Me and Malaysia
A few weeks after my 21st birthday I received a letter from ICA reminding me that I had to take the oath of allegiance. Failure to do so by my 22nd birthday would result in me losing my citizenship. After procrastinating for a few months and constant nagging from my parents, I finally decided to take the first step - making a trip to the Malaysian High Commission to get a letter to certify that I renounced the Malaysian citizenship.
When I received that letter, I was suddenly reminded that I wasn't a Singaporean by birth. Since Singapore's citizenship is based on jus sanguinis and not jus solis, I had to take my parents' Malaysian citizenship despite being born here. My birth certificate still reads this child is not a Singaporean citizen at birth. Actually this doesn't matter much to me until I had to go through the whole troublesome process of taking the oath of allegiance now.
My father drove me to the Malaysian High Commisson on a Monday. By the way the Malaysian High Commission is at Jervois Rd which is somewhere in River Valley area. I went to the consular section and asked for the forms to renounce the citizenship. I started to fill in the stuff on the set of forms until I realized that I couldn't answer the questions in Malay. So I went back to the counter and asked the guy working there. He gave me another set, telling me that it must be typed out. There were people providing this service outside the compound.
No choice my father and I went out to locate the people providing the services. They weren't hard to find as there were queues forming up for the services outside their vans. I guess that there are many people who are giving up their Malaysian citizenships and become Singaporeans like myself. It was a long wait. There was a family of four who were getting their forms typed out as well as a girl whom I think was of similar age as me. The guy typing also had to entertain people who needed to have their photos taken for their passports. Thus I had to wait there for an hour plus before my set of forms was done. The service cost 20 bucks which I felt was easy money. I didn't feel that it was worth paying that much but my father paid for me. So nothing to complain about except that I had missed the latest submission time at 11am and had to make another trip the next day.
I started to develop this conspiracy theory which involves the High Commission staff and the men providing services. The men providing the services clearly needed the High Commission staff to insist that the forms be typed. I was wondering if there was any under table deal between the two. Perhaps I was just overzealous and paranoid.
The next morning we went down again to submit the forms. There were some minor glitches like incorrectly photocopied documents and pasting the photos at the wrong place. After making me thumbprinting about 30 times amd pay the 5 dollars fee, the Malay lady finally issued me a receipt to collect a document the following Wednesday afternoon. When I went back I asked my brother what was the document to be collected. He had went through the identical proccess 2 years earlier and told me that it was a temporary letter informing the Singapore authorities that I had applied to renounce my old citizenship. He still hasn't get his official renounciation certificate yet and this really reflects our neighbour's efficiency.
I actually went to read up about Singapore's citizenship laws. Singaporeans up to the age of 21 are actually allowed to hold dual nationality. So I actually belong to this group of people. Wow. I thought it was kinda cool as not everyone can get to hold dual citizenship. Upon reaching the age of 21 the person holding dual citizenship will have to choose between the two as Singapore doesn't recognize dual nationality.
Actually my parents had chosen for me back when they became Singapore citizens. All our Malaysian passports were returned. The only travel document I'm holding is my Singapore International Passport. I wondered what was my parents' feelings when they renounced their Malaysian citizenships. Both of them had stayed in Malaysia until their early 20s and were Malaysians for more than 30 years of their lives. Surely there would be some nostalgia. I definitely would consider very carefully if I really need to give up my Singaporean citizenship one day.
Anyway the following Wednesday I went to collect the letter and it was done within 20 minutes. The staff told me that the official document would be ready in 2 years and they would send a letter to my house to inform me. Well I guess that there must be a lot of Malaysians renouncing their citizenship and I would have to wait for my turn. Finally I got to the final step of the whole process which is taking the oath of allegiance at the ICA building. So the possibility of losing my citizenship has gone and I will remain a Singaporean for at least quite some time.
When I received that letter, I was suddenly reminded that I wasn't a Singaporean by birth. Since Singapore's citizenship is based on jus sanguinis and not jus solis, I had to take my parents' Malaysian citizenship despite being born here. My birth certificate still reads this child is not a Singaporean citizen at birth. Actually this doesn't matter much to me until I had to go through the whole troublesome process of taking the oath of allegiance now.
My father drove me to the Malaysian High Commisson on a Monday. By the way the Malaysian High Commission is at Jervois Rd which is somewhere in River Valley area. I went to the consular section and asked for the forms to renounce the citizenship. I started to fill in the stuff on the set of forms until I realized that I couldn't answer the questions in Malay. So I went back to the counter and asked the guy working there. He gave me another set, telling me that it must be typed out. There were people providing this service outside the compound.
No choice my father and I went out to locate the people providing the services. They weren't hard to find as there were queues forming up for the services outside their vans. I guess that there are many people who are giving up their Malaysian citizenships and become Singaporeans like myself. It was a long wait. There was a family of four who were getting their forms typed out as well as a girl whom I think was of similar age as me. The guy typing also had to entertain people who needed to have their photos taken for their passports. Thus I had to wait there for an hour plus before my set of forms was done. The service cost 20 bucks which I felt was easy money. I didn't feel that it was worth paying that much but my father paid for me. So nothing to complain about except that I had missed the latest submission time at 11am and had to make another trip the next day.
I started to develop this conspiracy theory which involves the High Commission staff and the men providing services. The men providing the services clearly needed the High Commission staff to insist that the forms be typed. I was wondering if there was any under table deal between the two. Perhaps I was just overzealous and paranoid.
The next morning we went down again to submit the forms. There were some minor glitches like incorrectly photocopied documents and pasting the photos at the wrong place. After making me thumbprinting about 30 times amd pay the 5 dollars fee, the Malay lady finally issued me a receipt to collect a document the following Wednesday afternoon. When I went back I asked my brother what was the document to be collected. He had went through the identical proccess 2 years earlier and told me that it was a temporary letter informing the Singapore authorities that I had applied to renounce my old citizenship. He still hasn't get his official renounciation certificate yet and this really reflects our neighbour's efficiency.
I actually went to read up about Singapore's citizenship laws. Singaporeans up to the age of 21 are actually allowed to hold dual nationality. So I actually belong to this group of people. Wow. I thought it was kinda cool as not everyone can get to hold dual citizenship. Upon reaching the age of 21 the person holding dual citizenship will have to choose between the two as Singapore doesn't recognize dual nationality.
Actually my parents had chosen for me back when they became Singapore citizens. All our Malaysian passports were returned. The only travel document I'm holding is my Singapore International Passport. I wondered what was my parents' feelings when they renounced their Malaysian citizenships. Both of them had stayed in Malaysia until their early 20s and were Malaysians for more than 30 years of their lives. Surely there would be some nostalgia. I definitely would consider very carefully if I really need to give up my Singaporean citizenship one day.
Anyway the following Wednesday I went to collect the letter and it was done within 20 minutes. The staff told me that the official document would be ready in 2 years and they would send a letter to my house to inform me. Well I guess that there must be a lot of Malaysians renouncing their citizenship and I would have to wait for my turn. Finally I got to the final step of the whole process which is taking the oath of allegiance at the ICA building. So the possibility of losing my citizenship has gone and I will remain a Singaporean for at least quite some time.
posted by shyh jie at 12:27 AM
4 Comments:
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am in the midst of renouncing my Malaysian citizenship. Despite being a Malaysian for more than 30 years, I am now giving this up with no regrets, especially having to go thru all the red tape and ineffient government process, which seriously put me off for being a Malaysian (Though I used to enjoy being a Malaysian very much). I am planning to go back to KL to submit the borang K and are now googleing all different info I could from the internet. Hopefully, it will be a "one time" process. Wish me luck. Allis
Hi , thanks for your valuable sharing. I just got the approval from ICA, and is wondering how to go about renouncing my malaysian citizenship. I was given a date to go to ICA and prior to that got to renounce my citizenship at High Comm. Could you enlighten if they required all expired and old passports ? I was told that they need but i do not have all. Do you mean that once they give you the letter to ICA is ok, then we just need to wait for the Borong L. Do you mind to drop me an email to destang@hotmail.com so that I can seek your advice. Thanks so much. Desmond
Dude, I loved your story. Here’s an interesting case for everyone to ponder. I am a US Citizen - a Taiwanese American to be specific. I have never live in Malaysia and have no relative there. I inherited the Malaysian Citizenship by birth but has never resides in the country soon after birth. A few years ago, I have decided to renounce my Malaysian Citizenship thinking that I have never live there, no roots, no history, and no families in that country besides my birth rights. After sending in my package of requirements to the Malaysian High Commission in one of the US major city to renounce my Malaysia Citizenship, I was left out in the cold without any follow up communication for almost a whole year. I called several times and was told that my package was sent to Malaysia for processing. Without a clear explanation as to why the processing took so long, I finally gave in and decided to cancel the whole renunciation process. Within a week, I received the whole package in it original form and received a phone call from a nice gentleman from the High Commission asking me to keep the Citizenship. He insisted that I have nothing to lose and should keep it for “fun” since it is an added privilege even though I have no relationship to the country. To-date, I am still puzzled by the whole incident. Looks like I'm not the only one feeling spooked.
I suppose you would probably have completed the entire process by now. After Borang K is submitted, it will take 2 to 3 years before you collect it back from them. Is that what happened? Do you get your birth cert back as well?
Thanks for your info.
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