In November 2024, Badri and I applied for a Singapore visa to visit the country. To apply for a Singapore visa, you need to visit an authorized travel agent listed by the Singapore High Commission on their website. Unlike the Schengen visa (where only VFS can process applications), the Singapore visa has many authorized travel agents to choose from. I remember that the list mentioned as many as 25 authorized agents in Chennai. For my application, I randomly selected Ria International in Karol Bagh, New Delhi from the list.
Further, you need to apply not more than a month before your travel dates. As our travel dates were in December, we applied in the month of November.
For your reference, I submitted the following documents:
- Passport
- My photograph (35 mm x 45 mm)
- Visa application form (Form 14A)
- Cover letter to the Singapore High Commission, New Delhi
- Proof of employment
- Hotel booking
- Flight ticket (reservations are sufficient)
- Bank account statement for the last 6 months
I didn’t have my photograph in the specified dimensions, so the travel agent took my photo on the spot. The visa application was ₹2,567. Furthermore, I submitted my application on a Saturday and received a call from the travel agent on Tuesday informing me that they had received my visa from the Singapore High Commission.
The next day, I visit the travel agent’s office and picked up my passport and a black and white copy of my e-visa. Later, I downloaded a PDF of my visa and took a colored printout myself from the website mentioned on the visa.
Singapore granted me a multiple-entry visa for 2 months, even though I had applied for a 4-day single-entry visa. We were planning to add more countries to this trip; therefore, a multiple-entry visa would be helpful in case we wanted to use Singapore Airport, as it has good connectivity. However, it turned out that flights from Kuala Lumpur were much cheaper than those from Singapore, so we didn’t enter Singapore again after leaving.
Badri also did the same process but entirely remotely—he posted the documents to the visa agency in Chennai, and got his e-visa in a few days followed by his original passport which was delivered by courier.
He got his photo taken in the same dimensions mentioned above, and printed as matte finish as instructed. However, the visa agents asked why his photo was looking so faded. We don’t know if they thought the matte finish was faded or what. To rectify this, Badri emailed them a digital copy of the photo to them (both the cropped version and the original) and they handled the reprinting on their end (which he never got to see).
Before entering Singapore, we had to fill an arrival card - an online form asking a few details about our trip - within 72 hours of our arrival in Singapore.
That’s it for now. Meet you in the next post.
Thanks to Badri for reviewing the draft.