NEW STP APPLICATION

[cr7]

Hi,

I am from Greece.
I got accepted to NTU for a Phd on full scholarship for August 2015 entry.

I did my masters in London for 2 years 2012-2014..
I have a small credit card debt from my bank in London in the order of a few hundred pounds(500) that's all which is pending since 6 months. It was 1000 pounds but i have paid half of it. credit card is still valid till the end of this year.

Will this have any bearing on my Singapore student pass application in terms of rejection /acceptance?

I would be very grateful for a reply.

Thanks

[JR8]

Hi,I am from Greece.
I got accepted to NTU for a Phd on full scholarship for August 2015 entry.
I did my masters in London for 2 years 2012-2014..
I have a small credit card debt from my bank in London in the order of a few hundred pounds(500) that's all which is pending since 6 months. It was 1000 pounds but i have paid half of it. credit card is still valid till the end of this year.
Will this have any bearing on my Singapore student pass application in terms of rejection /acceptance?
I would be very grateful for a reply.
Thanks

Yassas cr7
No, IMHO I wouldn't worry. I think it's recognised that a lot of students (esp. these days), when they graduate they will have debt.
And (again) IMHO £500 on a credit card is peanuts. What's the minimum repayment on that, about £8-10 a month? About the price of one beer in a pub here.

Have you lodged the pass application yet? If not why not get the faculty to e-mail you a copy of the application form? Then you can see what they ask for on the form, and make sure you have all you dox in order and 'ready to go'.

[cr7]

hey JR8,

Thanks for the reply mate.

I was a bit nervous that's all.

In the form as i have seen its the basic info: like name , nationality, passport details .
Only one place i have a hitch where it says "state any country where u have lived for more than a year in the past 5 yrs with address"

Now this got me thinking why the hell do they need that ? Do they wanna do a background check from that country ?

would appreciate ur thoughts on this mate .

[JR8]

A few nerves are normal and probably a positive, it readies you to get everything in order. Better than being complacent, turning up here and having to get copy documents from back home, or elsewhere which can take for ever...
I'm on an LTVP. On that form they want to see a)income, and b)assets. That's so they can gauge that a) you can support yourself and won't be a burden on the state, and b) well the cynic might suggest that's so if you break the law, the state will know what to target.
I actually think it's a bigger picture. It's about profiling you. SG-ICA punch the data into the computer, and it says yes or no.
Now if you've spent the last few years in say Syria, with no declarable income, maybe you can see their point
As far as I know background checks (as you suggest) with that 'granularity', bank accounts etc., can't be made cross-border. I.e. I don't think they can 'credit check' you. Here (I believe), they're limited to something like an INTERPOL level check. But they'll take what you've declared on the forms, and simply consider whether 'it all adds up'.
I know those forms are very intimidating, esp. when you are from the EU, as we have pretty open borders and there is nothing like that in the EU.
Here, consider it like the Switzerland of Asia. There are lots of people that really want to move here, most good, but some less so; so the state need to profile everyone.

--- On the LTVP form, I forget precisely if they wanted addresses for the past 5 or 10 years, but I ended up listing about 5 addresses in 3-4 countries. It's pretty normal here for foreigners to move around quite frequently, so no big deal.

[cr7]

A few nerves are normal and probably a positive, it readies you to get everything in order. Better than being complacent, turning up here and having to get copy documents from back home, or elsewhere which can take for ever...
I'm on an LTVP. On that form they want to see a)income, and b)assets. That's so they can gauge that a) you can support yourself and won't be a burden on the state, and b) well the cynic might suggest that's so if you break the law, the state will know what to target.
I actually think it's a bigger picture. It's about profiling you. SG-ICA punch the data into the computer, and it says yes or no.
Now if you've spent the last few years in say Syria, with no declarable income, maybe you can see their point
As far as I know background checks (as you suggest) with that 'granularity', bank accounts etc., can't be made cross-border. I.e. I don't think they can 'credit check' you. Here (I believe), they're limited to something like an INTERPOL level check. But they'll take what you've declared on the forms, and simply consider whether 'it all adds up'.
I know those forms are very intimidating, esp. when you are from the EU, as we have pretty open borders and there is nothing like that in the EU.
Here, consider it like the Switzerland of Asia. There are lots of people that really want to move here, most good, but some less so; so the state need to profile everyone.

--- On the LTVP form, I forget precisely if they wanted addresses for the past 5 or 10 years, but I ended up listing about 5 addresses in 3-4 countries. It's pretty normal here for foreigners to move around quite frequently, so no big deal.

Hi JR8......thanks for the reply , appreciate it. I had a small query about your LTVP....When u had listed these countries and addresses where u had lived in the past 5-10 yrs...did the ICA ask for any sort of Police clearance to be submitted form your end from each of these countries ?

Would greatly appreciate a reply.
Thanks

[JR8]

Hi JR8......thanks for the reply , appreciate it. I had a small query about your LTVP....When u had listed these countries and addresses where u had lived in the past 5-10 yrs...did the ICA ask for any sort of Police clearance to be submitted form your end from each of these countries ?

Not in my experience.
In fact the only time I've ever been asked for such a thing was when applying for a US visa, from the US Embassy in London.
For the record: In the UK it goes by the rather curious name of a 'Subject Access Notice'. To get a copy of one, you had to go to your local UK police station and prove your id. I.e. there would have been no possibility of getting one if I had have been living abroad.
Which leads to a broader question, how widely available are such things if you don't live in the associated country? This might be why (IME) they don't ask routinely ask for them here, they are difficult if not impossible to get hold of.

[cr7]

Hi JR8......thanks for the reply , appreciate it. I had a small query about your LTVP....When u had listed these countries and addresses where u had lived in the past 5-10 yrs...did the ICA ask for any sort of Police clearance to be submitted form your end from each of these countries ?

Not in my experience.
In fact the only time I've ever been asked for such a thing was when applying for a US visa, from the US Embassy in London.
For the record: In the UK it goes by the rather curious name of a 'Subject Access Notice'. To get a copy of one, you had to go to your local UK police station and prove your id. I.e. there would have been no possibility of getting one if I had have been living abroad.
Which leads to a broader question, how widely available are such things if you don't live in the associated country? This might be why (IME) they don't ask routinely ask for them here, they are difficult if not impossible to get hold of.

Thanks JR8 for the quick reply. I felt the same way. Although I wasn't asked this for my US visa and the UK visa too.
I was worried about all this as i am a bit paranoid about the ICA doing a background search from the countries whre I have resided in the past 5 years and this unpaid credit debt becoming an issue for the singapore student pass application. Although I have spoken to the bank and they have allowed me to pay the due in August once my stipend at NTU starts . But prior to that I have this student pass application and was a bit worried if ICA takes a note of the credit card debt thing........In your opinion the credit card debt is a civil matter right ? and cannot be construed as a criminal matter..... Also it's a very small matter for the INTERPOL and all such authorities to get involved....

U see how paranoid I am getting since a month just because of this shitty credit debt thing......I hope therez no issue with the STP application ....

[JR8]

Your credit card balance doesn't appear on your police record [!?] Neither is it a civil offence, after all what law has been broken? Having a credit card balance is simply a personal debt.

I understand if/when ICA run an international police record scan on someone it's more at say the level of Interpol. To suggest that Interpol might have an interest in your credit card balance is wildly preposterous.

I'm now convinced this whole question is simply a wind-up, as the bounds of reality get pushed further out with each reply. ...

[cr7]

ya I do agree....Thanks