Visit to Singapore | Nov 2019
Getting the Visa
The pre-requisites to the Visa process include booking onward-and-return flight tickets and hotel booking in the foreign country. I made all the bookings about a month before the actual visit.
There are two ways to go about getting the visa --
- Through a local contact in Singapore. If you have a local contact in Singapore (Singapore Citizens / Permanent Residents aged 21 years and above) to sponsor you, that local contact can apply for the visa on your behalf. (You can visit this for further details.).
- Through one of the Singapore Overseas Mission centres. Apply directly to the Singapore Overseas Mission in your country. Use this for locating your nearest Singapore Overseas Mission.
Coming to the documents part. I submitted the following set of documents in order to get the visa.
- Valid Indian Passport with sufficient validity period
- Cover letter
- Application Form 14A
- Last 6 months bank statement
- Last 3 months payslip (This will vary based on your whether you are employed or a student or run a self-owned business)
- Onward-and-return flight tickets
- Hotel booking
- Two passport sized photographs (The dimensions, background, etc should be acceptable for the Singapore visa application. Most photographers in the market are aware of the specifications.)
- Local address proof if your city of residence is different from the city of origin - as in your passport (I was told that rental agreement is the only acceptable local address proof based on the new guidelines)
- Authorisation form (Required only if you apply via a travel agency - You need to authorise them to apply and procure visa on your behalf)
The documents need to be submitted atleast 10 working days before the actual travel date. Most travel agencies won't accept your application otherwise.
For me, filling up the Application Form 14A was the hardest part. I had to fill it up multiple times due to misleading instructions mentioned in almost all online forums. I plan to provide the correct set of details in a follow-up post.
I submitted the documents about 12 working days before the actual travel date, and it took about 5 working days to get the visa. The Singapore visa is an e-visa (There is no usual stamp on the passport). I received a soft copy over the mail, along with a print-out shared by the travel agency.
Preparing for the trip
After I received the visa, it was time to start packing. I took care of following things while packing.
- Checked on the Singapore weather forecast. Packed clothes accordingly.
- Got sufficient currency notes in Singapore Dollar from one of the local exchanges. (The good ones give you a legal document indicating the currency exchange)
- Bought medicines to protect against cold, cough, fever, stomach pain, nausea while traveling
- Got travel insurance done to avail medical help in case of an emergency in the foreign country. (I read that it is quite hard to get any help without it.)
- Got international roaming pack activated on my cell phone number, to avoid month-end surprises.
- Double checked with the banks if my credit/debit cards would actually work in Singapore.
Leaving from India
The airport process was quite smooth. I checked-in at the airline counter, got the boarding pass and headed over to the customs area. I was provided an immigration form to be filled up and handed over at the Singapore airport. This was accompanied by the security check, and then, the walk to the departure gates.
Welcome to Singapore
Day 1
My flight took about 4.5 hours to reach Singapore. I headed over to the immigration area where the immigration form had to be handed over. They verified my passport, visa and then recorded my both thumbprints. I was then set free after putting a stamp on my passport.
There were multiple ways to get out of the airport. I could take a bus, or the metro, or a taxi. Each of these ways had a dedicated airport exit. I went with the taxi exit due to unfamiliarity with the local routes. I queued up at the exit gate. There were about 12-15 slots for taxis, and a couple of moderators. The moderators pulled one person at a time from the queue and assigned a taxi from among the non-empty taxi slots in a round-robin manner. There were no discussions about the destination or fare or payment-mode or anything at all. All that would happen after you enter the taxi. Nice!
So my taxi took about 20 min to reach my hotel, which was 20 km from the airport. The taxi ride was pretty cool -- people following traffic rules, no traffic jams, no noisy vehicles, wide roads, clean surroundings, tall buildings, greenery all around -- things that we don't get to see so often while being in India. I spent the remaining part of my day exploring food joints, stores, buildings, streets within a km radius from my hotel. There happen to be a plentiful of food joints, with wide variety of cuisines from across the world, around most inhabited parts of Singapore.
Day 2
The first thing that I had to do was to figure out the means of commute around the city. Bus and trains were the preferred ones to most people, but I was looking for a flexible taxi option due to the weather. It was raining every now and then, and I wanted to stay dry and comfortable. So, I got to know about Grab -- Grab happens to be the Uber of Singapore. I registered on it and quickly set up my Grab account.
Most of my second day thereafter was spent in Universal Studios, which happens to be one of the biggest theme parks in the world. I am not going to write about the details on this one since most of the relevant content (in its full glory) is already available on the internet.
Towards late evening, I went to watch the famous light-and-water show recommended by one of the fellow tourists. This was a place around Marina Bay, and it turned out to be actually quite beautiful. I had dinner thereafter and headed back to the hotel.
Day 3
This was the last day of the trip. My flight was scheduled for late evening, so I had the day time to explore Singapore further. I was googling and happened to spot a well-rated place by the name of 'Gardens by the Bay'. I reached there in the afternoon and spent about 3-4 hours there. This place happened to be a huge park with various attractions inside -- Floral Fantasy, Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, etc -- all themed on trees, plants, flowers. The 'Cloud Forest', in particular, felt quite amazing to me.
Travel back to India
I reached Singapore airport well before my flight departure time. Singapore airport is one of the most well-planned ones in the world. It has multiple terminals, each quite some distance apart. Each terminal also has multiple gates, each quite some distance apart. So, you should preferably know your departure terminal well in advance, and figure out the flight departure gate soon after you enter the airport. There is a micro-metro running inside the airport that connects multiple gate-zones in a particular terminal.
At the airport, I spent most of the time on the food court, which had plenty of food options. The passport and visa were the only documents that were verified before check-in. Later, the security check was done just about 15 min prior to boarding.
I reached Bangalore after about 4.5 hours in flight. The immigration department checked my passport, flight boarding pass, captured my photograph (for biometrics maybe) and did a security-scan of me and my bag, before allowing me entry into the customs area. Now, this is the place where people declare relevant parts of their luggage brought into the country. I had nothing such on me, so I instead took the first cab home.
Signing off
I hope this post is able to answer some of the questions for people planning to visit Singapore soon. I would be happy to help with any further queries.
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