Apply Australia, New Zealand, Britain, USA and Canada in Singapore in a single center

Travellers who need a visa to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Britain, USA and Canada now can apply for  one at a new shared visa application center located at 20 Cecil Street in Singapore Central Business District. The new application center is a Five Country Conference (FCC) initiative under an agreement to share global network of visa application centers.

"The use of shared visa application facilities will save us costs through shared infrastructure and resources and allow us to maintain high levels of service" said British High Commissioner Antony Phillipson. A spokesperson’s for Australia and New Zealand said, “Shared visa application facilities would lead to improved services for clients of each country and would also achieve greater efficiencies through shared infrastructure and staffing. These services will include extended operating hours with phones open until 5pm weekdays, and internet kiosks with an online application tracking facility so clients can view the status of their applications. Savings achieved this way are ultimately able to be passed on to our clients. All applications will continue to be assessed and decided by immigration staff at both the Australian and New Zealand high commissions. VAC staff will not be involved in decisions or have any knowledge of application outcomes.”

5CC Visa Application Centre (VAC) address is 20, Cecil Street, #11-02 to 05, Equity Plaza, Singapore 049705. The key features of the 5CC VAC will be:

• Dedicated counters for applicants and travel agents
• Biometric enrolments (For UK currently)
• Dedicated call centre to answer queries and status of application
• Online appointment system and tracking of application status
• Dedicated websites to provide information on visa categories, fees, application forms, etc.
• SMS alert for visa status update on mobile phones
• Door step delivery of passports

The VAC will remain open from 08:00 to 16:00 from Monday-Friday, keeping in mind the convenience of the applicants. There is a service fee, payable at the time of application, to use the VAC service.

How to extend your Singapore Short Term Visit Pass?

When you enter Singapore, you are usually given a short term visit pass which is valid for 30 days. But sometimes you may want to or need to stay more than that. So how do you extend your Singapore Short Term Visit Pass? You have two options: Either you need to (a) leave Singapore and come back or (b) you extend your short term visit pass. Option (b) is easier since you do not need to cross the border to Malaysia and come back and basically it can be done online without moving anywhere. Extension of Short Term Visit Pass (e-XTEND) online is quite straight forward. Recently we have used it for my sister-in-law who was here to help my wife with our newborn. She was supposed to go back in Chinese New Year but she preferred to stay 10 days more to help my wife so we have extended her stay.

You can extend your Singapore short term visit pass for either 30 days or 89 days. But you need to apply for extension at least 2 working days before the visit pass expiry date. Apply minimum 4-5 working days before the expiry to have enough buffer for an appeal.

As a foreigner you can apply Individual extension by following the link. Sometimes you may be required to visit ICA together with your local sponsor.


Extension of Short Term Visit Pass (e-XTEND)

In our case, we have simply filled the form which can be reached from Apply for Extension up to 30 days on the web page. Here you fill in the required information such as name, birth date, nationality, country of birth, travel document no and DE card no. We have applied on Tuesday around 14:00 and the result was out by Wednesday after 17:00 PM. The form does not require any reason to be specified for the extension or information on local sponsor but if you are called, you need to pay a visit to ICA.

For 89 days extension, your local sponsor need to sign-in by his/her SingPass.