Invitation Letter to Come to Singapore

I do not have the exact date as to when the Philippine Bureau of Immigration started to have the policy of asking Filipinos going to Singapore to present a notarized (with official red seal) Invitation Letter from the Philippine Embassy of Singapore.

There seems to be a lot of talks about the legality of this policy. One person shared his opinion about this in inquirer.net online portal entitled "Invitation Letter" has no legal basis.

One particular blogger in Singapore named Jel, even wrote a letter to Vice Consul of Philippine Embassy of Singapore and the reply is the following (quoted from his comment in his blog):

Please be informed that the Affidavit of Invitation, or the invitation letter, may be required by the Immigration officer at the airport in the Philippines to verify the traveler's status as a bonafide tourist. This requirement was reinstituted as a preventive measure against illegal recruitment and human trafficking, which has recently risen in incidence.

The sponsor or host in Singapore will need to execute the Affidavit of Invitation at the Embassy for the person in the Philippines being invited. This Affidavit, in the original, may be requested by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration upon the departure of the invitee from the Philippines.

This Affidavit of Invitation is not a guarantee that the invitee will be allowed to travel and enter Singapore.

In short, whether you have an Invitation Letter or not, the assurance of you being able to leave the country going to Singapore is not guaranteed.

The idea is you just have to prove that your stay in Singapore is just for pleasure as a tourist. Therefore you must have to convince the Immigration Officer (IO) with whatever proof that you can present including the money to support your holiday vacation.

Nevertheless, having the said Invitation Letter with you, gives you a little advantage in case the IO will resort to ask you to present it. This will be your last resort, so make sure you do all the smooth talks and be as confident as you can be. Take note that IOs in Singapore will not ask you to present this, only the IOs in the Philippines.

How to Apply for Invitation Letter

You just have to ask your relative or friends in Singapore to go to Philippine Embassy and submit an application for it.

What to Bring

1. - Original Passport of Relative/Friend in SG 
2. - Work Pass (EP/SP/etc) of Relative/Friend in SG 
3. - Pen (This will help speed up the process) 
4. - Some Coins (For photocopying) 
5. - Money (42.50 SGD for 1 invitation Letter) 
6. - Details of the person to invite (Name, Age, Passport Number) 

Steps in Applying

• 1. Register at the guard house and tell him that you will secure an Invitation Letter 
• 2. He will tell you which window to proceed (it was in Window 5 the last time I applied) 
• 3. Secure yourself a priority number 
• 4. When your number is called proceed to designated window (i.e. window 5) 
• 5. Tell the person in charge that you will be applying for an Invitation Letter for your Friend/Relative 
• 6. He/She will give you a form to fill out and will ask you to photocopy the Passport and Work Pass 
• 7. After filling out the form, queue back to the window (priority number is not required) 
• 8. Submit the duly accomplished form and the photocopied documents 
• 9. He/She will inspect the document and will tell you to go to the cashier for payment 
• 10. Present the document to the cashier and pay 42.50 
• 11. Go back again to the designated teller window and queue again for the submission (priority number is not required) 
• 12. Submit the receipt and the documents 
• 13. He/She will tell you to come back the next working day for releasing 
• 14. Come back on the date of releasing and (hopefully) you will have now the Invitation Letter

You will then send the original Invitation Letter to your Friend or Relative in the Philippines.

The Invitation Letter form looks like the picture below. I took a photo of it when I was securing one last March 2011.

That's it! Good luck, and hopefully this can help you or your friends/relatives to come to Singapore. God bless.

-karim

P.S. If you have not read my blog post about Finding Jobs in Singapore, please hit the link and read it.

Investment for OFW

Many of us OFWs are not very educated when it comes to Financial domain. That includes me, I had to experience the hardships of financial burdens just to be awaken and realize that I need to do something about it.

Here is a fact, 1 out of my 10 OFW friends doesn't know about Stock Market, how does it work and what opportunities it is offering.

Click Here to Know How a Maid is Investing in Philippine Stock Market.

Prunes

This is gonna be the first of the new kind of posts that I will be posting from now on. I felt like this blog needs to lighten up a bit so I think of sharing some bloopers to make you :D or at least :) ...

This is about the usual laugh trip that we have in the office with my fellow OFWs who are mostly coming from Luzon area of the country.

So the story goes like this:

Walang Natira (Nothing Left)

I can't believe it is already six months since my last post to this blog. I guess the life of being a father to my OFW (Overseas Filipino Wondrous) kid (Yes, my 1-year old son is with me abroad :) ) is making my life doubly busy after work and got me fully booked during the weekends.

Hopefully I could post more often now as I don't want to put this blog to the sideline and into the never never land.

Anyway, I was reading posts in facebook when I was reminded of the song from Gloc 9. For those of you who may not realized this, I am a music lover so some of my posts here are about music videos that we all OFWs can relate.

Simbang Gabi in Singapore 2010

Five Days before Christmas. Ninongs (Godfathers) and Ninangs (Godmothers) are trying to catch up buying gifts for their growing number of Inaanak while others are still worrying on the delayed, rumored, sensationalized or imagined Christmas bonus. Anxious Parents, working doubly hard to have something to prepare and share for the kids long-awaited gifts and noche buena. Kids singing Christmas carols on the streets and neighborhood. Vendors experiencing ramp up in sales. What else did I miss? It's so hard to capture everything that is happening back home, while we are working abroad trying to feel the spirit of Christmas in our home away from home.

Filipina Maid inherits $6M

A lot of us have been dreaming of winning big in Sweepstakes, all ticket buyers and non-ticket buyers alike. :) I myself have been imagining on hitting the lucky pot, especially when the stake in the Philippine Lotto hits 741M Php (S$22.45M). And when a certain lucky guy hit it, that was the time when I realized that I was only dreaming as I was not buying any lotto ticket for me to win. Anyone willing to buy a ticket for me? Just hit me a message. Hehe.

Fast Forward

If I can change the way we represent time, I would like to require that every clock design should have wings with it, wings to remind us that time really really flies fast.

It is more than a year already since my last post for this time-forgotten blog. And a lot of big things happened to my life. I broke up from a long time relationship and found a new love here, got married and now already have a son who after being left in the Philippines for almost three months, has finally come and join us here in Singapore, for good.

When I decided to accept the opportunity of working here in Singapore, I was always reflecting then on why God had led me to come to this country. My career in the Philippines back then was more than enough to support me and even substantial to start a family. Now I realize that it is through this Country where I experienced huge changes in my life. It is when you go out from your comfort zone where you would finally begin to realize that the world is boundless when it comes to turning impossible to reality. It stripped me from all of the lies that covered my existence which had been suppressed by the shield of comfort which I myself has been providing. And most significantly, it led me to finding the soul who shared the same experience, the same values and the same dreams with me. In the end, I realized that you will never fully understand the Lord's plan for you unless you would put that first step out of the comfort of your own life.

Fast forward to 2010, I am now a happy married man to a very loving wife and a father to a very cute son who is beginning to show his inherited traits from me. It is like witnessing a reborn of myself to a new generation thirty years ahead of me.

This is my story, a story of an OFW man working in Singapore. :)

20 Minutes Before Take Off (A Sad Song)

One of the risks that every OFW takes in pursuing a dream abroad is to shatter a love affair that almost took them a lifetime to build. Though we would bravely prove the phrase "Long distance love affair doesn't work" to be wrong, this requires a lot of sacrifices and efforts to sustain, to keep the fire burnin', and to fill the gaps that would definitely goes wider over time if would be taken lightly.

Even if we are a part of a generation where communication is considerably cheap compared to a few years back, thru sms, voice chat, video chat, or a phone call. These are not enough and could never replace the presence of a partner to his/her lover. The touch, the kiss, the scent and a scene where you are physically there are crucial to every relationship to continue to grow.

I didn't even believe this when I decided to work overseas. What I believed was we already laid out a solid foundation of 5 years in our relationship of being together. I believed that our commitment to fight the odds together is enough for us to survive. But I guess we are just tricked by our own imagination. We are not as strong as what we've thought, and now we are facing the consequences of putting an end to a wonderful love that we've built for years. The love that pushed me to work abroad and the love that motivated me to keep moving on.

But... I am still hoping that what situation I am now into would not fall into the meanings of this song. Only God knows what will happen next.

20 Minutes Before Take Off - Dan & Henry (Filipino Artists)

Pinoy style: How to Visit Dubai then Apply for a Job

Hello everyone, to those of you who are interested to work in Dubai, I found this very informative resource to help you out. This is very similar to one of my previous posts here called Finding Jobs in Singapore. In this article the author is sharing his personal experiences in job hunting in Dubai. Keep on reading..

------------

Base on my personal experience some of the following are few tips you have to read and take note when planning to visit and find a job in Dubai.

OFW Story: Hopes, Dreams Outweigh Fears

Hello everyone, after a few days of no posts, I am now back into digging and finding interesting ofw stories to share with you. I recently just contracted this illness called love-sickness, yeah no kidding, don't say crap please.. :), so that's the reason why I was not able to update this blog. We have just some misunderstandings with my fiancee back home but we're all right now and continue fighting the challenges of being miles apart. Geez, I may sound already corny just now but that's what happened. It was just a failure of a network service provider to deliver the sms, hehe.. Petty things right? But sms is a crucial part for me to communicate with my loved ones back home, so that was it. :)

From Janitor to Entrepreneur, an OFW story

These days, Lady Luck is probably smiling from ear to ear on businessman Sebastian “Steve” Tamayo.

Managing several outlets of his famous chain of restaurants--Tamayo’s and other businesses, including a consultancy firm, a flower shop and catering services, Steve considers himself as one of the luckiest people in the world.

But life was not all a bed of roses for this self-styled restaurant owner. He, like, many of us, had been knocked down and hit rock bottom a couple of times.

Dan of Ireland: The OFW Story

Another OFW story of a man who once work as high school teacher and a college instructor back home, working like a horse to support his family but yet the hard-work was still not enough to sufficiently earn thus decided to head on for a roller-coaster-ride of working abroad.

Read the rest of the story of Dan from Ireland.

Filipinos walk a different path in this earth. Our race had left a significant mark in this tumultuous world. We the Filipino overseas worker, the new breed of modern nomads that seek greener pastures elsewhere to escape the clinch of poverty. Our life story, our struggle has always been told. Every day throngs of Filipinos board that one way ticket plane ride. With a pocket of a few borrowed dollars and a lot of prayers. We surrender ourselves to fate and luck, that we may find the promise land. A land far away from home, glittering with better paying jobs and endless prospects.


When I look back years ago when I braced myself to board my first international flight. Mixed emotions was triggered when I looked back to see what I was leaving behind. The land of my birth, my family and my friends that for years I will be parted. I indeed sacrificed all just to alleviate myself from penury. When I was young I never dreamed of life away from home. I dreamed of becoming a lawyer, a doctor, or a senator just like any other kid in our class. But the more you grow up the smaller your dreams become. The more you grow up the more you realize how cruel and unfair life was. From a young age I learned to work hard to continue on with my studies to get a degree. Due to hard work I even got a master’s degree. Even after all that hard work you still haven’t got a sense of security. My earnings still wasn’t enough for a better future for my son and my life still going nowhere. Years of hard labour bring little fruition. Even if I work myself to death the money I earn won’t even be enough for a decent funeral.

In 2005 my wife got a job here in the Republic of Ireland. I was so exuberant upon hearing the news for the first time. It was our way out of from poverty. At last destiny was shining upon us. I was so naïve then. I thought that being abroad was the answer to all my troubles. I also succumbed to the mindset that being abroad was a sign of success. Most Filipinos back home treated other countries outside our own as those whose streets are painted of gold and people lucky enough to go abroad will bring back tons of unimaginable wealth. Reality was far too different. The streets outside the country are not painted of gold but stained by the sweat and tears of OFW’s (Overseas Filipino Workers). Outside our country most of us live to work. To earn enough only to pay the bills and send some money back home. Having two jobs was often the way to get by. I was once a high school teacher and college instructor back home but here I started off as someone who cleans rooms and toilets for a living. I totally have no shame about my job and did it with dignity. We Filipinos are a resilient race as they say and I just proven that to myself over and over again.

Article Source: http://expatpinoy.blogspot.com/2008/06/ofw-story.html

Sa Aking Padala (A Song for Us: 2)

Jim Paredes seems to have this connection to OFWs, he certainly aware on the sacrifices and challenges that an OFW would go through in the process. Maybe because as what his friends call him, he is an "Aussie-W", a reverse OFW, because he works in the Philippines and is sending money to his family living in Australia. Though not exactly our case but the feeling of staying away from our loved ones should be the same.

This time he wrote a song called "Sa Aking Padala", I am a music lover (that's why I have my own videoke box) especially of OPM songs. Though this looks like an advertisement of Western Union, but the music itself is good and is really for us OFWs.

If you haven't read his article about how we OFWs became alienated to our own family, please find it here.

As a Mother Who Works as an OFW

Mothers are the most beautiful gifts and treasures that we have ever received, from giving us comfort in their own wombs, they risked their own lives just to give us a chance to see the world, to their sacrifices to raise us into a person that they can be proud of. No one could ever surpass the love of a mother to her own child, and no seas or mountains can ever stop her to get her children back to her loving arms.

This is a story of a mother who works as an OFW, feel her pains and joys, as she tells you her own experiences in battling the challenges of getting reunited with her precious daughter. Read the rest of the story.

A Song for Us

This is for all of us who are hoping that a day would come that we will no longer be working miles away from our respective families, that we will be reunited with them for good, that someday would come that we will be saying to them, "I'm Coming Home".

Enjoy the Video from YouTube.



"Home"

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

World-Class Singer: Vincent Bueno

I've come across this video in youtube, among many filipino singers who proved their talents outside the border of the Philippines, like Madonna Decena, Charise Pempengco, Charlie Green and Arnel Pineda, this fella is also musically gifted and proved his worth by bagging the championship in Austrian talent competition “Musical! Die Show”, outshining a total of 400 participants.

He received a 67 percent of all the televotes cast (landslide win) from televiewers of Austria, with the second placer, Austrian Eva Klikovics garnering 37 percent. He won a total of 50,000 euros as grand prize.

Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting a Top-Caliber Filipino Singer..(drum roll).. Vincent Bueno.. Clap!3x.. Enjoy the video..

2008 ESOL Teacher of the Year Award

Alright, I've noticed that I have been posting a lot of sad stories about OFW lately. So, this time I want something that would inspire us, something that would give us a spark to keep moving forward and do excellent performances in our respective host countries.

This one is a story of a Filipino Teacher in New York City, he is Feliciano "Chito" Jaime Atienza, a world-class OFW.

I'm Sorry Dad

Here is another story of an OFW who wanted to lift his family's financial status by going to Mauritius and to work in a fishing vessel that later on turned out to be a living hell.

This is just an excerpt of the original article from Rinka Chic's blog. The author is relaying the story told by her aunt who happened to be one of the instruments of rescuing the OFW from his floating coffin.

Finding Jobs in Singapore

Many friends are asking me on how to find jobs in Singapore, so I am writing these tips to help them know and everyone else who happens to be interested in landing a job here in SG. These are all based on my experiences and from others' as well that I've accumulated from the different filipino groups, discussion forum and any form of online filipino community in Singapore.

How to Apply:

Clara: Filipina rape victim in Qatar

I happened to read this particular article from mefilipinos dot wordpress dot com. Though this has happened way back in 2006 but it is just so sad for me to pass on this one, without letting you know the situations that some of our domestic helpers kababayan are suffering in the middle east. As mentioned in my previous article "Mail-order Brides, Prostitutes and DH", so sad that even our own government agencies cannot offer an extended hands and services to these victims of oppression and sexual assaults.