The Singapore Arrival Card (SGAC) is free, it is not a visa, and you submit it within the three days before you arrive, counting arrival day itself, at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s own e-Service (ICA, accessed 2026-08-27). An electronic health declaration is filed inside the same submission. Every Indian passport holder entering Singapore files one.
This guide is maintained by Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
How Zurich Kotak fits in: The SGAC asks nothing of an insurer, but Singapore is a costly place to be admitted privately, and Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover emergency medical treatment there, medical evacuation, baggage loss or delay and trip cancellation for specified reasons, up to the limits of the plan you buy. Cashless treatment is available at partner hospitals including Mount Elizabeth, subject to change, with claims run through Europ Assistance India on a 24x7 line. The policy is issued online once your dates are fixed, which is the only reason it still fits inside the same three-day window as the arrival card.
Last verified: 2026-08-27.
The official portal, and only the official portal
The SGAC is filed at ica.gov.sg , and it costs nothing there. There are two official routes and no others:
Route | Where | Cost |
SGAC e-Service | Free | |
MyICA Mobile app | App Store or Google Play, published by ICA | Free |
The page explaining it sits at www.ica.gov.sg/enter-transit-depart/entering-singapore/sg-arrival-card . Check the domain ends in . gov.sg before you type anything into a form: this search carries a large number of commercial services that charge to file it for you, and several of them outrank ICA.
The three-day window, both ends of it
The window opens on the second day before your arrival date and closes when you arrive. A submission made earlier falls outside it.
ICA’s wording is “within three (3) days (including the day of arrival) before arrival in Singapore”, and it gives a worked example on the same page: someone arriving on 30 Jun 2023 can submit from 28 Jun 2023 onwards (ICA, accessed 2026-08-27). Three days including arrival day means arrival day plus the two days before it, not arrival day plus three.
If you arrive on | You can file from | You must file by |
2026-09-15 | 2026-09-13 | Before you reach the counter on 2026-09-15 |
2026-12-01 | 2026-11-29 | Before you reach the counter on 2026-12-01 |
This catches careful travellers rather than careless ones. The instinct with travel paperwork is to finish it early, and a form filled in the week you booked leaves you with nothing on file, because the e-Service does not accept a submission outside the window. File on the day the window opens: early enough to be done, late enough to be valid, and it still leaves two days to correct a mistake.
This is not a visa, and Indian travellers need one
ICA states it in four words: “The SG Arrival Card is not a visa.” Filing it does not grant entry, extend a stay, or stand in for a permission you were meant to hold before you flew.
Indian passport holders need a Singapore entry visa on top of it. ICA lists India among the travel documents whose holders require a valid visa, with an exception only for diplomatic, official and service passports (ICA, accessed 2026-08-27). It is applied for in advance through a local contact with a Singpass account, an authorised visa agent appointed by a Singapore Overseas Mission, or the mission itself, never at the immigration counter, and ICA advises applying within the 30 days before arrival. A non-refundable processing fee applies, published on ICA’s India page.
The order is passport, then entry visa, then SGAC in the last three days. The card is the last of the three and a substitute for none of them.
Flying to Singapore? By the time the SGAC is open in front of you, the flights, the hotel and the visa fee are already spent and mostly non-refundable. Travel insurance for Singapore is usually the last unticked box, and it takes less time than the arrival card does.
Who must file, and the two exemptions
Every traveller entering Singapore files one, apart from people who never clear immigration and some residents at land checkpoints. ICA’s own wording:
All travellers are required to submit the SG Arrival Card with Electronic Health Declaration before arriving in Singapore, except: Those transiting/transferring through Singapore without seeking immigration clearance; and Residents (Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents, Long-Term Pass holders) travelling through Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints.
Source: ICA, accessed 2026-08-27. For an Indian traveller that resolves to a short table:
Situation | File an SGAC? |
Tourist, business or family visit, by air, sea or overland from Malaysia | Yes |
Child or infant travelling on their own passport | Yes, one submission per person |
Transiting airside without clearing immigration | No |
Clearing immigration during a stopover, for any reason | Yes |
Returning later the same month on a new trip | Yes, it is per trip |
On the resident exemption, ICA’s body text names Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints while its FAQ on the same page names land checkpoints generally. It makes no difference to an Indian visitor, who files in every case, so we have not tried to settle which reading is current.
Transit turns on immigration clearance, not on the word transit. A layover spent airside needs no card. A layover where you go through the counter, to see the city or to sleep outside the airport, is an entry, and an entry needs an SGAC. Indian nationals may qualify for ICA’s 96-hour Visa-Free Transit Facility, which allows entry without a Singapore visa if you hold an onward air, ferry or cruise ticket departing within 96 hours plus a valid visa or long-term pass for Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or the United States (ICA, accessed 2026-08-27). Entering under it is still entering, so the card still applies.
The health declaration is inside the card
There is no separate health form to hunt for, and it carries legal weight. ICA:
As part of the SG Arrival Card (SGAC) submission, you are required to submit the electronic health declaration for purposes of disease control, specifically to guard against importing diseases of concern, to protect the health of Singapore residents. Those who make false declarations may be prosecuted under the Infectious Diseases Act.
If your health changes after you submit, the e-Service has an “Update SGAC” function for exactly that.
What it costs: nothing, and the regulator says so itself
ICA has put its position on paid filing services in writing:
SGAC submission is free of charge. ICA does not support or endorse services offered by commercial entities assisting to submit the SG Arrival Card at a fee. They are not affiliated with ICA.
Source: ICA, accessed 2026-08-27.
That is the regulator’s own language, and it is worth more than our assurance. There is nothing for a paid service to expedite: you fill in a form and an acknowledgement email arrives.
How to file the SGAC
Gather five things first and the form takes a few minutes: your passport, for the number, exact name spelling and expiry; your arrival date and flight or vessel number; the address of your first night’s accommodation as the booking prints it; an email address you can open on the trip; and your visa or In-Principle Approval details where they apply.
Then:
1. Open eservices.ica.gov.sg/sgarrivalcard , or the MyICA Mobile app, typing the address rather than following an advert.
2. Choose “Foreign Visitors”.
3. Enter your personal and passport details exactly as the passport prints them, initials and all.
4. Enter your travel and accommodation details.
5. Complete the electronic health declaration, which appears in the same flow.
6. Submit, and keep the acknowledgement email that follows.
The email address matters more than it looks. Since 11 March 2022 ICA has notified foreign visitors of their Visit Pass by email, with nothing endorsed in the passport. That notification is what tells you the stay you were granted and your last permitted day, so a mistyped address costs you the only record of it. ICA publishes a retrieval page for the electronic visit pass if you need it later. For a family or a group, ICA’s Group Submission covers people travelling together on one trip; it does not cover one person’s several trips.
Common mistakes
Mistake | What happens | How to avoid it |
Filing more than three days out | Outside the window, nothing on file | File on the day the window opens, two days before arrival |
Counting arrival day plus three | You believe you filed in time when you did not | Arrival day plus the two days before it |
Paying a third-party site | Money spent on a free government form | ICA says plainly it does not endorse them |
Treating the SGAC as a visa | Arriving without the entry permission you needed | Indians need a Singapore entry visa as well |
Assuming a stopover is exempt | No card, at a counter you did have to pass | The test is immigration clearance, not the word transit |
Mistyping the email address | No acknowledgement, and no e-Pass record of your stay | Check it before you submit |
One submission for a whole family | Travellers arriving with no declaration | One per person, children and infants included |
If your trip takes in more than one country
Each country’s arrival card is a separate filing, with its own window and its own portal. A Kuala Lumpur and Singapore itinerary needs two: see Malaysia Digital Arrival Card for the Malaysian rules. For the region as a whole, which countries require a digital arrival card sets out each regime, its window and its cost in one table.
Travel insurance and the pre-departure list
The SGAC does not ask for proof of travel insurance, and Singapore does not require it as part of the arrival-card filing. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
It belongs here because of timing. You are filing the card inside the last three days before departure, when the flights, the hotel and the visa fee are already committed and mostly non-refundable, and when medical costs in Singapore are the exposure most Indian travellers underestimate.
Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover Singapore under the Asia geography, on the Excel tier with sum insured up to USD 100,000 and the Prime tier up to USD 500,000, maximum entry age 70. There is no Senior Citizen plan on the Asia geography, so a traveller aged 71 or over needs a different route. Baggage, trip delay, trip cancellation, passport loss, personal accident and medical evacuation are covered up to plan limits, and ZK’s cashless network in Singapore includes Mount Elizabeth (hospital lists are subject to change, so verify before you rely on one). To have the cover in place before you file the card, start at travel insurance for Singapore .
Frequently asked questions
Is the SG Arrival Card mandatory for Indians? Yes. Every Indian passport holder entering Singapore must submit an SG Arrival Card before arrival, whether they arrive by air, by sea or overland from Malaysia. The only people who do not file are travellers who transit without clearing immigration and some Singapore residents at land checkpoints.
Is the SG Arrival Card free? Yes. ICA states that SGAC submission is free of charge, and that it does not support or endorse commercial services that charge a fee to submit it. Those services are not affiliated with ICA.
How early can I submit the SG Arrival Card? Within three days of your arrival, including the day of arrival itself. That means arrival day plus the two days before it. ICA’s own example is that a traveller arriving on 30 June can submit from 28 June onwards, and a submission made before the window opens is not accepted.
Does the SG Arrival Card replace a Singapore visa? No. ICA states that the SG Arrival Card is not a visa. Indian passport holders are on ICA’s list of travel documents that require a valid entry visa, with an exception for diplomatic, official and service passports, and the visa has to be obtained before you travel.
Do I need an SG Arrival Card if I am only transiting? It depends on whether you clear immigration. If you stay in the transit area and never pass through immigration, you do not file one. If you clear immigration for any reason, including entering under the 96-hour Visa-Free Transit Facility, you do.
Do I have to fill in a separate health declaration? No. The electronic health declaration is part of the SG Arrival Card submission and there is no separate form. False declarations may be prosecuted under Singapore’s Infectious Diseases Act.
