Singapore Expats

Sharing Our Experience

Relocating, travelling or planning to make Singapore home? Discuss the criterias, passes or visa that is required.
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Pendatang_71
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Sharing Our Experience

Post by Pendatang_71 » Tue, 10 May 2011 3:16 pm

Hello everyone.

I have been an avid follower of all your posts since 2008, just before we relocated to Singapore. Your advice and tips, and various shared experiences has made this forum a go-to for any information I had needed, and has helped me tremendously.

We officially moved into Singapore Oct 2008, and proceeded to apply for PR later in the same month (Hubby was on P1 Visa, which allowed us to do this immediately). Application was for the entire family. Our application was approved and we promptly received our PR late December 2008.

Moving forward, we decided to apply for citizenship, again as a family, early this year after having completed a little over 2 years of PR-ship. We were prepared to take this risk, even after knowing full well the government was clamping down on other types of work visas and PR applications. I figured we had nothing to lose, worst case scenario, we'd be out $500 and could reapply sometime in the future.

Some of my friends had told me that their citizenship applications took anywhere from 9 months to a year to process. Imagine our delight and surprise, when we received out In-Principle Approval in April, all of 2 months after our application.

I guess this means the government is still approving applications, likely for those who match their requirements? :)
Last edited by Pendatang_71 on Tue, 10 May 2011 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Tue, 10 May 2011 3:27 pm

I'd be interested to know your ethnicity and country of origin.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Pendatang_71 » Tue, 10 May 2011 3:54 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:I'd be interested to know your ethnicity and country of origin.
SMS, we are Malaysian Chinese.
Hubby had worked in Singapore in the early 90s, also on a P1 visa.

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Tue, 10 May 2011 4:15 pm

Therein lies your answer. Malaysian Chinese with your obvious credentials are a shoe-in here regardless of current policies. Unfortunately, this isn't much help for everybody else out there of other races. I was pretty sure you were either Malaysian or Indonesian Chinese. :wink:

Congratulations at any rate! :cool:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Mad Scientist » Tue, 10 May 2011 5:14 pm

Pendatang_71 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:I'd be interested to know your ethnicity and country of origin.
SMS, we are Malaysian Chinese.
Hubby had worked in Singapore in the early 90s, also on a P1 visa.
Malaysian Chinese and Indonesian Chinese are Immigration Policy set in stone years ago. This is counter balance the race ratio in SG so that the Chinese although having 70% majority, needs that the superiority in numbers to stay in power and the lowest fertility rate among the four races. On top of that it is a foreign policy to counter act the so called "abuse" of Chinese race in Malaysia and Indonesia. Ain't it funny .
Hence your application is already approved even before you know it !!
Anyway congrats but you got it wrong on this one
The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.Yahoo !!!

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Post by Pendatang_71 » Tue, 10 May 2011 5:42 pm

Although that is true, I believe the Gahmen still look to its list to tick a set of requirements before letting the application go through.

An SPR friend who has been here 10 years tried to apply for citizenship 2 weeks ago, was turned away. She was applying for herself and her son, but hubby was not applying.

I was surprised actually.

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Post by Mad Scientist » Tue, 10 May 2011 6:50 pm

Pendatang_71 wrote:Although that is true, I believe the Gahmen still look to its list to tick a set of requirements before letting the application go through.

An SPR friend who has been here 10 years tried to apply for citizenship 2 weeks ago, was turned away. She was applying for herself and her son, but hubby was not applying.

I was surprised actually.
When you cherry pick on your application, you deserve to be rejected. Qualification yes is a must but many M'sia Chinese that does not possess these qualification still manages a PRship. Unlike M'sia Malay even though his or her qualification meets more than what is required , the rejection is faster than the speeding bullet. This is the hard truth.
I had Malay employee from Malaysia, a gem among the rocks, 3 years of trying to get him an EP failed. I tried again with three more Malay Malaysian and still being rejected. I employed a Chinese Malaysian with lower educaton , within a week EP approve. This is the untold truth.
Do not be surprise or pretend that this does not happen as this has been going on since 1970s
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Post by Pendatang_71 » Tue, 10 May 2011 7:02 pm

Pendatang_71 wrote:Although that is true, I believe the Gahmen still look to its list to tick a set of requirements before letting the application go through.

An SPR friend who has been here 10 years tried to apply for citizenship 2 weeks ago, was turned away. She was applying for herself and her son, but hubby was not applying.

I was surprised actually.
She's Chinese btw.

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Tue, 10 May 2011 9:52 pm

Pendatang_71 wrote:
Pendatang_71 wrote:Although that is true, I believe the Gahmen still look to its list to tick a set of requirements before letting the application go through.

An SPR friend who has been here 10 years tried to apply for citizenship 2 weeks ago, was turned away. She was applying for herself and her son, but hubby was not applying.

I was surprised actually.
She's Chinese btw.
Bolded are the key words. If the hubby wasn't applying as well, they have to suspect something isn't quite cricket.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Mad Scientist » Wed, 11 May 2011 5:19 am

I should have given more clarity in what I meant by cherry picking. Although your friend is a Malaysian Chinese but she applied only for herself and son but not hubby. ICA is not that stupid. The Gahmen want those that apply sink their roots here and increase the low fertility rate among the Chinese population which is NOT happening at this moment. Either the food or the weather is not ambience enough for procreation. Capisce?
The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.Yahoo !!!

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Post by antonio_eggb » Thu, 12 May 2011 8:36 am

I have only spent about 30+ days here. I find this thread very interesting. I have always thought racism (some form of it) here is somewhat institutionalized and widely accepted. I am not sure how else to explain/define this behavior. I have also noticed this while renting apartments. This type of behavior will make press headlines back home.

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Thu, 12 May 2011 10:04 am

It took you a whole month to figure it out? :o :lol:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by nakatago » Thu, 12 May 2011 10:16 am

antonio_eggb wrote:I have only spent about 30+ days here. I find this thread very interesting. I have always thought racism (some form of it) here is somewhat institutionalized and widely accepted. I am not sure how else to explain/define this behavior. I have also noticed this while renting apartments. This type of behavior will make press headlines back home.
Yes, there is institutionalized racism (why else would race quotas need to be maintained?). It's really pretty obvious but with a state-influenced media, those headlines you speak of will barely see the light of day.
"A quokka is what would happen if there was an anime about kangaroos."

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Post by Pendatang_71 » Thu, 12 May 2011 10:50 am

I grew up with institutionalized racism.

I had stellar grades compared with some friends, yet they were given government scholarships to complete their 'A' levels in England, when my mother had to scrape and save every penny so I could go to a local college.

It's still on-going and it's not going to change.

I read this yesterday, and thought it was spot on.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/brea ... shaun-tan/

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Post by nakatago » Thu, 12 May 2011 11:03 am

Pendatang_71 wrote:I grew up with institutionalized racism.

I had stellar grades compared with some friends, yet they were given government scholarships to complete their 'A' levels in England, when my mother had to scrape and save every penny so I could go to a local college.

It's still on-going and it's not going to change.

I read this yesterday, and thought it was spot on.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/brea ... shaun-tan/
Well, from what I know Singapore as a sovereign and separate state was born out of Malaysia's growing fear of the then-Malaysian Chinese economic and political power (by leeky as proxy).

So, there.
"A quokka is what would happen if there was an anime about kangaroos."

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