All drone or unmanned aircraft (UA) that are more than 250g of weight will required to be registered before you can legally operate them. This law will take effect from 2 April 2020, as mandated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) in their press release.

If you are thinking that is why the the DJI Mavic Mini was designed to weight exactly 1g below this require at 249g, you’ve guessed right. This is also the main selling point of the Mavic Mini. Many countries like the US, Canada and the UK has the same requirement that requires you to register any drone 250 and above before you are allowed to fly them. DJI Spark is 300g, so you WILL need to register if you have one. I’m currently on a DJI Mavic Pro.

Fortunately, the steps to sign up is pretty straight forward. Here are some requirements:

  • You need to be at least 16 years old at registration. If you are below 16, you need to have the UA be registered by someone eligible, and have obtained their permission to operate it. (this is impt – see next point)
  • All activities involving the UA will be held accountable by the legal registrant of the UA. (So if you 15 year old decided to do something funny with your drone, you will be prosecuted. Not them.)

There are 3 key actions in this UA registration process.




Purchase of Registration Label

First you need to purchase a registration label. It costs S$15.00 per label, and this can be done Online, or physically at selected SingPost branches. NETS or Credit card payment is accepted for Online registration. After successful registration and payment, they will send the labels to you via SingPost Tracked mail within 5 working days.

Mode of Purchase  Documents Required
Online
– A digital copy of NRIC/FIN/Passport.

Over-the-counter
at designated SingPost post offices
– Completed physical copy of the UA Registration Label Purchase Form.
– Original and photocopy of NRIC/FIN/Passport.

There is also a limit to how many registration labels that each individuals can have:

  • Maximum of 5 registration label for Singapore/Permanent Residents
  • Maximum of 1 registration label for non-Singapore or non-PRs (Tourists, EP, S-pass, WP holders etc)

Online registration of drone / UA.

The registration label will come in the mail looking like this.

Registration Label for UA

Attached the label on your drone/UA, snap a photo clearly showing where the label is affixed, and proceed to UA Portal to complete the registration. You can login via this 3 methods:

  • SingPass Account – when registering as an individual;
  • CorpPass Account – when registering on behalf of an organisation;
  • UAPass Account – for a person without a valid SingPass/CorpPass account (e.g. tourists)

NOTE for tourists: Please register early as the UAPass Account take 3-5 working days to be approved!

De-register your drone / UA

The registrant must de-register his/her drone UA via the UA Portal if:

  • The UA is lost or damaged beyond repair;
  • The UA’s registration label is damaged or when information on the label becomes illegible;
  • The UA is sold, or given, to another person.

The registration label is non-transferable, which means if you sell off your drone/gift to your sibling/friends, the new owner of the drone / UA will need to obtain a new registration label and complete the entire process listed above. Otherwise, you will be liable for all activities on the drone!

Happy droning!