Man fined $2,000 over false declaration in wife's visa application, a first under new ICA law
A man in Singapore was fined $2,000 on July 10 after he made false declarations when applying for his wife's visa.Tan Kim Lam, 65, was arrested along with his wife, Lin Qiaoming, by Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers on May 8 following an investigation into the offence.He is the first person to be prosecuted under section 57(1)(ka) of the Immigration Act 1959, which came into effect on Dec 31, 2024.Tan first met Lin, now 49, in 2002 through mutual friends in Singapore. Lin was a social visitor at the time.Lin, a Chinese national, then left Singapore illegally to avoid detection as she had failed to regularise her stay after her social visit pass had expired, ICA said.After returning to China, Tan and Lin still kept in touch.Lin purportedly entered Singapore multiple times between 2009 and 2015 under an assumed identity to avoid being identified for her previous offences.Despite lacking proficiency in English, Tan acted as her sponsor for her visa applications under the assumed identity.