I'm an investment financial analyst (inform investors about stocks). My career would effectively be over if I took 2 years off.PNGMK wrote:This is a running issue. Your parents stuffed up. Grossly and negligently and criminally. Singapore's passport carries great value as due to the ceaseless and tireless efforts of the MFA it has almost the highest level of acceptance for entry world wide. That alone is a benefit.
I don't know what your career path is but would it die if you did a few months in Changi and then 20 months in NS?
I'm not sure (lass passport would've been registered 15 years ago approximately), but I'm not sure I want to get an alternative passport (maybe Kwan got a passport with a different name?) and trigger any name consistencies or match on a fingerprint. In general, I am trying to pursue fully legal routes without risking the prospects of weeks or months or years in jail.PNGMK wrote:You can live a full life without going near Singapore. Note that with the evidence being that Kwan might have used a different name on a US passport to come in that door is probably closing fast. Is your last Singapore passport a biometric one?
Strong Eagle wrote:Singapore has been referred to as "Disneyland with the death penalty". Historically, it has been a one party state, with nominal/alleged democracy, and certainly a parliament that seems to rubber stamp the decisions of the ones really in power.
Lee Kuan Yew ran Singapore with an iron fist, and if you've read anything about Singapore history, it was what Singapore needed to overcome criminal gangs and rampant corruption. That mindset has shifted a bit but not as much as you might like to think.
Therefore, although a lot of reasonable people might consider Singapore's stance on NS to be archaic and unnecessary, I doubt you'll see any major changes within the next two decades or more. I would not plan on any substantial change in laws for the next 20 years of your career.
I am afraid that I lump "investment financial analysts" in with the professionals who are the butt of this joke: "What do you have when you have 20 lawyers buried in concrete up to their necks? Not enough concrete." Having to start a new, more meaningful career doesn't seem like such a downer to me. You'd certainly have stories to tell, were you to come back to Singapore and face the music... whatever piece was playing.
Good luck to you.
This is a good question that I'm not sure i know the answer to. I dont think I have an NRIC (basically an ID card right?) because I was too young on my most recent trip to Singapore.PNGMK wrote:A 15 yo passport won't be biometric. Did you collect an NRIC (which requires fingerprinting)? If not - and this is not legal advice - it will be hard to match you even if you show up with a US passport in your birth name provided the place of birth does not show as Singapore.
Not quite. You can do NS, then still choose the other citizenship at age 21 & renouncing SG passport. Or you can give up SG citizenship at an earlier age (under 13 I think) So there is no forcing you to be SingaporeanNSproblems2018 wrote:Why do you think you are being penalised? If you are a dual citizen, you are meant to do NS, it isn't a technicality.PNGMK wrote:
But you're right I can live a full life without going to Singapore. But at the same time I'm incredibly frustrated that I am being held to this on what appears to me to be a technicality. I know that NS is a great equalizer in Singapore (all 3 of the males in my immediate family have done it, my parents visit annually), but I view myself as a dual citizen who was penalized for choosing the other citizenship, so to speak.
Thanks for all your comments and efforts so far!
SG's policies effective force dual citizens to choose SG's citizenship (by enlisting at 16) without being able to choose the citizenship of the other country (at age 21). If you don't choose SG citizenship, then you are banned from the country. Is my understanding of the policy fair?
Appreciate your thoughts!sundaymorningstaple wrote:Big difference. Ekawit Tangtrakarn "never" lived in Singapore. He was born in Thailand a at the age of one year, was registered as a Singaporean in Thailand as his mother is a Singaporean. This is why he lost his citizenship in 2015 as those who got their citizenship by registration have to take the oath of allegiance at the age of 21 or lost their citizenship (but it still does not release him from his obligation. While his mother was aware of his obligation and had been in contact with the cmpb for a number of years (and his requested deferment was turned down and he also had no exit permit) the fact that he wasn't born in Singapore NOR ever lived in Singapore, they fined him primarily for the failure to get an exit permit when his deferment was denied. The case isn't even similar.
The problem you have is that both of your parents were and still are, Singaporeans, so there was never any doubt about the fact that you would remain a Singapore Citizen, while that may not be the absolute truth, your parents would be hard pressed to try to convince the Singapore Government that your US citizenship was not designed to try to get you out of NS. Because of the US laws regarding births of foreigners on US soil gives you the right of citizenship. It's not going to hold any water at all with Singapore ICA or MHA. Your citizenship was purely happenstance and they are going to be fully cognizant of that fact.
I really don't see anyway for you to legally circumvent the issue. Especially knowing you also lived in Singapore for 9 years after your were born. You are going to have to pay the piper, I'm afraid. US CItizen or not.
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