Me and my wife recently have had a very terrible experience with
the Immigration Checkpoint Authority (ICA). We’ve been married for
slightly more than a year and have been staying in a rental unit as
we were waiting for our HDB unit to be build.
This was also partly due to the lack of HDB
units (Another HDB married couple unfriendly
policy which I’m not going to go into here…
Imagine my suprise when after a year, I’ve received a letter
from ICA telling me that I have to report my
new change of address after 28 days or I would receive a few
thousand dollars worth of fines. I was incredulous as:
1) I only received this letter in Jan and my own flat was
already due in Feb.
2) They got the facts wrong and stated that I made a
HDB transaction and indicated my my current
rental address as my official address.
3) Asked me to report with official documents which was
ridiculous. Since when did tenants renting units have officials
documents except for the landlords.
4) My landlord including my friends have never heard of the
legal requirement to report a change of address when staying in a
rental unit.
5) Most of the people I know staying in rental have not receive
this letter. (Maybe because I was “stupid” enough to update some of
my government particulars like a good citizen)
I then had to take leave from work just so that I could go down
to settle the issues at ICA building with my
wife. (It’s not a surprise if employers don’t like to hire married
people if they are always forced to take sudden leave or time-off
due to handle such situations.)
When we arrived at the Change of Address counter, the female
auntie did not even bother to look up at us until she finished
whatever she was currently busy with. When we explained our problem
to her, she just gave a very crude reply that this was the law. And
to top it off, after making a mistake on their end assuming that we
had the documents, she stated that she would now send us the
necessary documents which would only arrive in a week.
We were told to go home to wait for it and then return again
with the document to repeat the whole process! Talk about
inefficiency. This got both me and my wife very angry as they were
the one that made the mistake in the first place. Apparently, she
could not handle the stituation already after making a mess of it
and went to look for her supervisor for help.
To his credit, the supervisor at least explained the legal
requirements nicely to us. He also used his discretionary powers to
enable us to register our rental address on the spot and without
making another repeated trip. It seems that while the government
has already put in place the “No Wrong Door” policy, not every
ministry staff is following it.
However to my dismay, we were then told we had to make another
separate trip to Singpost to arrange for my letters to be send back
to old address (parents place). I then had to make my own
arrangements to change it again in Feb when I get the keys to my
unit. The best part, I had to pay for this out of my own pocket. I
was told it was only $10 plus but I was charged at Singpost for $50
plus for two months. So after being forced to stay in a rental due
to the short supply of flats for married couples by HDB, ICA makes life difficult for married couple leaving
in rental units by wasting their personal time, affecting their
work and eating into our finances. Well done!
Last but not least, the best part was that the Supervisor said
the change of address was meant to deal with loanshark activities.
I don’t blame him as it might probably be some sop line given by
the management. But this system is seriously flawed as it is
basically “supporting” the activity that it is trying to stop.
1) The form doesn’t capture the reason for people’s change of
address. People who borrow from loansharks are also not stupid
enough to volunteer such information.
2) The update to the IC address is a piece of sticker that can
be torn off anytime.
3) The loan sharks won’t know the change of address and will
harass the wrong people. Unless somehow they do know. Given the
recent SLA cases then this going to be a
worrying train of thought…
4) BEST PART! This is going to “help” the
loansharks as people can simply make use of this system to borrow
money first and then change their address.
Therefore I can’t see how this system is meant to “deal” with
loanshark activities besides making life difficult for married
couples. For ICA’ sake I hope they better
revamp their system before any people or loansharks decide to
“test” it and make married life a little easier in Singapore for
all married couples out there with our same problem.