The authority now requires a resident to provide documentary proof for a change of address in the NRIC records. The documents could be a bill sent to the resident in the new address. This can caused timing problem.
I wish to suggest a practical solution. The new resident can ask two neighbours to be witnesses to the residency. The neighbours particulars can be provided for the authority to make the verification.
This is simple and effective. It also encourges the new resident to knock on the doors of the neighbours.
There's no foolproof way and the most efficient would be the billing address (As most probably, the companies have already done their background check on the address). So, this is efficient as the authorities do not have to perform another round of background check.
ReplyDeleteIf the neighbours were to sign for it, a few problems crop up:-
1) SINGAPOREANS, by nature, would not vouch for a person (not unless he knows the person very very well..). So, a neighbour whom you barely know ? Are you sure?
2) The authorities when they received the application form(witness statement), would still need to verify the particulars of the witnesses to ensure it is not a case of fraud. This requires unnecessary administrative effort (since a phone bill would have achieve the same effect of ensuring the person is leaving in the new place).
Therefore, I think the suggestion might need to be tweak for it to work. How? I'm not sure 'coz I find the current bill verification process to be quite effective and simple for normal folks to perform.