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Is it OK to Ask for Race and Religion on Visa Application Forms?

The fine line between necessity and violation

Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
4 min readJul 17, 2022
Photo 45820257 © Stuartbur | Dreamstime.com

I just got back from a trip to Singapore — the second time I went there after my last trip before this which was in 2016.

Last time we’d planned it on a whim, and my friend and I had spent about a week on vacation essentially “backpacking” and staying in 8-bunk-bed hostel rooms.

I don’t recall filling out the application form as we probably outsourced it to a travel agent in India.

This time, it was for work, and it was all very short notice and I filled out the whole visa application form myself.

I am far more well-traveled than I was six years ago, and I’ve lived in a foreign country i.e. Hong Kong, away from home, for the past five. I am also a lot more aware of things around me than I used to be.

I’ve filled out enough visa forms to know that there was something very odd about this visa application — technically a business visa application.

I had to fill in information that seemed less necessary, more intrusive

The form in question is freely available on the Singapore ministry website so feel free to access it here if you’d like —…

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Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Written by Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Stay-at-home-dad who "retired" from a 12-year career in finance at the age of 35. Curious thinker with an opinion on nearly everything and is here to share it.

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