The organization's foremost goal is to serve as a home away from home for Singaporeans. Throughout the academic year, we organize various events for our members to get together, with an aim of developing closer ties and fostering kinship. We also aim to promote Singaporean culture and heritage to the Cornell community.
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SSA Card
The SSA Members' Card is a symbol of SSA membership and a good memento to bring back to Singapore! In addition, it also provides discounts at the following shops!
Organized by the Cornell Singapore Students Association, Makanmania is an annual food festival showcasing the best of Singaporean cuisine! Singapore is a culinary jewel in the heart of Southeast Asia whose people have an enduring love affair with their food. Come down to Duffield Hall on Saturday, 10th of September, at 8 p.m. to experience a slice of foodie heaven right at your doorstep!
Before you begin, make sure you're at a computer with a working printer.
Go to http://www.ustraveldocs.com/sg/ and read the instructions for how to apply for a nonimmigrant visa. This is the new website for visa applications if you're a Singaporean. Do NOT use the US Embassy Singapore website, which I did and thusly failed spectacularly (but the address is http://singapore.usembassy.gov/student_visas.html if you want to fail too). The instructions there are outdated and WRONG.
You'll need to fill up this form called the DS-160 first. From the US travel docs website, click on 'DS-160 information' and then find the link that brings you to the online form (https://ceac.state.gov/GENNIV/default.aspx). You'll be asked a security question and then issued an application number. Copy the application number down somewhere (right click and select copy, or use ctrl-C on your keyboard and paste it onto notepad or word); you'll see the value of this very soon. This is an annoyingly long questionnaire, and you'd best have your passport and I-20 (the printed document issued by Cornell's ISSO; it says 'U.S. Department of Justice' on the top-left corner) with you when you begin the process. The DS-160 will ask for silly things like your middle school and high school addresses, so be prepared to Google for them, or dig out yer good ole' testimonials.
There are many pages to fill in the DS-160. Get ready to be frustrated, because while the system says it will time out after 20 minutes of inactivity, often it will time out as soon as you click 'next' and proceed to the next page. I found that the best remedy for this is to cuss out loud. After that, re-login to the website using the application number you copied earlier and then continue where you left off. It helps if you picked an easy answer for the security question. I used my old telephone number.
Print out your DS-160 confirmation page. Not tomorrow, not after lunch, not after pee break... NOW! If you didn't upload a picture during the DS-160 application process, your printout will have an area that is marked as 'x - photo not provided'. This is OK, you'll submit a printed picture anyway so it doesn't matter.
Pay the SEVIS fee online using a credit card (the US travel docs website doesn't mention this on their checklist, what the fail). It's also called the form I-901. You may vaguely remember reading something about the SEVIS fee before. That's because Cornell sent a supplemental FAQ document about the SEVIS fee; it was included with your I-20. Basically what this means is that you will be USD $200 poorer and to do that, you have to go to https://www.fmjfee.com/i901fee/ In the process, you will be asked for your SEVIS identification number. This is the number directly above the barcode on the first page of your I-20 form and it looks like 'N000xxxxxxx'.
Print out your SEVIS fee confirmation NOW. Not tomorrow, not after lunch, and certainly not after you've closed your browser! There's no e-mail receipt for the payment and you cannot retrieve the page again after you leave. You need this confirmation page when you go to the US Embassy.
Begin on your US visa application. You can access this from the US travel docs website under the 'apply for visa' link (https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/). Create an account and login. The website can frustrating to use because it doesn't have instructions. If you're lost, click on 'update profile' to begin. Sooner or later, you'll be asked for your SEVIS identification number to prove that you've paid the SEVIS fee. Don't fail by keying in the SEVIS payment receipt number! The system does not do error checking for you.
You'll be asked to provide proof of a payment for your visa before you can schedule an appointment; this is different from the SEVIS fee you earlier paid. Time to get some exercise. Bring $200 in Singapore currency and march to the nearest Standard Chartered bank branch. Wave the wad of money at the bank officer and tell him that you want a 'US visa fees deposit form' to make payment for a US visa application. In stark contrast to your opulence, they'll issue you a cheap-looking scrap of paper where you have to fill in your passport number. Make sure to use your complete passport number (include the letters at the front and back). If you're using a biometric passport, take note that your passport number isn't the same as your IC number.
Cough up the dough. It should set you back around $182, but could vary depending on the current USD/SGD conversion rate. The bank should know the exact amount you need to pay. If they don't know, roll your eyes and tell them to call up other branches to check. In any case the F1 visa fee is supposed to be USD $140.
If you have an account with Standard Chartered bank and access to their e-banking facilities, you can skip the above drama and just pay online. And no, you can't make the visa application fee payment from other banks.
Once you've paid up, don't discard the useless-looking carbon copy of the receipt! You'll need this later.
Now's a good time to go take a picture (since you're already outside), if you haven't got one on paper yet. Go to any one of those photo developer shops and ask to take a picture. Make sure they understand that it's for the US visa, not a passport photo. If they squint at you, frown and/or go "har?", tell them the final product should measure 5cm by 5cm, or maybe just visit another shop that knows better.
When you take your picture, you need to look 'neutral'. No toothy-smile, no mischievous grin, no painful grimace, no smirk, no sneer. If you can, get the picture on matte paper. If not, too bad but nevermind. Just try not to leave fingerprints on the photo if you got your picture developed on gloss paper.
Hint: if you have a digital camera and some amateur Photoshop skills, you can probably take your picture at home and size it to the needed 5cm by 5cm. You have to make sure your eye is at a certain height and your head measures certain width, among other requirements (go to http://travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html for the complete list; check out the photo examples to see what is fail and what is win) Once you have the photo done to your liking, enlarge the canvas to 152x102mm and bring the JPEG file to a developing shop to have it printed on 4R paper. 4R paper is in fact 152x102mm so your photo will not be scaled; if you simply bring along your 5cm by 5cm picture and try to print it, depending on the operator it could turn out incorrectly sized. Once printed, go home and cut the picture out yourself. I saved about $14 this way.
Go home, log back on to US visa application website. For some reason, you won't be able to directly access the link to key in your payment number (the reason is bad website design). Instead, click on 'update profile' and then click through until you get to the very end, where they ask for an 8 digit payment code. This code is the printed 8 digit number preceding your passport number on the scrap receipt that Standard Chartered Bank issued you. If the system doesn't recognize the payment code, wait about 4 hours and then try again.
Once the system recognizes your payment, you can schedule an interview day and time. You probably won't get same-week slots because they fill up quick. Try to pick the early ones so you don't have to wait too long on that day.
To a large mixing bowl, add your: passport (passports if you have old ones), DS160 confirmation page, SEVIS fee receipt printout, Standard Chartered Bank's US visa fees receipt, I-20, visa photo and scholarship letter (if self-funded, parents' bank and tax statements). Optionally add an egg and some flour. Stir well and let stand in a safe place until your interview date.
Bring your mixing bowl and all your fingers to the interview at the US Embassy. It may rain or it may be hellishly hot and sunny, so have an umbrella with you because you'll have to wait outside. Be punctual but don't be too early. You can't take your cellphone inside the embassy so there'll be no Angry Birds to keep you entertained. Instead, bring some light reading material.
During the interview, you'll be asked some questions. The main purpose of those questions is to establish that you're not applying for an F1 visa (which is a non-immigrant visa) as a guise to sneakily migrate there and live happily ever after off US taxpayer funding. You need to (a) demonstrate that you have some reasonable financial sources to tide you over any expenses you'll incur and (b) show that you have good reason to return to Singapore after your studies. This is where the scholarship letter or your parents' bank/tax statements come in useful -- it shows them that you have money, and either a bond to serve or a family to return to at the end of your studies. Don't worry if you actually intend to stay on in the USA to work after graduation. For interview purposes they just want to make sure you won't be an illegal immigrant. As long as the interviewer feels that you have compelling reasons to return to Singapore after you graduate, that's good enough.
Go home, play Angry Birds, relax and wait for your passport to come back to you. Then see you at Cornell!
Satay Party
Our Annual NEW STUDENT AND ALUMNI SATAY RECEPTION! Meet all Cornellians of Singapore - alumni, graduating students, returning students, new freshmen, and students studying at the Cornell-Nanyang campus! Details as follows:
Date: 23 July 2011, Saturday
Schedule:
4pm Registration
4.30pm Intro by respective clubs and Presentation/Q&A by SSA
Please RSVP to cornell.ssa@gmail.com by 20 July 2011. Drop us a reply even if you are unable to attend - in order for us to add you to the Cornell Singaporean network, and for us to more easily contact you in future.
So, join us at our big send-off for you, and meet the other students who will be with you on campus! It's a great way to start building your friendships and support network abroad.
Grad Night
The Singapore Students’ Association held its annual graduation night event for its graduating batch of seniors on a beautiful Monday evening, just before the start of the spring semester’s final exams. Held in the exquisite Heights Café in northern Ithaca, seniors dined on a range of the finest cuisine to be found in Tompkins County, and enjoyed a night of reminiscing with friends and college mates about their wonderful experiences in Cornell University. The seniors were gifted with specially made class of ’11 teddy bears as mementoes of their time in college, and watched a graduation video, a compilation of photos and quotes that evoked powerful waves of nostalgia for the good old days. As our seniors prepare to face the brave new world of work, love and life arrayed about them as a tapestry of near infinite possibility, the SSA wishes them all the best in their endeavors, secure in the certainty of their bright futures ahead.
