E-visa

[123752371]

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[ecureilx]

Hi everyone!

I recently applied for e-visa for my boyfriend who wants to come and visit me in Singapore. But his application got rejected. I would much appreciate if you can give me comments and suggestions on what I should do next.

My boyfriend with Ukrainian passport wants to visit Singapore as a tourist next month for about 2 weeks. I am a PR holder but I asked my Singaporean friend to help me apply online as a local contact, hoping that it would be a better chance for him to get approval. She applied on Friday, we got the rejection on Monday.

He has a valid passport, no criminal record and first time to Singapore. I honestly don't know what the problem was in the application. Is it because his nationality? Is it because he is a student? Is it because the address in Singapore is different from the Singaporean friend's address?

I called ICA and they said the application is processed case by case so I can come down to ICA building for appeal with necessary documents. But my Singaporean friend who applied is working during office hours and it's Chinese New Year this weekend so it's not possible to go to the office. They said I can appeal through email as well but I don't know if there is any chance. Or should I try applying again with my own SingPass?

It's very frustrating as he already bought his flight ticket and we were making plans to visit in Singapore. So please leave comments and suggestions. Thank you for taking your time.

Re apply again.

For SAVE visa, there is no appeal, from what I know.

Mention your relationship to applicant

[x9200]

Hi everyone!

I recently applied for e-visa for my boyfriend who wants to come and visit me in Singapore. But his application got rejected. I would much appreciate if you can give me comments and suggestions on what I should do next.

My boyfriend with Ukrainian passport wants to visit Singapore as a tourist next month for about 2 weeks. I am a PR holder but I asked my Singaporean friend to help me apply online as a local contact, hoping that it would be a better chance for him to get approval. She applied on Friday, we got the rejection on Monday.

He has a valid passport, no criminal record and first time to Singapore. I honestly don't know what the problem was in the application. Is it because his nationality? Is it because he is a student? Is it because the address in Singapore is different from the Singaporean friend's address?

I called ICA and they said the application is processed case by case so I can come down to ICA building for appeal with necessary documents. But my Singaporean friend who applied is working during office hours and it's Chinese New Year this weekend so it's not possible to go to the office. The operator said I can appeal through email with the documents attached but I don't know if there is any chance. Or should I try applying again with my own SingPass?

It's very frustrating as he already bought his flight ticket and we were making plans to visit in Singapore. So please leave comments and suggestions. Thank you for taking your time.

I think the other poster may have a valid point. Are you anyhow mentioned in this application? I mean, somebody just applied for you BF and neither this person is in any clear relation to him nor you to this person. If this is the case, I would just provide a letter explaining the whole situation.

[ecureilx]

I think the other poster may have a valid point. Are you anyhow mentioned in this application? I mean, somebody just applied for you BF and neither this person is in any clear relation to him nor you to this person. If this is the case, I would just provide a letter explaining the whole situation.

anybody can apply for visa for anybody, but there's A section to fill in for local contact - where it's good to fill in the applicants local contact - the person the applicant will stay with ... (not the one submitting the visa... ) or the person the applicant is visiting ... with the local contact address!

I suspect something there didn't tally and ICA rejected the visa.

And another reason for rejection from what I know is - applying very close to the planned date of arrival.

Anyway, from what I know, again, the only recourse is to pay 30$, apply again, and in the comments box, mention the previous application was submitted incomplete. And hope for the best.

PS,how will a Singaporean applying have better chance. Than a PR applying for her (or his ???) boyfriend? My experience says latter has high chance of success as person submitting is same as person the visitor is being sponsored- plus the one submitting knows what was submitted. When you ask a third party to submit, you don't know what mistakes they made, and rejection emails never give explanations. The rejection maybe due to any simple mistake.

[x9200]

I think it is not neutral to ICA what are the relations. This is about a sponsorship so for the person who applies it means responsibility, and potentially pretty significant. That's why I think ICA would like to know, what is the reason an individual is willing to undertake such responsibility. In an extreme situation a sponsor can be bribed to file the application and I am pretty sure, this is what ICA would like to avoid.

[singaporeflyer]

One year ago, I submitted the SVP application online. I had made a mistake when filling in the application and the application was rejected. Went down personally to ICA and took the token to meet the officer, who explained on what was the issue. Fixed it and reapplied with a new application and was approved within a day.

[yesitsme]

Agree with above. For cases where Visit visa is rejected, just changing the sponsor on application might not help. It is best if you could get a token at ICA and talk to the officer.

I had such experience last year where I had a large group of family friends visiting Singapore. I had sponsored more than 10 applications in that year and the 11th one was rejected!! When I spoke to the officer they wanted to check that I was someone genuinely sponsoring visitors and not abusing the system. Eventually the visa was approved.

[ecureilx]

I think it is not neutral to ICA what are the relations. This is about a sponsorship so for the person who applies it means responsibility, and potentially pretty significant. That's why I think ICA would like to know, what is the reason an individual is willing to undertake such responsibility. In an extreme situation a sponsor can be bribed to file the application and I am pretty sure, this is what ICA would like to avoid.

beg to differ a bit.

X9200, for e visa, ICA just needs a PR or SC to apply, and it need not be a 'sponsor' per se.

Though if a closely connected person applies, I felt the secondary scrutiny clears easily.

By your logic, almost two dozen visa I applied for colleagues brother / sister / fiance all should not have passed muster. And they all could also apply via travel agency...

As I said, I know. For the times it failed was when passport names had error or close to the Travel date.

Take note that only few countries require to obtain visa in advance. Maybe only some country passport holders get scrutinized more closely.

[ecureilx]

One year ago, I submitted the SVP application online. I had made a mistake when filling in the application and the application was rejected. Went down personally to ICA and took the token to meet the officer, who explained on what was the issue. Fixed it and reapplied with a new application and was approved within a day.

But had to pay 30$ and reapply again right ?

[singaporeflyer]

But had to pay 30$ and reapply again right ?

Yes, because the mistake in the application is made by me

[123752371]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the comments and advices.

After his visa application got rejected and wrote the original post, I decided to go down to the office with my local friend who helped me apply for an appeal. We brought necessary documents along.

We didn't explain to them the relationship between me, the local contact and him. (Just to remind you again that my local friend helped me apply for my boyfriend's visa. I could have applied as I am PR but just thought the possibility of getting approved might be higher if it's done by a Singaporean citizen.) Also, on the application form the address where he will be staying was different from the local contact's address because he was planning on staying at my place and not hers.

We just handed in the documents and the officer just told us we will hear the result within 2 weeks. No question about the relationship between 3 of us and the difference in address. Literally just spent 3 minutes in the office.

It's been 13 days and just got the results. He got approved for 9 weeks multiple journey!

So I think it is better to appeal before reapplying. As mentioned, if you reapply again you have to pay SGD$30. Also, when I called ICA they told me that they have record of all the applications so they will still know that the applicant got rejected before.

Hope this helps to those who are in similar situations.
Best of luck!
Thank you all.

[ecureilx]

So I think it is better to appeal before reapplying. As mentioned, if you reapply again you have to pay SGD$30.

in cases where there were errors, a submission with a note explaining the previous error saw the approval in 2days, not 13 days.

In any case, next time, try to apply yourself than hedging on the notion that a Singaporean submitting has better chance.

As I told, the approvals are not influenced by the person submitting. And if you apply, you will cause less concern.

[123752371]

So I think it is better to appeal before reapplying. As mentioned, if you reapply again you have to pay SGD$30.

in cases where there were errors, a submission with a note explaining the previous error saw the approval in 2days, not 13 days.

In any case, next time, try to apply yourself than hedging on the notion that a Singaporean submitting has better chance.

As I told, the approvals are not influenced by the person submitting. And if you apply, you will cause less concern.

I wasn't talking about making errors. I just meant the appeal took 13 days with the same exact information provided as the original one.

As for who should apply, it's really difficult to say. Of course if I applied myself it's more convinient but can you really say there is no difference in applications done by citizen and PR? I think it's likely that there are differences but again I'm not not sure.

Hope the information help those in need

[ecureilx]

As for who should apply, it's really difficult to say. Of course if I applied myself it's more convinient but can you really say there is no difference in applications done by citizen and PR? I think it's likely that there are differences but again I'm not not sure.

Hope the information help those in need

from applying visas for past 10 years - just my opinion only - unrelated SC applying vs Related PR - The former may raise questions about relationship, without going into details. Latter, less likely ... and smoother sailing.