another university, who entered Singapore in December 2020. At that time, his university assisted students by sending student name list to Safe Travel. However, that process is no longer available, so you need to help yourself.
Issues and solutions
During the EA application, I faced 3 issues, two of which are common issues that I believe many students are also facing. Another issue is quite specific to my surname, so I will not talk about it.
Issue 1: “The selected date of arrival is not available. Please select another date”
On this page, you will absolutely encounter this issue. The website provides a dropdown of the Date of arrival in Singapore (See page 14) for you to select. It fails because all weeks are fully booked. Safe Travel recommends you try applying again one week later. My question is… what day of the week and what time of the day should I try? In the beginning, I randomly tried applying whenever I was free, all failed until I noticed that the system adds a new week on weekend.
Well… I have no idea when exactly Safe Travel adds ‘a new week’ is. By asking many students from higher-risk countries, here is the time that they manage to get slots:
- In the morning of Saturday at 9.30 AM SG time
- Midnight of Sunday 00.00 AM SG time
I tried to stay over the night of one Saturday from 11 PM Fri to 7 AM Sat (I didn’t sleep) to see whether or not I can get it, and the result was no new week added to the system. I later found that the system eventually added a new week on Sunday, but I didn’t stay up late again on Sunday so I was unable to get it even though I checked the system at 6 AM Sun. Yeah… I was too late.
I also emailed Safe Travel asking for the date & time that the system updates. They replied in four days that they are not able to advise on the dates in which the prevailing borders measures might change. Therefore, I decided to go with advice from other students.
Next week I tried to stay late again on Saturday. I reduced the time to check the system on Monday-Friday because I believe most of the available spots are already booked since Saturday-Sunday. Hence, it is hopeless to do so on weekdays. Fortunately, I managed to get it that night. The time that I could successfully select the Date of arrival in Singapore was Saturday at 00.00 AM SG time. The system did not add ‘a new week’ option as I expected, but I was able to select the existing week. I believe that Safe Travel increased the number of available spots in the system on weekends.
My advice is you should log in to the website on weekends or at 00.00 AM SG on any day. From my IT experience, many servers, I mean the website, are set up to update data at midnight or sometimes at the beginning of an hour like 3.00 AM. It is quite a waste of time if you log in at a time like 10.43 AM. I don’t think you will get a slot because I tried that before. Now choose the time wisely!
Do not log in to the system before 00.00 AM SG time. Let’s imagine the system plans to add ‘a new date’ at 00.00 AM Saturday. You log in to the system at 11.58 PM Friday, 2 mins earlier, and keep reloading the page until the time passes 00.00 AM Saturday. You may not be able to see the new date because the page still uses the existing data, aka cache. Try to log in after 00.00 AM to make sure the system already updates.
My university once informed students that Safe Travel planned to add more slots at a specific time such as 2.00 PM on Friday, but it was a first-come-first-serve basis. Thus, you should also monitor email communications from universities as well.
It’s not over yet with the Date of arrival in Singapore. You may face another issue below.
Issue 2: “The application portal for the Student Pass Holder Lane is currently experiencing high transaction volume. Please try again later.”
Or “The application portal for the Student Pass Holder Lane is currently experiencing high transaction volume. Please try again later if you are experiencing technical issues or slowness with the portal. Our team is looking into the issue and we aim to resolve it soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Or “Http failure response for http://eservices.ica.gov.sg/pca-services/api/msl/moe/application/draft/travel: 500 Internal Server Error.”
The issue happens when many students are trying to log in to the website at the same time. I faced this issue two times, one was at 8.00 AM Tuesday and it lasted for hours until it was gone. The second time was at 00.00 SG time on Saturday, the day that I could successfully select the Date of arrival in Singapore. The error appeared after I clicked ‘Apply for Student’s Pass Holder Lane (SPL)’.
My solution was to keep reloading the page (Ctrl+R) until the page of Application Details (See Page 5) appears. After that, I continued entering my information and finally I was able to select the Date arrival in Singapore. The website led me to the page of Traveller’s further document details (See Page 17), and then the payment. Now it’s good to go!
Well… you may be wondering how long you should keep reloading the page. I spent around 10 minutes getting it. On the other hand, one student spent 8 hours since 00.00 SG time reloading the page and managed to get it.
What happens after you can select the date?
Once you are able to select the date, you will be directed to Fill in traveller’s further document details (Page 17). You have to enter passport detail on this page. I recommend you keep your passport nearby. Enter all details carefully and accurately. After that, the web will lead you to Declaration (Page 21) and Payment (Page 22). The price shown in the table is the amount that you have to pay for the quarantine. The payment took a while to complete, you will see the blank page with a blink blink circle. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Let it reload until it you receive an email.
The success of receiving an entry approval is when you get an email with the title “Approval for SafeTravel Pass Application” and two documents: Letter of Approval and Arrival Packet.
Summary
Don’t lose your hope to get an entry approval to Singapore. Try to log in at 00.00 SG time every day and stay alert especially on weekends. Keep updated with your university, and let me know if you need any help.
I hope you can get an entry approval soon. Don’t forget to share your experience below. Stay safe and enjoy student life in Singapore. :-)
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