UPDATE (1 Apr, 10.35am): In a media release on Friday (31 Mar), the ICA explained that a technical glitch during a system upgrade caused automated immigration clearance at the checkpoints to become unavailable, which resulted in long queues at the checkpoints. You may read their full statement below.
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Long queues formed at various Singapore checkpoints on Friday (31 Mar) due to an apparent system delay.
The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) announced the disruption on Facebook, advising travellers to postpone travels where possible.
Affected travellers have since posted images of the growing crowd at Changi Airport and the Causeway checkpoints.
The ICA first posted about the system delay on Facebook at 11.28am on Friday (31 Mar).
Source: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority on Facebook
They declared that the immigration clearance system was experiencing “intermittent slowness” at certain passenger clearance checkpoints.
In an update over 30 minutes later at 12.03pm, the issue seemed to remain unresolved.
Source: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority on Facebook
Despite the difficulties, the ICA clarified that clearance was ongoing.
However, they warned travellers to expect delays as they continue to rectify the situation. The ICA also advised the public to postpone non-essential travel where possible.
They expressed their regret for the trouble and appealed for travellers’ patience and understanding.
Not long after the ICA posted about the delay, travellers took to the comments section to share their experiences with the service disruption.
As recently as 12.36pm the same day, a Facebook user shared a photo of large crowds allegedly at Changi Airport Terminal 4 (T4).
Source: Facebook
Accompanying the post was a caption claiming, “It’s very chaotic at T4 and very little communication.”
Another comment from someone seemingly at T4 too concurred, alleging that “hundreds of people (were) stuck outside” and that officers were manually clearing travellers whose flights were departing in five minutes.
Meanwhile, about an hour before, a similar scene was witnessed at Terminal 1 (T1) departure.
Source: Facebook
The OP who shared the photo wrote that the queue was “super long but manual counters clear(ed) up fast”.
Over at the Singapore-Johor land checkpoints, motorists were also experiencing congestion as they seemed to be stuck in line for a while.
Source: Facebook
In light of the system delay, the ICA advised travellers to postpone non-essential travels if they could.
Those who had to proceed should factor in the delay to their travel plans.
It wasn’t until over four hours after the initial post, at 3.58pm, that the ICA shared in an update that immigration clearance at all checkpoints returned to normalcy.
Investigations swiftly commence, to determine the root cause of the system delay.
In a media release later that evening, the ICA confirmed that automated immigration clearance at checkpoints became unavailable at 10.40am on Friday (31 Mar).
Early investigations led them to discover a technical glitch during a pre-scheduled upgrade, which caused a system overload.
The glitch affected automated clearance lanes at the following locations:
Following the glitch, the ICA promptly redirected travellers to manual counters for immigration clearance. They also deployed additional resources including off-duty officers to man the counters and manage the crowds.
The ICA additionally advised travellers through various avenues to factor in extra time for immigration clearance.
Thereafter, the automated clearance progressively resumed till it was fully restored at 4pm.
Addressing members of the public, the ICA stated,
ICA apologises for the inconvenience caused, and would like to thank travellers for their understanding, patience, and cooperation with our officers on the ground. We are conducting a thorough investigation and will be putting in place additional safeguards to prevent reoccurrence.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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