This is up from the usual validity period of five years
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) announced on Friday that the Singapore passport will now be valid for 10 years, as compared to the current validity period of five years.
This will come into effect for citizens above the age of 16 who apply for their passports on or after October 1 this year.
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The aim, ICA said, was to reduce the need for frequent passport renewals and to make it more convenient for Singaporeans.
Citizens who fall below the age of 16, however, will still only have a passport validity of five years. This is because children's facial features tend to change more as they grow which will mean that their passport photographs will need to be updated more frequently.
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Singapore's passports used to be valid for 10 years until April 2005 when the biometric passport system was introduced. ICA wanted to monitor the stability of the technology which is why they shortened the number of years that a passport would be valid.
However, now that biometric passport technology has stabilised and that it has been implemented around the world, it is possible to increase the validity of our passport.
In their announcement, ICA said: "In view of these developments, ICA has assessed that it is now viable to increase the validity of the Singapore passport to 10 years without compromising security or global confidence in the Singapore passport."
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