Shipping a Motorcycle to Singapore: COE & Licence Guide

A motorcycle that has carried you through years of daily riding at home does not simply follow you onto a container ship and reappear registered in Singapore. Shipping a motorcycle to Singapore involves a Certificate of Entitlement bid in a category most new residents have never heard of, a Land Transport Authority registration process built for used vehicles under three years old, and a separate licence conversion track for anything bigger than a 200cc runabout. Skip any one of these steps and the bike sits in a warehouse while the paperwork catches up.

This guide is written for Employment Pass, S Pass and Dependant’s Pass holders who already own a motorcycle overseas and want to bring it into Singapore rather than sell it before the move. It does not cover buying a new motorcycle locally, and it is not a substitute for the car-import guidance most relocation checklists default to: cars and motorcycles sit in different Certificate of Entitlement categories, carry different excise duty rates, and follow different licence conversion rules.

As at 22 September 2026, the numbers below are the latest published by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore Customs and the Singapore Police Force (SPF). COE premiums move every bidding exercise, so treat the figures as a reference point for budgeting rather than a quote.

Why a Motorcycle Import Is Not a Smaller Version of a Car Import

New residents who have already read up on importing a car to Singapore often assume the motorcycle process is the same routine scaled down. It is not. Cars sit in COE Categories A, B or E depending on engine capacity and power output; motorcycles have their own category, Category D, with its own quota, its own bidding pool and historically much lower absolute premiums than a car, even though those premiums have been climbing through 2026. The excise duty rate is different too: 12% of Open Market Value (OMV) for a motorcycle against 20% for a car, under LTA’s vehicle import rules as at 2 September 2026.

The other point of divergence is the licence. A car import only ever needs a Class 3 or 3C conversion. A motorcycle import can require Class 2B, 2A or Class 2 depending on engine capacity, and the documentary burden rises sharply once you cross into the bigger-bike categories, as set out later in this guide.

COE Category D: The Certificate You Need Before Shipping a Motorcycle to Singapore

Every vehicle registered in Singapore, motorcycle or car, needs a Certificate of Entitlement before it can legally use the roads. Under LTA’s Vehicle Quota System, motorcycles fall into Category D. A successful COE bid gives you the right to register and use the vehicle for ten years, after which you can deregister it or renew the COE by paying the Prevailing Quota Premium.

Bidding Process and Current Premiums

COE open bidding exercises are held twice a month, usually starting at 12pm on the first and third Monday and closing three working days later, at 4pm on the Wednesday, unless a public holiday shifts the schedule. Individuals can submit one bid per exercise, using a DBS/POSB ATM linked to their own bank account, foreign identification number (FIN) and name matching the bidder’s NRIC or FIN card exactly.

Category D premiums have climbed through the second half of 2026. In the first bidding exercise of September 2026, closed on 9 September, Category D rose 11.11% to SGD 12,556, on 657 bids for 514 available COEs, the sharpest percentage jump of any category that exercise. Premiums have stayed above SGD 10,000 since the first exercise in July 2026, a level once considered unusually high for motorcycles. Budget for the certificate on top of the bike’s value, freight and duty; it is routinely the single largest line item in the whole exercise.

The Three-Year Age Limit on Used Motorcycles

LTA permits the import of a brand new motorcycle from the manufacturer, or from a country whose safety and exhaust emission standards meet or exceed Singapore’s, and separately permits the import of a used motorcycle that is less than three years old, plus classic and vintage motorcycles under their own dedicated schemes. If the motorcycle you are shipping is more than three years old and does not qualify as classic or vintage, it cannot be registered in Singapore under the standard route, and shipping it anyway means paying freight both ways with nothing to show for it. Check the manufacture date on your registration document before you book a shipping slot, not after.

LTA Registration: Duties, GST and the Paperwork Trail

Excise Duty and GST on Import

Importing and registering a motorcycle or scooter attracts excise duty of 12% of the Open Market Value, payable to Singapore Customs, on top of the 9% GST charged on the total cost of importing the vehicle, which includes the cost of the motorcycle itself plus freight and insurance. LTA’s own worked example illustrates the maths: a motorcycle costing SGD 19,000, with SGD 100 of freight, handling and insurance, gives an OMV of SGD 19,100 and an excise duty bill of SGD 2,292. Add GST on top of that, then the COE premium, then the Additional Registration Fee, and the shipped-in bike can end up costing more in Singapore duties and levies than it did to buy new at home.

It is worth being clear about one common misconception: household goods GST relief does not extend to vehicles. Singapore Customs excludes motor vehicles, along with liquor, tobacco, aircraft, boats and commercial goods, from the GST relief available to genuine relocations, a rule confirmed on the Customs website as at 26 February 2026. If you have already read the site’s guide to GST import relief for household goods, treat your motorcycle as a separate, fully dutiable import, not an item on the same relief application as your furniture and personal effects.

Registration and Inspection Steps

Once the COE is secured and duties are paid, LTA’s importation guide for motorcycles sets out the technical conformity requirements the bike must pass before registration, including a roadworthiness inspection. Most new residents use a licensed motor dealer or vehicle importer to handle the customs declaration, duty payment and inspection booking, since the paperwork trail (bill of lading, manufacturer’s specifications, prior registration documents, insurance) needs assembling in the right sequence before LTA will schedule an inspection slot. Building in four to eight weeks between the motorcycle’s arrival and the day it is legally on the road is a realistic planning assumption, on top of shipping transit time.

Converting Your Motorcycle Licence in Singapore

A COE and a registered motorcycle are worthless without a licence that permits you to ride it. The Singapore Police Force’s Traffic Police division runs a separate conversion process for motorcycle licences, distinct in its documentary demands from the car conversion most new residents research first, including the site’s own guide to Singapore driving licence conversion for foreigners.

Class 2B, 2A and Class 2: Matching Your Home Licence to a Singapore Class

Singapore’s motorcycle licence classes, as updated on the SPF website as at 15 June 2026, are defined by engine capacity and, for electric motorcycles, power output:

Class	Motorcycle Type
Class 2B	Motorcycles not exceeding 200cc; electric motorcycles not exceeding 15kW
Class 2A	Motorcycles between 201cc and 400cc; electric motorcycles between 15.1kW and 25kW
Class 2	Motorcycles exceeding 400cc; electric motorcycles exceeding 25kW

For any foreign licence holder who has been resident in Singapore for less than 12 months, no conversion is needed at all, other than for new citizens and permanent residents, who are given up to three months to convert after their status changes. Everyone else converting a Class 2B-equivalent licence needs to pass the Basic Theory Test (BTT) in Singapore and hold a valid foreign driving licence; there is no practical riding test required for the smallest class.

Documentary Proof for Bigger-Capacity Machines

The step up to Class 2A or Class 2 is where motorcycle licence conversion in Singapore becomes noticeably more paperwork-heavy than converting a car licence. On top of standard identification, a passport-size photograph and proof of at least one year’s residency in the country that issued your foreign licence (with a minimum six months of physical presence there), Traffic Police requires documentary proof from the foreign licensing authority confirming you were trained and tested on a motorcycle of the higher capacity class, signed and endorsed by that authority. A generic full motorcycle licence, without a supporting letter naming the capacity you tested on, will not clear the Class 2A or Class 2 threshold; riders who only rode a small-capacity bike at home should expect to be limited to Class 2B in Singapore regardless of what their home licence permits. Malaysian applicants additionally need a breakdown letter from the Road Transport Department Malaysia (JPJ), and any foreign licence not in English needs an official translation from a Singapore-registered translation company. The site’s guide to driving licence conversion documents and templates covers the general document list; treat the motorcycle-specific endorsement letter as an addition, not a replacement.

Sequencing It All: A Practical Timeline for New Residents

Shipping a motorcycle to Singapore works best run as three parallel tracks rather than one straight line. Start the COE bid as early as possible once you know your target bidding exercise, since a failed bid simply rolls into the next exercise two weeks later and can stall the whole import. In parallel, book the shipping slot and gather the vehicle’s registration and manufacture-date documents to confirm it clears the three-year age limit, and book a Basic Theory Test slot the moment you are eligible, since BTT slots at Traffic Police-approved centres can run two to three weeks out. If you are also arranging household goods by sea freight, keep the motorcycle shipment on its own bill of lading; mixing it into a household consignment complicates the GST relief declaration for the rest of your effects, since the motorcycle itself does not qualify for that relief in any case.

Practical sequencing also depends on the rest of your settling-in list. Most new residents sort out an EP or S Pass bank account and their FIN card before the COE bid, since the bid is tied to your bidder ID and bank account details, which are not easily corrected mid-bid. If your move also involves setting up a business or a broader asset relocation, it is worth reading a wider pathway comparison, such as Raffles Corporate Services’ guide to moving to Singapore, before locking in your shipping and registration schedule.

Common Mistakes That Delay a Motorcycle Import

The most frequent error is shipping a motorcycle older than three years without checking the age limit first; the second is assuming a full motorcycle licence from home converts automatically to Class 2 without the training-and-testing endorsement letter. A third, subtler mistake is underestimating the COE premium: with Category D above SGD 10,000 through most of the second half of 2026, riders who budgeted on older figures are routinely caught short. Get a written landed-cost estimate, including excise duty, GST, COE and registration fees, before committing to the shipment.

Shipping a motorcycle to Singapore is achievable for a new resident, but it rewards early planning across three separate government processes rather than a single form. Get the COE bid, the LTA registration paperwork and the Traffic Police licence conversion moving in parallel, verify your machine’s age and capacity against the thresholds above, and budget for duties that motor vehicles alone are not exempt from.

For help sequencing your relocation to Singapore, including work pass matters that affect your settling-in timeline, speak to Singapore Employment Agency. If your move also involves company incorporation, corporate secretarial support or broader asset structuring, Raffles Corporate Services can advise on the corporate side of the relocation.

– The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency