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So much for eServices….

As much as our local government pushes for eServices on the Internet, I found it better to make a short trip down to the immigration offices to get my questions answered in person.

First of all, the customer hotline is so hot that you either get an engage tone on the first try or if you are lucky to get through, you might to wait up to an hour before you speak to a human. I wouldn’t want to stick my ear to the phone for that long.

I usually try the other line but that’s the quality control hotline. What I got was some answers, but I wasn’t confident of it. In fact, what irk me was the judgmental remark the operator made about our decision to choose to bring my son into Singapore using a passport from the country up north instead of the Singapore one. Shouldn’t operators take a neutral position in their responses?

If you send an email, it will take up to three working days for a reply.

So I decided to make a stop at the immigration office on the way back from meeting a client.

Guess what? I got my answers within 10 minutes and between two floors.

If technology was suppose to reduce your need to make such trips down, guess in this case here, its better to go down and talk to a real human being.

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