Making A Declaration when ICA Applications for Visas, Permanent Residence or Citizenship Are Prepared by Third Party
Ministry of Home AffairsSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Associate Professor Jamus Jerome Lim’s inquiry on whether ICA applicants should be required to declare if their documentation was prepared by a third party. Minister K Shanmugam responded that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority does not endorse commercial consultants and advises applicants to exercise caution when engaging their services. He emphasized that the onus of ensuring information is true and complete rests solely with the applicant, regardless of whether a third party assisted in the preparation. Consequently, a declaration is considered irrelevant because applicants are held legally responsible for all statements and must personally confirm the veracity of their submission. This policy ensures that applicants cannot raise spurious defenses to avoid accountability for false declarations, maintaining the principle of individual responsibility for immigration applications.
Transcript
46 Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs whether the Ministry has considered requiring applicants who had their ICA application documentation for visas, permanent residence or citizenship prepared by a third party to indicate this via a declaration.
Mr K Shanmugam: The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) does not support or endorse services offered by commercial entities or consultants who claim that they are able to help applicants improve their success in obtaining long-term immigration facilities, such as Permanent Residence or Singapore Citizenship.
Applicants who choose to engage the services of any third party in the preparation of their immigration application are advised to exercise caution. The onus is always on the applicant to ensure that the information submitted in the application is true, accurate and complete. If the application contains false declaration(s), the applicant will be held responsible, regardless of whether a third party had helped prepare the application. The applicant is required to confirm that the facts stated in the application are true and will have to take personal responsibility for it.
Thus, from ICA's perspective, it is not relevant whether an application has been prepared by a third party. In law the responsibility for the application remains with the applicant. To deviate from that principle will lead to endless possibilities of applicants raising spurious defences to try and avoid responsibility for false statements.