Singapore publishes new crew change guidebook

With effect from 01 September 2020, MPA will consider the following circumstances for crew change applications:

• Crew whose employment contract has expired;
• Additional crew on board whose sign-off would not affect the safe manning of the ship;
• Change of crew due to the sale or purchase of ship;
• Personnel who are not part of the ship’s crew such as superintendents and service engineers;
• Compassionate grounds e.g. death of family member;
• The crew is no longer medically fit to work onboard the ship.

Sign-on crew

• Meet-and-greet services are compulsory for sign-on crew at Changi Airport. Please read the mitigating factors and processes for sign-on crew.
• Crew from specific low risk countries/regions will either no longer be required to serve the SHN or serve a shorter SHN of 7 days in the originating country/region prior to departure for Singapore. Please refer to the Ministry of Health’s website (MOH)
• The crew must have a negative result from a COVID-19 test (polymerase chain reaction (PCT) type) taken at a government-approached or ISO 15189-accredited testing facility not more than 72 hours prior to departure for Singapore.
• In addition,if a crew was previously diagnosed with COVID-19, he/she must submit documentary proof of his/her past diagnosis of COVID-19 based on the earliest positive PCR test result.
• If the date of the positive PCR test result is 21 days or fewer before the date of arrival in Singapore, he/she will not be approved for crew change.
• If the date of the positive PCR test result is between 22 to 90 days before the date of arrival in Singapore, the recovered crew need not serve the SHN at his/her originating country/region and take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before departure for Singapore.
• If the date of the positive PCR test result is between 91 to 180 days before the date of arrival in Singapore, he/she must serve a 14-day SHN at his/her originating country/region. The recovered crew need not take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before departure for Singapore, but if he/she develops symptoms during the SHN period, he/she must be tested for COVID-19.
• If the positive PCR test result is more than 180 days before the date of arrival in Singapore, he/she must serve a 14-day SHN at his/her originating country and take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before departure for Singapore.
• During the entire crew change process, especially during the journey to join the ship in Singapore, crew may be in groups of not more than five (5) persons, but must remain in the same group, and there must be no interactions between the groups.
• For crew going directly onboard ships, he/she shall only arrive Singapore to join his/her ship not more than 48 hours before the ship’s departure from Singapore. For crew staying at designated holding facilities, they may stay at these designated facilities for up to 72 hours.
• Pre-departure PCR test should be carried out at government-approved or ISO 15189-accredited testing facilities.

Sign-off crew

• Tele-Medicine consultations are approved for issuance of the off-signing crews Fit-to-travel
certificate. These must be completed by Singapore fully registered doctors. Details of the telemedicine requirements are found in PMC 27 of 2020.
• Please read the mitigating factors and processes for sign-off crew.

Foreign & Singapore flagged vessels

• For foreign flagged vessels, crew change will only be permitted for vessels meeting the requirements of PMC 26/2020, PMC 27/2020 and PMC 38/2020, and that are in Singapore for cargo operations, bunkering and/or other marine services
• The Maritime Port & Authority of Singapore (MPA) will accord priority to all Singapore-flagged vessels, and will all Singapore registered ships to carry out crew change in the Port of Singapore, regardless of their purpose of call, provided they meet all prevailing requirements.