I want to stay in Singapore with my family!! :(

[tofumilk]

my friend is a south korean as well.

Aiyoh.. What is she doing now?? I'm assuming she graduated from uni here?

Nope, after her denial of entry. She went back to Seoul to get her degree and work. Never see her for a few years already.

Pretty girl though ^^

Oh right, so after she graduated from JC/Poly, she was planning to work here in Sg but got denied entry when she tried to come back? I see... That's tragic i guess my only option is to stay low and away from SG for a few months before school... I'm going to miss my family and friends.

[sundaymorningstaple]

If you must know, I've had a good educational background here in Singapore, as most of the people here would like to call it as "elite schools" and I am retaking one subject for a levels because the course I want to try for is Law at Yale-nus and I didnt get straight As which was my goal. My family was adamant I do my a levels again because it has been my passion for a very long period of time and it seemed natural to try again in the country I spent most of my schooling days. Given my background as someone who studied in New Zealand and Canada before coming here, I always had a lot of responsibility as the eldest to "look after" my family as only I could speak fluent English back then. Which is why I am enquiring all these visa issues instead of running up to my parents to resolve things for me. I guess my take on trying to be friendly came across as being "playful".

YES, it is MY bad for not scrutinizing every detail of my gap year but how put together was anyone's life at the age of 20-21? But anyways, I had no idea I could apply for LTVP together with my mom. As far as I know, my sister's school (an int school) only gives out LTVP for parents/guardians.

The above quote of yours is decidedly different that this quote made at the beginning. If you read both objectively from a 3rd party point of view. What would you take be?

But due my unsatisfactory A level grades, I decided to re-take one of my H1 papers near end of Nov and 2 SAT exams here, which means this year will be my gap year. (i was hesitant on taking up a gap year but all the travelling ideas and my friends who would be joining me on this made me feel a lot better)

Remember, all we have is the written word of the OP (original poster) for us to go by. The way you write has to give enough information to set the scenario as accurately as possible. The written word has to be a accurate as possible otherwise the reader may be thrown off, as it seems all of us were. My apologies if it seems like we are coming down on you, we are not. We are trying to get an accurate picture and where any possibilities might lie. Without enough facts, what to do?

[Lostsoul]

OP - have to say that you can make plenty of youthful excuses on "how put together is anyone's life at 20-21" - ultimately this is ICA we are talking about and ICA's operations are governed by a bunch of hidden systems and templates and criteria - there is little to no room for compassion.

Most of the posters are giving you rational and sound advice - if you feel these people are "mean" or "nasty" to you - the other web forums have it far worse.

[tofumilk]

OP - have to say that you can make plenty of youthful excuses on "how put together is anyone's life at 20-21" - ultimately this is ICA we are talking about and ICA's operations are governed by a bunch of hidden systems and templates and criteria - there is little to no room for compassion.

Most of the posters are giving you rational and sound advice - if you feel these people are "mean" or "nasty" to you - the other web forums have it far worse.

Sound advice, don't include questioning my Korean mother's ability to speak English
Also I believe I have responded politely and adequately to those who did give me good advice.

[tofumilk]

If you must know, I've had a good educational background here in Singapore, as most of the people here would like to call it as "elite schools" and I am retaking one subject for a levels because the course I want to try for is Law at Yale-nus and I didnt get straight As which was my goal. My family was adamant I do my a levels again because it has been my passion for a very long period of time and it seemed natural to try again in the country I spent most of my schooling days. Given my background as someone who studied in New Zealand and Canada before coming here, I always had a lot of responsibility as the eldest to "look after" my family as only I could speak fluent English back then. Which is why I am enquiring all these visa issues instead of running up to my parents to resolve things for me. I guess my take on trying to be friendly came across as being "playful".

YES, it is MY bad for not scrutinizing every detail of my gap year but how put together was anyone's life at the age of 20-21? But anyways, I had no idea I could apply for LTVP together with my mom. As far as I know, my sister's school (an int school) only gives out LTVP for parents/guardians.

The above quote of yours is decidedly different that this quote made at the beginning. If you read both objectively from a 3rd party point of view. What would you take be?

But due my unsatisfactory A level grades, I decided to re-take one of my H1 papers near end of Nov and 2 SAT exams here, which means this year will be my gap year. (i was hesitant on taking up a gap year but all the travelling ideas and my friends who would be joining me on this made me feel a lot better)

Remember, all we have is the written word of the OP (original poster) for us to go by. The way you write has to give enough information to set the scenario as accurately as possible. The written word has to be a accurate as possible otherwise the reader may be thrown off, as it seems all of us were. My apologies if it seems like we are coming down on you, we are not. We are trying to get an accurate picture and where any possibilities might lie. Without enough facts, what to do?

Sir, you decided to make very haste and precarious conclusions about my background and academia (Which I feel is totally irrelevant to my entire issue with the visit pass). And so, I decided to clarify YOUR doubts and judgements about why I had to take a gap year. I didn't think an entire background story would be necessary but here we go: To some people, passing might be a goal but to me, a few As were unsatisfying because I had certain expectations of myself. I was very disappointed from my A level results and I took some time to recover from that. Traveling part comes in here, I had to get out of depression so I took some time off from Singapore (my student pass was still valid until 20th april this year) to get over it and it has helped me. I am intending to travel more after my papers are over and it includes volunteering so my CV looks better. I hope now this clarifies the whole "youthful excuses" part.


Sigh... First, I was asking about my visit pass problems, and now it is going towards the direction of validating my value and explaining my situations to avoid anymore judgments because it has been questioned by some people here. I'm sorry if my initial post sounded some reckless pre-adult but that is not what I intended and the truth is I am very worried about my situation here. Thanks for all these advices, I will consult my parents and probably stay away from Singapore until school starts.

[Lostsoul]

OP - have to say that you can make plenty of youthful excuses on "how put together is anyone's life at 20-21" - ultimately this is ICA we are talking about and ICA's operations are governed by a bunch of hidden systems and templates and criteria - there is little to no room for compassion.

Most of the posters are giving you rational and sound advice - if you feel these people are "mean" or "nasty" to you - the other web forums have it far worse.

Sound advices, don't include questioning my Korean mother's ability to speak English
Also I believe I have responded politely and adequately to those who did give me good advices.

As sound as a web forum can be. As much as this is information for you, it could be entertainment for others.

It is a web forum after all yep.

[ecureilx]

Squirrel, I managed to overlook that part of the original message. But the fact that she is now 21 kind of makes the fact that the mother's LTVP will still be secured by the younger sibling rather redundant as now the only way she can get a student visa is as a full time qualified tertiary institution as she is too old to qualify as a dependent any longer. In the interim, as noted, by all, she in in jeopardy doing visa runs especially after 183 on SVPs, as we all know, gets pretty sticky. Not like it was back in the '80's & '90's.

I do think you were pretty rough on her regarding her mother's lack of English, though. I've been here 35 years (25 of them as a PR) and still do not speak any language other than English and enough Bahasa to get something to eat, drink & get laid.

FYI, I did manage to extend my stay, eons ago, to nearly 11 month on SVP, that was a century ago

No such luck now

As for language, well, i did apologise, as I got confused with the poster's initial post saying mother cant' speak english so daughter has to find a way. Which did get me miffed as made me wonder how she managed to stay in Singapore....

And I dont see why everyone needs to keep making personal comments about my choices or even my mother's inability to speak English. They sound like personal attacks which I do not understand why I'm getting them.

Re: mother, Me thinks you should take it easy, and chill, as I did apologise, didn't I ??

[tofumilk]

Squirrel, I managed to overlook that part of the original message. But the fact that she is now 21 kind of makes the fact that the mother's LTVP will still be secured by the younger sibling rather redundant as now the only way she can get a student visa is as a full time qualified tertiary institution as she is too old to qualify as a dependent any longer. In the interim, as noted, by all, she in in jeopardy doing visa runs especially after 183 on SVPs, as we all know, gets pretty sticky. Not like it was back in the '80's & '90's.

I do think you were pretty rough on her regarding her mother's lack of English, though. I've been here 35 years (25 of them as a PR) and still do not speak any language other than English and enough Bahasa to get something to eat, drink & get laid.

FYI, I did manage to extend my stay, eons ago, to nearly 11 month on SVP, that was a century ago

No such luck now

As for language, well, i did apologise, as I got confused with the poster's initial post saying mother cant' speak english so daughter has to find a way. Which did get me miffed as made me wonder how she managed to stay in Singapore....

And I dont see why everyone needs to keep making personal comments about my choices or even my mother's inability to speak English. They sound like personal attacks which I do not understand why I'm getting them.

Re: mother, Me thinks you should take it easy, and chill, as I did apologise, didn't I ??

Yes, I know. Thanks, apology accepted. Wow that sounds amazing. If you dont mind me asking, where are you from? Also, will ICA grant me another 90 days when I travel out for 4 days in early Oct? I need at least 60 days to complete my exams here.

[sundaymorningstaple]

As squirrel noted, it was eons ago. Not so easy today. Squirrel has been here a long, long time as well. We've seen lot's of changes over that time. It used to be pretty easy, even for someone who only gets 30 days visa's normally. I used to do it as well back in the '80's & '90's when the rigs were shut down. Now we see them getting getting whacked on their third try in most cases, but not all. (in those days it was nothing but 4 hours in JB and then back the same day) No more.

[x9200]

Tofumilk, take also this into account: Why the reasons you mentioned to travel to Singapore are rational, this doesn't mean they are going to influence the ICA's decision whatever this decision is. Rational - has some common sense/logic in it. As an adult and in some cases even as a child, you don't get any pass granted just because your mother lives in Singapore.
Sorry to be a bit brutal, but I feel you should adjusts your expectations. You act like your family, the time you spent in SG, all this is such strong reason to let you in. In fact it is not and ICA can be extremely strict following the regulation.

[tofumilk]

Tofumilk, take also this into account: Why the reasons you mentioned to travel to Singapore are rational, this doesn't mean they are going to influence the ICA's decision whatever this decision is. Rational - has some common sense/logic in it. As an adult and in some cases even as a child, you don't get any pass granted just because your mother lives in Singapore.
Sorry to be a bit brutal, but I feel you should adjusts your expectations. You act like your family, the time you spent in SG, all this is such strong reason to let you in. In fact it is not and ICA can be extremely strict following the regulation.

I think I just need some luck on this matter because I hear very different accounts about ICA being lenient or very adamant about detainment etc. I see stories online but in real life, all of my friends and acquaintances have no trouble with getting in and out of Singapore, so I think its really up to the officer at the moment of my entry.

Hm, I dont know. I guess I've been putting a lot of emphasis on that because it seems to make a lot of sense why I need to stay in Singapore. I mean what other better reason does one need to stay with her family. But yeah, I'm not betting all my luck on this; it's risky. Just hope that they will sympathize and understand my situation. Currently, I am looking into internships here and will that grant me any kind of a pass? I know a friend who's dad has a law firm and he says he will ask for me.