By investing 2.5 million SGD to establish a new business entity in Singapore, you and your family can immigrate to Singapore. If you are bringing children who are about to start school, you must consider the matter of their enrollment. Singaporean kindergartens accept foreign students aged 3 and above (referring to the age reached within a calendar year). The grade levels corresponding to those in mainland China are: N2 - Nursery (3 years old), K1 - Kindergarten 1 (5 years old), and K2 - Kindergarten 2 (6 years old). These are divided into half-day sessions, with options for full-day or half-day attendance. Kindergartens do not require a local guarantor; a guarantor is only required from primary school onwards. However, when you first arrive for life in Singapore, you are unfamiliar with the environment, so how can you choose a suitable kindergarten for your child?
1. Basic Requirements
First, parents need to have a foundation in English, or at least have a friend who understands English to assist.
You must prepare sufficient funds and account for unplanned expenses.
2. Preliminary Screening
Select about 30 kindergartens in your preferred area and check their information online. If you find them suitable, mark them down.
Send emails to the kindergartens to inquire about openings for your child's grade level and the tuition fees (one semester is 10 weeks). If you have friends in Singapore, you can ask them to help make phone calls for a faster response, or simply make a long-distance call yourself.
3. Shortlisting
Select about 10 kindergartens that have openings. Rank them according to your intuition and level of satisfaction, and finalize your visitation route. It is basically impossible to visit 2 schools in one go if you are walking; usually, you should take the MRT to the vicinity and then transfer to a bus or taxi.
4. Site Visit
Inform the kindergarten about 2 days in advance that you would like to conduct a site visit and ask if it is convenient. Optimize your route based on the kindergarten's available visiting hours (mostly 8:30–16:00).
If you are also there for tourism, you can spend less time planning the route.
Observe the kindergarten's environment, surrounding property prices, traffic convenience, and other factors before finalizing your choice.
5. Registration
Registration requires the passport numbers of the parents and child, the child's birth certificate, and vaccination records (the green immunization booklet). You don't necessarily need the originals, but it is best to bring them if possible. You can fully authorize someone else to handle this for you.
Generally, after paying the registration fee, the kindergarten can immediately apply for the student pass on the ICA website. Once completed, they will print a Registration Acknowledgement for you, which contains a SOLAR+ Application No.
6. Applying for a Student's Pass
Once you meet the conditions, immediately apply for the Student's Pass on the ICA Student PASS SOLAR website. This essentially involves filling out Form 16 (the visa application form) and Form V36 (parental information: names, passport details, educational background, occupation, annual income, and savings).
7. Waiting for ICA Approval
The official processing time is 2 weeks, but approval usually takes about 10 days. You can check the results on SOLAR+.
8. Obtaining the Student's Pass
When you see that your application status is IPA, you need to pay 60 SGD. It is best to pay online immediately and notify the kindergarten that the Student's Pass has been approved. Ask them to print (or download) the "Student's PASS - Completion of Formalities" and send it to you. Before you receive the physical Student's Pass, this letter acts as your child's Singaporean student visa.
9. Collecting the Student's Pass
Collect a queue number from the kiosk on the 4th floor of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) building. The staff will only allow you to take a number half an hour before your appointment time. Usually, your number will be called within 15 minutes after your scheduled time. Then, submit the materials. After about 1 hour of verification and card production, you can collect it.
A very important point: Do not miss your appointment, otherwise the application will become invalid and you will have to restart the whole process. You can change the appointment time twice; exceeding this means starting over.
At this point, the process from finding a kindergarten to collecting the Student's Pass is successfully completed. The next step is to handle the procedures for a caregiver visa (for the mother), which is also applied for on the same day. Now, wait for the approval. The most user-friendly aspect of the ICA is that the visa extension is automatically processed during the application for the caregiver visa. It is approved within one working day for a 30-day extension, so the mother does not need to leave and re-enter the country.
