Long Term Visit Pass for foreign husband

[thysecret]

My future-spouse has a european nationality, i am a singaporean female. i wish to apply him over to singapore and settle down here. What is the min income i should earn to be able to get approval for his LTVP? What if i am pregnant, will he be granted? People with experience in this, please do give me some tips thank you so much!

[JR8]

I was in same shoes as your fiance.

Step one is to read about the LTVP on the ICA site.

Step two is then to search for 'ICA LTVP spouse *friend' over at the top-right of this page.

Then if necessary revert here to further discuss or clarify your situation and the best resolution given your detailed circumstances.

[thysecret]

I just started working and earning around $2.4k every month. Just turned 21, but spouse is already 29. I am a Grassroots Leader and often do volunteer jobs (if that helps). Dont have any criminal/bad record with government. So are my chances high?

[ecureilx]

I just started working and earning around $2.4k every month. Just turned 21, but spouse is already 29. I am a Grassroots Leader and often do volunteer jobs (if that helps). Dont have any criminal/bad record with government. So are my chances high?

GRC as benefit for LTVP ?? Well, I don't recall any place where the 'sponsor's GRC / CC work is asked for reference .. unless of course, you can pull strings and ask the MP for referral though results may not be in favour ..

though if you been married for 3 years or more, things fall in your favour I understand ..

[thysecret]

I just started working and earning around $2.4k every month. Just turned 21, but spouse is already 29. I am a Grassroots Leader and often do volunteer jobs (if that helps). Dont have any criminal/bad record with government. So are my chances high?

GRC as benefit for LTVP ?? Well, I don't recall any place where the 'sponsor's GRC / CC work is asked for reference .. unless of course, you can pull strings and ask the MP for referral though results may not be in favour ..

though if you been married for 3 years or more, things fall in your favour I understand ..

Thanks for the info. May i ask if you know whats the difference in the requirements for applying PR and long term visit pass for spouse?

[ecureilx]

Thanks for the info. May i ask if you know whats the difference in the requirements for applying PR and long term visit pass for spouse?

Apologies to JR8

Here you go ..

http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=175&secid=171

http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=151&secid=150

And how long have you been married ??

[thysecret]

Thanks for the info. May i ask if you know whats the difference in the requirements for applying PR and long term visit pass for spouse?

Apologies to JR8

Here you go ..

http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=175&secid=171

http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=151&secid=150

And how long have you been married ??

Not married yet, but plan to do so next year. So i guess chances would be very low :/

[janiceliu88]

Oh sigh - I don't know how to tell you this, but I've been really badly burned with the LTVP. I'm not even sure men can be sponsored by their wives on the form - seriously, when I was filling mine in I had to cancel out the "my wife" bit and put in "I declare that <i>I am</i> pregnant".

I was at that time unemployed, on account of being heavily pregnant (8 months?), and just out of postgraduate studies after getting a law degree from a local university, my husband was American and got his masters from Columbia, I was pregnant with a baby who would be Singaporean... and absolutely no dice. They gave my husband a &*^*&^$ing one-time six-month social visit pass, unappeallable, unrenewable, that was it. It really is incredible that we're still here - we just got really lucky with an employer, since (riding the anti-foreigner sentiment last year) no one would hire you unless you had a work visa, and you wouldn't have a work visa unless you'd already been hired. That said though, once he got a job (after like, months of nothing, they wouldn't even look at you if you didn't have citizenship or PR) they offered him PR, so really I think it's that they couldn't fathom a woman bringing a man into her country and <i>sponsoring</i> him.

BUT! It is entirely possible that things have changed since last year, it was a new policy and maybe they've re-written the forms to include both sexes. These things are possible, but I wouldn't bet on it. Or maybe being employed changes things, I don't know. But honestly, Singapore's really quite uncertain for foreigners, unless you really do have to settle down here I would really try to avoid it.

[Max Headroom]

It's no longer as bad as that, Janice. I'm applying at the moment; for starters, there's a bloke option on the form now.

That said, even though the officers taking in our documents have indicated that we may be granted the LTVP, they also hinted that being married for 3 years would really increase our odds of success.

Meanwhile, I'll just continue to integrate here, no worries. So long as you don't slide too far off the bell curve, you should be good, I reckon.

[ecureilx]

...BUT! It is entirely possible that things have changed since last year, it was a new policy and maybe they've re-written the forms to include both sexes. These things are possible, but I wouldn't bet on it. Or maybe being employed changes things, I don't know. But honestly, Singapore's really quite uncertain for foreigners, unless you really do have to settle down here I would really try to avoid it.

I may add my 2 cents to it .. I am not sure how or what happened, but Mixed-race couples are having a tougher time in things from visa extension to LTVP to PR and all in between .. for spouses of SCs ..

And the impression is ICA staff are not given proper direction and discretion ... after all, aren't they married and shouldn't they be allowed to be together ? the signal being sent out is something like - you marry a foreigner - go and live in their country .. maybe I am talking from the experience of a few SC and fewer PR I know ...

And one of my SC friends quipped that there should be a disclaimer for SC/PR marrying foreigners that - at the time of ROM, they should swear that they know that marriage to a SC doesn't mean they can live with their spouse, if they chose to live in Singapore .. even though their is a undertaking that the parties understand that Marriage doesn't automatically provide any form of residency, restricting LTVP for spouse ? that's very difficult for me to grasp ...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Squirrel,

that has always been the position of ICA here. Singaporean women who marry foreign spouses, because Asian countries are predominantly patriarchal in nature, they assume that the wife will follow the husband back to, as noted, their country. Therefore they are not in any hurry to give LTVPs or even PRs to LTVP holders. It was a bit easier if the male foreign spouse had an EP though. I was in the same position as her spouse was in. In fact, I was here 11 years on a bog standard 30 days SVP before I got an EP and later PR. (I lived here but worked in offshore oil drilling so worked a 2 & 1 rotation schedule - so was only in Singapore for 4 weeks out of each quarter) But by the time I gave it up and found a job in Singapore, I had two kids, both in the local school system!.

And yes, when I got married here almost 30 years ago, I DID have to sign a statement at the ROM BEFORE they would issue the marriage license, that I accepted the fact that by being allowed to marry a Singaporean in Singapore, it would not, at any time in the future, be a means to obtain PR or any other form of residency here.

Janice, you write much the same as you do in your blog.

Cheers.

[JR8]

I was here 11 years on a bog standard 30 days SVP before I got an EP and later PR.

I wonder if this is record example of SVP, er, usage?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Back in the early to mid '80's there were over 20K western expats living here doing exactly the same thing. As they works either month on month off or two on one off (like a lot of service companies did). It was pretty lax back then. There weren't any 90 day SVPs back then. It was only during the 84 recession that things started getting a bit tense as there were a lot of guys, like myself, who suddenly found themselves on the beach for extended periods of time and had to make the visa runs to M'sia. That's when things started to get antsy with ICA, eventually causing the problems of today, but for different reasons.

[sundaymorningstaple]

You should have seen the eyes of the two ICA officers who interviewed me for PR (they don't do that any more), when I told them the Gahmen may as well give me PR as I've lived here for 11 years, had one wife, 2 kids & 3 cars here all on bog standard tourist visas! Their eyes looked like this: I had my PR in 2 weeks.

[janiceliu88]

It's no longer as bad as that, Janice. I'm applying at the moment; for starters, there's a bloke option on the form now.

That's progress for you (!). But I'm glad they're now open to this possibility, and you're not getting shafted based on purely sexist ground anymore. That's the problem when policy operates in a country instead of democracy - it takes a whole bureaucratic process to rectify things, and if you happen to be on the wrong side of it, I guess shit happens man. That's one of the things my husband is finding it hard to come to grips with, the all-pervading uncertainty of future policy.

[quote="ecurelix']

I may add my 2 cents to it .. I am not sure how or what happened, but Mixed-race couples are having a tougher time in things from visa extension to LTVP to PR and all in between .. for spouses of SCs ..

And the impression is ICA staff are not given proper direction and discretion ... after all, aren't they married and shouldn't they be allowed to be together ? the signal being sent out is something like - you marry a foreigner - go and live in their country .. maybe I am talking from the experience of a few SC and fewer PR I know ... [/quote]

I always (half-jokingly, but not jokingly at all) figured the government was punishing me (and all Singaporeans who marry foreigners) for not doing the national dream and settling down with a nice Singaporean and making good, party-line babies that can't ever (easily, anyway) leave, no matter how ridiculous things get here. Haha, Singapore's really patriarchal like that huh, the same way in some families if you go out with someone your parents don't like you're pretty much disowned.

Janice, you write much the same as you do in your blog.

Cheers.

I've not blogged in so long, I had no idea anyone still read it! I'm flattered, do I know you online/have you been reading for long?