Singapore Expats

If you're a new citizen, maybe you can help.

My friend wants to know...

After applying for citizenship, apparently the first letter will be Approved-in-Principle and you have 50 days to complete an online e-journey (quizzes), a Singapore Experience Tour (at a national heritage site) and a Community Sharing Session (with local MP).

1) Assuming he has done all that, how long before he gets the actual Approval Letter?
2) Does this approval letter come with the citizenship registration appointment, or must that be made, and how long is the wait?
3) How long is the process to renounce nationality and get the renunciation letter from his home embassay (UK)? i.e. is it quick so as not to delay the citizenship registration appointment?
4) Once you've done the citizenship registration appointment, applied for the IC and Passport, how/when do you take the Oaths? At the same appointment or yet another appointment to make?
5) He understands that you receive the new IC at a citizenship ceremony in his GRC...how long is the wait after the oaths, and how often are these held?
6) when does he get his passport?

Basically trying to establish a time-frame for items 1-6.

TL;DR once he renounces his UK citizenship, how long will it take to get his SG passport so he can travel again?


Thanks in advance

He can't renounce his UKC between applying and waiting to an appointment... that time (particularly between applying and in approval) is highly variable as well. Once he has an appointment to take the oath of SC he can apply for a passport straight away... and that will take only days. If he hands in his UK passport - renounces UKC the day before going in to take the oath he should only be tied up a week.

Hi
Please find my responses below. Hope it helps.

curiousgeorge wrote:If you're a new citizen, maybe you can help.

My friend wants to know...

After applying for citizenship, apparently the first letter will be Approved-in-Principle and you have 50 days to complete an online e-journey (quizzes), a Singapore Experience Tour (at a national heritage site) and a Community Sharing Session (with local MP).

1) Assuming he has done all that, how long before he gets the actual Approval Letter? The online portal says 2 weeks. Mine took around 3 weeks.

2) Does this approval letter come with the citizenship registration appointment, or must that be made, and how long is the wait? The letter is self-explanatory & yes they give you an appointment date which can be changed via e-appointment. Link is here: https://eappointment.ica.gov.sg/ibook/index.do

3) How long is the process to renounce nationality and get the renunciation letter from his home embassay (UK)? i.e. is it quick so as not to delay the citizenship registration appointment?

4) Once you've done the citizenship registration appointment, applied for the IC and Passport, how/when do you take the Oaths? At the same appointment or yet another appointment to make? On the day of the registration appointment you will be required to take the oath in front of the Commissioner of Oaths. Simple enough procedure @ the ICA building. You can apply for the passport immediately please bring along the mandatory photo in the prescribed format. A temporary slip which serves as your IC will be provided immediately which you are required to take good care of for obvious reasons. Pink IC will only be provided to you at the Citizenship ceremony to be held in the GRC where you are from. They will be sending you a letter informing you the dates. Once you drop the passport application form your passport should be ready within 7 working days. Mine actually took 4 if not 5. You will receive an email notifying you that your passport is ready for collection.

5) He understands that you receive the new IC at a citizenship ceremony in his GRC...how long is the wait after the oaths, and how often are these held?

6) when does he get his passport? 7 working days upon application on the day of citizenship registration. If you need it to be faster you will have to go to lvl 2 & justify to the officer as to why you require it to be issued on an urgent basis.

Basically trying to establish a time-frame for items 1-6.

TL;DR once he renounces his UK citizenship, how long will it take to get his SG passport so he can travel again?


Thanks in advance

My friends says thank you!

PNGMK wrote:He can't renounce his UKC between applying and waiting to an appointment... that time (particularly between applying and in approval) is highly variable as well. Once he has an appointment to take the oath of Singapore Citizenship he can apply for a passport straight away... and that will take only days. If he hands in his UK passport - renounces UKC the day before going in to take the oath he should only be tied up a week.

OK so I have to say this advice turned out to be entirely inaccurate.

It is only possible to renounce British citizenship in Singapore by sending your passport and documents back to the UK - it can't be done at the consulate here. And then he has to wait for the return of the documents (the renunciation letter that SG pte ltd requires). There is no option by the UK Border Agency to have it expedited, or even to use a courier service. Seems you can only get express service for obtaining a UK passport, not for getting rid of one...

In the same boat. Also need to give up UK citizenship. They ask for proof of UK citizenship by sending in passport or if you don't have one your birth cert. I have urgent travel in December, so wondering if should send of birth cert instead of passport and then surrender passport later OR if better to wait til Jan and send off passport?

Tried to contact authorities in UK but no luck. Just directed me back to the UK website.

Any ideas?

wondering2 wrote:In the same boat. Also need to give up UK citizenship. They ask for proof of UK citizenship by sending in passport or if you don't have one your birth cert. I have urgent travel in December, so wondering if should send of birth cert instead of passport and then surrender passport later OR if better to wait til Jan and send off passport?

Tried to contact authorities in UK but no luck. Just directed me back to the UK website.

Any ideas?

Well trying to get to the right department in the Home Office is impossible. I've been referred to the Visa & Immigration section, the Passport office, back to the Singapore Consulate, some Singapore Nationality Centre hotline (based in the UK but operating on SGT!) and the Nationality Enquiries hotline. None of the have a clue if you *don't* want to be a UK citizen!

Even more, I found a guidebook for embassies (see chapter 19 on the UKVI website) that says a Declaration of Renunciation MUST be made locally for it to be valid, and that they cannot accept them directly at the Home Office in the UK! Except every bit of advise on their website otherwise contradicts this.

You can't just send your birth cert, if they cancel your passport when you are travelling you are screwed!

As for your situation, all I can suggest is to talk to the SG Immigration and explain your situation, ask them if you can apply for your SGC after your December travels.
In the meamtime, I DHL'd my documents to the UK, will let you know how long it takes for me to get the returned chopped Letter Of Renunciation.

OK so I sent my Declaration of Renunciation to the UK on 12th November. It arrived on the 14th Nov and the UK Home Office were fast enough to deduct the fee of GBP144 on the following Monday, 17th November.

If there was any hope that the speed of collecting the fee was to be indicative of the speed of the chopping of the Declaration of Renunciation, then those hopes were dashed today when the empty letterbox gawped back at me and basically said "go cancel your oath taking at the ICA tomorrow".

The guidance notes for the UK Visa and Immigration dept states that every effort shall be made to return the paperwork in the timeframe demanded by the other country (i.e. my oath-taking appointment on 9th Dec) but of course there is nothing.

And this is where the fun starts. I want to phone the Home Office to check on the progress...well the department dealing with renunciation is the UK Visa & Immigration department. But most people who work there deal with applications FOR a passport or visa, not for getting RID of a passport. So when you phone or email, they keep telling you "sorry mate, not us, phone another department".

To cut a long story short, after my fifth email and 12th phone call, I got the following number:
SPAMMER 300 123 2253. When you connect press 1, then 2. Then follow the prompts.

(Now you're back here checking the numbers I just wrote because it didn't work did it? You followed the prompts from the beginning because you thought that would connect you to the right department, didn't you? Well freak you for not listening. Go back and do what I said - call the number then press 1 and then press 2. THEN follow the prompts. It might not make sense, but it works.)

So yeah, if I ever needed an example of horrible British bureaucracy then this is process it is.
On the bright side, they did tell me its almost complete and will be sent in due course. In English, that means a week or so. I guess a 30-45 days turn around for a renunciation is the time-frame if you are British.

I'm not surprised. I doubt renouncing citizenship is that common. Any idea of the numbers that do it each year?

I remember seeing something about the US and the numbers were in the very low thousands.

453 last year
83 until October this year.

You're right, its not that many but most of us qualify to get it back no questions asked (because we did it to take another citizenship).

FYI I got the reply from the UK on 22nd December - so a little more than a month to get the renunciation letter stamped and returned from the UK.

Went for my oath-taking yesterday, sat next to a Filipino guy who walked in to the Ph Embassy, renounced, and was back at ICA within an hour. And the UK is supposed to be the first-world country...

But yeah, this is my first official post as a Singaporean now

Does that mean you are now going to get all xenophobic on us here.

Welcome new citizen

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Does that mean you are now going to get all xenophobic on us here.

Nah, xenophobia came pre-installed.

However, I was surprised when the ICA gave me a pamphlet called "How to stop at the top of the escalator, stand still in the middle of a busy sidewalk and other blur behaviours".

Happy New Year, CGI!