Agents that assist in applying for dependent's pass LTVP etc

[Tamarin]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of, or can recommend, an agent here in Singapore who, for a price, will do all the legwork and paperwork, as well giving the right advice in applying for either a DP or LTVP attached to, or as part of, my own PR status?

Basically I want my GF, who lives and works out of the country to visit as often and for as long as we like, but without all the hassle that that often causes her at immigration. Someone [an agent] who can give me the right advice on what I should be applying for and then actually putting the application through for me, could save me endless unproductive hours on this subject.

Thanks in anticipation

Yours aye

[ecureilx]

Yours aye

depending from which country your GF is from ICA may or may not even consider a DP or LTVP

you can read up the hints as discussed here before

all agents will say otherwise and take your money, after all, they don't guarantee success right?

[Tamarin]

Thanks for your comments ecureilx. I've read most of the posts on this subject and whilst some are helpful, most are ambiguous or contradictory and, as you hint at, it all seems a bit of a lottery. That's why I thought an agent might be able help. The money might be well spent

[Strong Eagle]

You can't "buy" DP's and LTVP's in Singapore like you can in other countries, no matter what agent you go through.

Read the requirements at MOM and ICA. There is nothing ambiguous or contradictory there. Decide if you qualify, and apply if you do. Or apply anyway if you want to waste time.

An agent will do nothing for you. The only scene that I am aware of where a person might qualify for two passes is the EP/S-Pass scenario.

[Strong Eagle]

And specifically: You say, "...my GF, who lives and works out of the country...", which leads me to ask:

a) Why do you think a GF is qualified for any sort of pass when the government websites are exceptionally clear about legally married spouses and common-law spouses?

b) Why do you think the government would grant a residency pass to someone who doesn't even live here?

You're asking for a fairy tale to occur. Every last person from the subcontinent would like something like this to bring their parents in to "visit as often and for as long as we like".

I'll bet all the money you want, even with odds, that this will never happen.

[ecureilx]

Thanks for your comments ecureilx. I've read most of the posts on this subject and whilst some are helpful, most are ambiguous or contradictory and, as you hint at, it all seems a bit of a lottery. That's why I thought an agent might be able help. The money might be well spent

just for information, what's your nationality and your GFs?

btw, how will agents help ?

they don't get a special lane, like in some Asian countries and all they will do is submit your application with the required documents, nothing more, nothing less!!!

[Tamarin]

I'm British - been a PR here for the last 9 years. Worked & lived in Australia for 3 of those years - informed the appropriate authorities - I'm still a PR. My GF is Australian but of Arab descent.
It's a few years back now and rules may have changed, but a friend (now married) managed to get his Thai GF linked somehow to his EP, which imade it easier for her to come and go. He used an agent - cost him s$1k. He's now working in the US, so I thought I'd try this forum for advice.. Shouldn't have bothered - keyboard warriors!

I'll just cancel my membership - you lot should cancel your membership to the human race.

[zzm9980]

I'm British - been a PR here for the last 9 years. Worked & lived in Australia for 3 of those years - informed the appropriate authorities - I'm still a PR. My GF is Australian but of Arab descent.
It's a few years back now and rules may have changed, but a friend (now married) managed to get his Thai GF linked somehow to his EP, which imade it easier for her to come and go. He used an agent - cost him s$1k. He's now working in the US, so I thought I'd try this forum for advice.. Shouldn't have bothered - keyboard warriors!

I'll just cancel my membership - you lot should cancel your membership to the human race.

So you have an anecdote of one guy in which you either A) don't know all of the details or B) he committed immigration fraud with ICA? You come here asking what to do and don't like the answer given. Whether it is keyboard warriors in this thread, or you had run the forum search to find a dozen other threads asking similar questions in the past few years, you'd have received the same answer.

Go ahead and pay an agent to get you a pass for your girlfriend. Let us know when it works. Do you know how many ~9yr PRs from the UK that spent 3yrs in Australia there are in Singapore that are also applying for passes for their ethnic-Arab girlfriends from Australia? I don't either, but I'm sure ICA can find out really quickly. So again, good luck

Btw, you should read this article before discussing fraud (unwittingly or not) on the Internet:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ance_state

[Strong Eagle]

I'm British - been a PR here for the last 9 years. Worked & lived in Australia for 3 of those years - informed the appropriate authorities - I'm still a PR. My GF is Australian but of Arab descent.
It's a few years back now and rules may have changed, but a friend (now married) managed to get his Thai GF linked somehow to his EP, which imade it easier for her to come and go. He used an agent - cost him s$1k. He's now working in the US, so I thought I'd try this forum for advice.. Shouldn't have bothered - keyboard warriors!

I'll just cancel my membership - you lot should cancel your membership to the human race.

Keyboard warriors? On the basis of one unproven anecdotal circumstance, you choose to ignore the vast body of evidence regarding passes and instead, shoot the messenger. Brilliant!

Spend your money, mate! And, good luck.

[sundaymorningstaple]

He'll need it. The luck, that is.

[Tamarin]

PS: I wasn't looking for an agent to buy my way past the rules, jump the queue, get into another lane, try to bend the rules, or commit any form of fraud. I was asking if anyone knew of, or could recommend an agent that could save me all the hassle of finding out what was possible within the rules. The friend I referred to, I believe, simply did the same. I'll write to him and get the full story.

I can't quite understand why asking a simple question on whether anyone could recommend a good agent resulted in the type of replies I received.

My GF comes and goes at the moment on a tourist visa. She never stays more than 30 days anyway, but the more often she does it, the more often she gets questioned. I, on the other hand, go back and forth to Oz with no questions and no probs - so you can see where that's going to lead and where I don't particularly want to go.

Thanks however for putting me squarely in the picture - I was thinking of taking a trip down to Lavender to enquire personally, but that also now seems will be a waste of time.

PPS - I didn't break or bend any rules in working temporarily in Oz for 3 years. As said I informed the ICA before I went, completed my IRS form on-line every year and eventually came back. Tell me where the fraud was and I'll check with immigration so it doesn't come back to bite me on bum one day.

[x9200]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ance_state

An interesting overview but I found it also a bit funny. The author laboriously builds up for a good half of this lengthy paper the tension and the image of the uber-hyper highly sophisticated surveillance/invigilation system to end up with examples of screening the porn from the url addresses and racial remarks from the blogs/chats. Or that to better handle SARS it should had been noticed there were some earlier unexplained lung infections in China.

[zzm9980]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ance_state

An interesting overview but I found it also a bit funny. The author laboriously builds up for a good half of this lengthy paper the tension and the image of the uber-hyper highly sophisticated surveillance/invigilation system to end up with examples of screening the porn from the url addresses and racial remarks from the blogs/chats. Or that to better handle SARS it should had been noticed there were some earlier unexplained lung infections in China.

It's also based on anecdotes from a few years ago. You don't think ICA could be using it to find out details about candidates for various passes, PRs, or Citizenships?

[JR8]

PS: I wasn't looking for an agent to buy my way past the rules, jump the queue, get into another lane, try to bend the rules, or commit any form of fraud. I was asking if anyone knew of, or could recommend an agent that could save me all the hassle of finding out what was possible within the rules. The friend I referred to, I believe, simply did the same. I'll write to him and get the full story.

I can't quite understand why asking a simple question on whether anyone could recommend a good agent resulted in the type of replies I received.

I think the thing here is that the rules and forms are pretty clear. The state's intention is you DIY it, and there's pretty good anecdotal evidence that using an agent is positively held against you. An agent has no 'special knowledge'. In fact I'd vouch no agent understands the rules better, or provides 'advantage' vs the collective knowledge on this forum and using a DIY approach. If I were ICA and I received a visa application from a long-time PR, that came via an agent, I'd be asking what's so complicated, why the agent, what in the application might be being 'burnished' (aka 'polished up')?

Think about it that way. Agents charge a fortune, they can only go on info you give them, and we've seen instances where they've made a right ball's up of the subsequent application. So asking here for recommendations on an agent is rather akin to asking which tree is best to hang yourself from

My GF comes and goes at the moment on a tourist visa. She never stays more than 30 days anyway, but the more often she does it, the more often she gets questioned. I, on the other hand, go back and forth to Oz with no questions and no probs* - so you can see where that's going to lead and where I don't particularly want to go.

I was in the same shoes as your GF, but repeat travelling from London to be with my then GF, now wife, in New York. I was travelling under the Visa Waiver Scheme. After quite some while, maybe 8 months, the occasional question from USCBP turned suddenly into being taken away for '2ndary inspection', which I'd liken to an occasionally polite interrogation. At which point I was allowed in but told 'Get a visa or you're not coming back'. That is what I did, and I look back on it now as the US having a way to vet all my credentials at their leisure, rather than me requiring them to make an on-the-spot decision each time I tuned up at JFK/EWR. That of course requires that you have the credentials to get a visa. And as has been discussed before here, Singapore has no effective 'Multiple entry GF/BF visa'. She's either a tourist, (who in aggregate spend 2.5 days here on an average visit), or she is at the least your de facto spouse.

Thanks however for putting me squarely in the picture - I was thinking of taking a trip down to Lavender to enquire personally, but that also now seems will be a waste of time.

ICA are not going to tell you anything that is not on their website, or application forms. I.e. they're not going to help you make your application more likely to be approved.

Have you tried printing off the application forms and guidance, and boiling down any outstanding concerns?



* You have a multiple entry tourist visa for Australia, and when she visits here she's relying on SVP-visas on arrival?

[ecureilx]

I think the thing here is that the rules and forms are pretty clear. The state's intention is you DIY it, and there's pretty good anecdotal evidence that using an agent is positively held against you. An agent has no 'special knowledge'. In fact I'd vouch no agent understands the rules better, or provides 'advantage' vs the collective knowledge on this forum and using a DIY approach. If I were ICA and I received a visa application from a long-time PR, that came via an agent, I'd be asking what's so complicated, why the agent, what in the application might be being 'burnished' (aka 'polished up')?

that's what I meant and seem to have touched a raw nerve somewhere ...

or OP has lot of money in which case a Google search would have shown those agencies which start off 5k upwards just to fill and submit a form ..