exit permit and bond

cariad SG

Hi, I am an expat currently in SG, but heading home next year. I thought singaporeans abroad would have also gone through the process of getting exit permits and posting bonds for their boys and I hope this is okay to ask here. My sons are 7 and 4 now, they will be 8 and 5 when we return to my home country next year. Their dad is singaporean, so there are steps we need to follow in order to defer ns so the boys have until 21 to decide, they either come back alone at 21 and do ns and then keep their singapore citizenship, or renounce their singapore citizenship at 21 and just keep their european one and not return for ns - they are dual citizens right now.

So I think I am fairly clear on the process and aware that rules change periodically and I will have to keep up to date on the rules on my boys behalf. Where I am unsure is the bond issue. I will need to post bonds for the boys when the reach 13. But I will close all my bank accounts here obviously because I will not come back other than perhaps for holidays. Will I be able to do a bankers guarantee in the UK and list Mindef (or whoever necessary) as the recipient? Did any of you process this from the UK or did you keep an active bank account here and process from here? And it's $75,000 each right? Did you have to place the $75,000 in full or is it some sort of insurance type thing? Is it true the boys can't visit Singapore when they have an exit permit in place?

I apologise in advance for any offence anyone may take. In my heart I doubt after living more than half their life in another country they will want to come back for ns. Especially when they have to renounce one of their citizenships at the end of it all anyway. Would love to hear from others who have been there, done that. And there is nothing to do immediately on leaving except to ensure that mindef or central manpower people know we have left?

Hitman Submarine SG

actually according to mindef spore, even after yer sons complete their 2 years NS they are not allowed to go oveseas unless to work or to study.they did not state they would allow yer sons to live near u.in fact they would punish yer sons with a jail sentence and a big fine too if they want to leave the country after national service of 2 years from what i last read the black n white.they may go overseas foer short trips ..holidys etc.

they are only allowed to stay overseas for less than 6 mths or so n need to report where they are going before flying off or its also a jail n fine for them. best to read up on reservist overseas laws for folks who have completed their 2 years ns in spore.

spore is pretty much a north korean from that aspect.

Gerberad SG

well, if u feel that most probably your boys will not want to come back for ns since they lived more than half of their life elsewhere, in my opinion, u dont even need to consider holding on to singaporean citizenship for them. since your husband is singaporean, he should know how life is in ns. if your boys spent their formative years in a european country where they have not much of exposure to asian languages, i dont think they will be able to survive easily in ns. Ns use Malay for commands and talk in a mixture of singlish and hokkien dialect. ns might in fact put more stress to your boys. on top of that, like a said, since they spent their formative years elsewhere, and they grew up in a different kind of environment and are educated by that country, they are not obligated to serve ns just because they are born here. probably to u, holding on to dual citizenship is better, but if u can forsee your future and your family wont be back for long term, why need to hang on to sg citizenship.. plus, british citizenship enables visa-less travel to more countries than singapore citizenship. other than that, i am sure u know british citizenship comes along with EU citizenship and they could travel freely in the eurozone...

well the above is my opinion, dont be offended if u dont like what i said.

vito_corleone SG

maybe you should let them play the piano, the other dude did it and he only got a sgd2000 fine...

ctrlsave SG

they can spend more than 6 months for as long as they have work or full time studies during which

they will be placed under army reserve. For the pianist case, he simply went for his studies and

never came back for army. i think he is simply lucky, maybe he is one hell of a talented dude.

When i was serving, i've met some weird guys serving ( angmos serving to get citizenship, half japs,

half european and what have u not) so its hard to say. In fact my section buddy was mixed and his

reason being that he was simply gung ho and had his fantasy about army life. lotsa boys have it.

vito_corleone SG

don't wuss out, boys need to get f***ed by the army to grow up. if i could do it so can anyone and i'm the biggest hater of anything involving uniforms and physical effort

Loor SG

Despite how soft NS is compared to last time, I agree with vito - it'll do them good IMHO.

So to confirm, is the intention to keep them as Singaporeans?

ctrlsave SG

ya its best to let them decide for themselves but ns is good, despite what many people think.

it does more than physical training, mentally too. makes them strong and more confident.

vito_corleone SG

no matter how ridiculous the sh|te, u suck it up, nod your head and say ''yes encik''

ctrlsave SG

these days no more encik shit already. anything just complain can liao

vito_corleone SG

armour is still kickin it old school, had a 39deg fever MO gave me 2 panadols and sent me back to work. but then again i ord in 09 maybe things have changed, i heard they now allow recruits to bring maids to carry fieldpack for them

ctrlsave SG

ya. and a pretty cute and funny one ( reference noose ) .

these days i heard if u are attend B you don't even need to

do area cleaning, just zuo bo.

hey vito, so did u transfer to ucla? which part of La

do u live in?

vito_corleone SG

hellz no! i ain't no scum of westwood, USC TROJANS FTW! ironically i live on the westside, santa monica lol

ctrlsave SG

that is so funny. i clearly remember your early post about wanting to transfer to ucla from a cc.

anyway why do u buy that usc vs ucla shit? its so boliao

santa monica shiok anot

vito_corleone SG

cos SC is infinitely more awesome

not bad, much cleaner, safer and less pretentious/try-hard and less congested than the rest of LA. very nice relaxed vibe compared to the drug-addled anarchy of anything eastward.

lemon1974 SG

no bonds whatever so, unless your sons between 13-16 years... if u leave now, i dun think u have to come back to post bonds....

see below..

http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_events/nr/2006/jul/25jul06_nr2/25jul06_fs.html

http://www.ns.sg/publish/NSPORTAL/public/all_services/index/Phase2_ExitPermit/faq/0.html