PUBLISHED ONAugust 10, 2024 6:09 AMBySyarifah Nadhirah[UPDATE Aug 15]
The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is aware of claims on social media regarding issues with offsite enrolment for the completion of formalities and issuance of student pass at the National University of Singapore (NUS), a ICA spokesperson said on Thursday (Aug 15).
Foreign students who are successful in their application for a student pass are issued an In-Principle Approval (IPA) letter, and will then be required to book an appointment to complete the formalities before the student pass is issued to them.
For these students' convenience, the ICA conducts offsite enrolment for this completion of formalities and issuance of student pass at the campuses of Institutes of Higher Learning with sizeable cohorts of foreign students.
Every year, there are two such periods - before the start of the academic terms in January and August.
IHLs will determine the number of days needed for the enrolment and the number of appointment slots each day depending on the size of their foreign student population. ICA will then provide the resources accordingly.
For NUS, around 800 to 900 appointments are catered for each day.
Students who did not book an appointment are allowed to walk in on a case-by-case basis, if they have valid reasons to obtain their student pass urgently, the ICA spokesperson said.
Referring to the claims on social media, ICA said: "Those who had decided to queue overnight are walk-ins, who did not book an appointment. If they had, like the very large majority of the foreign students, they would not have needed to queue overnight and could simply turn up on the time and day of the appointment.
In July and August so far, about 6,200 foreign students in NUS had scheduled an appointment for the offsite enrolment, and 140 had walked in.
Furthermore, foreign students had been told that if they miss the offsite enrolment at their IHL, they can book an appointment for the completion of formalities at the ICA Building. In the interim, those who are unable to receive their student pass before the expiry of their short-term visit pass may extend their visit pass online via ICA's website. The outcome for such applications for extension of stay is typically made known within five working days, the ICA spokesperson added.
This information can be found in the IPA letter that had been issued to the foreign students as well as on the IHLs' and ICA's websites.
In a bid to get their student pass documentation done as soon as possible, some international students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) resorted to queuing overnight inside the campus to secure their Offsite Enrolment (OSE) sessions.
"I came here at 12am, brought an inflatable mattress and started 'camping'. There are already 14 of us in the queue," one student named Chloe on Xiaohongshu said, even bringing along an array of snacks.
She indicated in her post that it occurred on Aug 8. From the photos shared, other students could also be seen with foam mats.
She later updated her post to say that she received her queue number at 9am and that there was a limit of 50 slots each day.
"I waited until almost 11.30am but the process was quick and I was done in five minutes," she shared.
"I was anxious to get my student pass in order to handle other matters, so I was forced to get caught up in this. I was still doubtful yesterday but afterwards, I understood everyone's intentions...
"It's too horrible. We are all victims and it's not like we wanted to be so caught up in the competition."
According to the NUS website, OSE sessions are arranged by the Immigration Checkpoint Authority and must be booked to complete the student pass formalities and enrol biometrics. All students must complete the process on campus.
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Another student told 8World in a report published on Aug 9 that they did so by making an appointment through the university's website, adding students who were unable to book an appointment queued up outside the office as only a limited 50 walk-in numbers would be issued each day.
They also shared that international students will be able to get the documentation done at the ICA building from Aug 23 onwards, but some are unable to wait until then as they wouldn't have a valid student pass at that time and are worried they would be overstaying as a tourist.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website states that tourists are normally permitted to stay in Singapore for 14 to 30 days.
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syarifahsn@asiaone.com
