The centre would “adjust the process for emergency visa applications, so that applicants won’t have to queue in the scorching heat”, she said. It would move visa appointment bookings online, increase the number of daily appointments and waive any extra fees, she added.

Still, it has not stopped many from braving the heat and setting up camp outside the centre. Some wanted to reunite with their families after three years, while others were keen to resume in-person business meetings.

However, a number of them were not aware of the changes to emergency visa applications, which are open to those needing to travel to China for reasons such as visiting critically ill family members or conducting urgent business activities.

When This Week in Asia visited at about 6am on Monday, there were more than four dozen people in the queue.

Singaporean Tan Swee Gek, 68, said she and her husband had tickets to Guangzhou for a three-day trip, but could not get a visa appointment booking online.

“We are going there to attend a relative’s wedding dinner on June 1. We’ve been trying to book an appointment but we weren’t able to,” she said, adding that they had joined the queue in the wee hours of the morning.

Another Singaporean, who declined to be named over fears it would ruin his chances of securing a visa for a family trip at the end of the month, said it was his second time queuing for an appointment despite attempts the previous day to book a slot online.

“I booked my tickets almost four months ago … This is unthinkable and it should not persist,” he said.

When centre employees and police officers arrived to disperse the crowd at about 8.30am, tensions escalated, with some yelling that they needed to get to China urgently and demanding an explanation from employees.

“I think they underestimated how often people from Singapore travel to China,” said an American woman, who was waiting in line to secure a visa for a work trip in a fortnight. “The China-Singapore relationship is … a good one, so I’m quite shocked that this is actually happening.”

Likening the revised online queuing system to a “lottery”, one Singaporean man said a centre employee told him he would have to cancel his original appointment – which was after the date of his scheduled work trip to China in June – to fix a new one under the revised system.

“We’re going to try our luck … But the chances are so low. There are [probably about] 4,000 people trying to get a spot as well,” said the man, who joined the queue at 3am. “It’s a work day and I still had to come down to queue. This is going to [affect] a lot of business ties between Singapore and China.”

Singapore expects billions more tourism dollars with China boost

Travel agencies have also seen a recent spike in the number of visa inquiries. Monica Tan, who oversees visa applications for China at Golden Travel Services, said the firm had since April received more than 20 calls daily about the issue.

Some have also questioned why the resumption of the 15-day visa-free facility had stalled.

Leslie Fong, a former editor of national broadsheet The Straits Times, wrote on Facebook: “I am pretty sure our government is working hard to have visa-free entry to China reinstated for our citizens. I do not know for a fact but won’t be surprised if the Chinese government would ask, in return, for reciprocal treatment.

“Why the change in the Chinese treatment of Singaporeans?”

In response to media queries, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Singapore said the visa issue was a “key” topic of interest for leaders of both countries and a “top priority” for the embassy.

Both countries had been searching for solutions, he said, which would be announced when they were ready to be rolled out.

Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing first began allowing Singaporeans to visit the mainland without a visa for up to 15 days on July 1, 2003. The scheme was briefly suspended from late 2008 to early 2009 as part of enhanced security measures for the Beijing Olympics.

The Singapore passport was second only to the Japanese passport in the 2023 Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can visit visa-free or with electronic travel authorisation.