The Passport To The Rest Of The World

Baby Jayne has just gotten her very first passport in her life!

Quite frankly, if we were not going to Malaysia tomorrow, I would delay making her a passport as much as I can. This is because due to the new immigration laws, every Singaporean human being now must have their own personal passport regardless of their age. Infants or children can no longer tag along their parents’ passports. There is also no more ‘change of photo’ allowed for passports, so every time the passport holder’s face changes, a new passport must be made. And that is a whooping S$70 every single time!!!!! Going by how fast their faces change, you can imagine how lucrative this business is.

Joey is only 3 years old now, and she already has 2 passports to her name. No choice, since toddler Joey obviously looks very different from baby Joey. She first made her passport when she was just one month old.

This reminded me of a story that my parents told me not too long ago. You might be intrigued to know that I first broke the law when I was barely 3 days old.

Both my parents are Malaysians working in Singapore. I was born in a hospital in Malaysia and about 3 days after I was born, my parents brought me over to Singapore to settle some birth registration matters. They totally forgot that a newborn baby also needs traveling documents and did not make a passport for me then. The funny thing was that they even made it through the immigration checkpoint successfully! It was only on their 2nd day in Singapore that they suddenly realised that I had been made an illegal immigrant at such a tender age (I swear I had absolutely no say in this). With trembling hands, they confessed to the Customs & Immigrations Office on their way back to Malaysia from Singapore. Thank God they did not decide to put me in jail. It must have been God’s grace that brought me through to who I am today.