Leon* is a Singaporean man married to a Vietnamese woman (Wendy*). They met in Singapore in 2012 when Wendy was working on a Social Visit Pass. At that time, Leon was unaware that Wendy was involved in a sham marriage. She was arrested in early 2013 and imprisoned for a few months. Upon her release, she was given a Special Pass to remain in Singapore to assist the authorities in investigating a syndicate that organised sham marriages.

During this time, Wendy had nobody else to turn to, had nowhere to live and was not allowed to work. Leon decided to help her by letting her live in his house. The investigation took seven months and Leon and Wendy’s relationship developed romantically over this period. Unfortunately, his close association to Wendy also caused Leon to be subjected to investigation by the authorities, but Leon was not found to be involved in any criminal wrongdoing.

After the investigation ended, Wendy was deported back to Vietnam and barred from re-entering Singapore. Leon tried to find out from ICA if the entry ban was for life and was told by an officer to “appeal after two years”.

Leon and Wendy wanted to get married but Wendy was still legally in another marriage, despite the marriage being deemed a sham. They faced some trouble in getting the marriage annulled as Wendy was not able to enter Singapore to sign the necessary documents. Eventually, Leon managed to locate Wendy’s then-husband and he agreed to annul the marriage.

Since 2014, Leon has been approaching ICA and his MP several times to appeal for Wendy to re-enter Singapore, as they want to get married and settle down here. Eventually, Leon and Wendy decided to get married in Vietnam. After getting married, Leon again appealed for Wendy to enter Singapore and his appeal failed. He was told to inform ICA when there is a “significant change” to their status. Leon tried to find out what “significant change” entailed but could not get a clear response from ICA.

“I am frustrated with the ICA system and I understand where they are coming from, but I believe everyone make mistakes and should be given a second chance in life,” said Leon. “My wife is pregnant now, so we have to plan how to divide our child’s time between two countries and parents.”

In response to his latest appeal to ICA, Leon was told to wait until their child is born; apply for citizenship for the child, then try appealing for Wendy again.

“How would our child feel they feel when they grow up and find out that their mother is not allowed to enter the country where the rest of us live?” 

Update, July 2020:

When Leon reached out to share his story in December 2018, he was appealing for an entry permit for his Vietnamese wife, Wendy. At that point, the ICA had told him to wait until their child was born, apply for citizenship for the child, then to try appealing for Wendy again.

Their daughter was born in Vietnam in May 2019, and Leon applied for Singapore citizenship for her. The girl was granted citizenship in December 2019. Two months later, Leon made another appeal to ICA for Wendy to be able to enter Singapore. However, he did not hear from them until the end of April 2020, when he was asked to submit some documents. 

“The documents that they asked for this time were different from the ones I submitted last time, so I thought maybe got chance,” he said.

He then waited for another three months before ICA responded, again, to say that his appeal was unsuccessful. 

It has been six months since Leon has seen his family in-person. With travel restrictions in place, he has not been able to fly to Vietnam to be with his family. Meanwhile, Wendy still does not have permission to come to Singapore. The couple has been relying on video calls to stay in contact in the meantime.

Leon is perplexed as to why Wendy is still not allowed to enter Singapore, when her daughter has already been granted citizenship. He questions why their child was able to get Singaporean citizenship in Singapore if ICA is not willing to allow one of her parents to be in the same country as her. 

“Is ICA rejection [in] the best interest for my daughter, or the best interest of our society? I also not sure why ICA even granted my daughter citizenship when they already factored in my wife’s situation.” 

*Pseudonyms

Note: The author of this post hopes to share his story to let others in similar situations know that they are not alone. He is open to being contacted by those in similar situations. Please email advocacy@aware.org.sg if you would like to be connected to him.