Vietnamese man caned, jailed for overstaying in Singapore

Dang Nguyen Sinh Nhat, 38, pleaded guilty to illegally staying in Singapore for 10 years, seven months and 22 days at the State Court on Tuesday, Yahoo News Singapore reported.

Nhat had been issued a Student Pass to study at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, but he failed to pay his school fees.

Instead of leaving the island nation after his residence permit had expired in July 2008, he stayed on in Singapore, but it is not known what he did over the last 10 years.

According to the indictment, Nhat came to Singapore to study dance at Nafa in mid-2006 and was issued with a Student Pass, which was valid until April 2009. He was also granted a Visit Pass for the same period as the Student Pass.

However, his Student Pass was canceled by ICA at Nafa’s request on April 14 2008, as he was unable to cover his tuition fees.

ICA then granted him another temporary residence permit at the school’s request so that he could raise money to cover the tuition fees.

The resident permit was extended several times, but Nhat still couldn’t manage to pay his fees.

When his residence status expired in early July 2008, he did not apply for extension of his stay and remained unlawfully in Singapore since.

He surrendered himself to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on February 23 this year.

Under the current law in Singapore, the punishment for illegal overstay in Singapore for more than 90 days is up to six months in jail and at least three strokes of the cane.