Visa Regulations

I never had any problems with getting a visa before, but Singapore made things quite difficult. The two most common visas for interns are the "Work Holiday Pass" (WHP) and the "Training Employment Pass" (TEP).

The easiest option is the WHP as it allows you to stay and work in Singapore for 6 months. Until recently pretty much all German university students could apply for this pass, but from December 2012 the eligibility criteria have changed so that only students from certain universities may get the WHP. These are the selection criteria of the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (as of 16/03/2013):

"University undergraduates and graduates aged 18 to 25 years old of all nationalities studying in selected universities in the eight countries/territories: Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States.
The universities must be ranked among the top 200 in any of the following international rankings within the past five years:
- Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings 
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 
- Times Higher Education World University Rankings"

Unfortunately my German university was not ranked among the top 200, when I applied less than a month after the new regulations were in place. Therefore, my WHP application was rejected.

Luckily, the company I will do my internship with was really supportive and they suggested to apply for the TEP. This visa means a lot more paperwork for the company as they were the ones applying for me. It also means that my internship will only be 3 months as that's the maximum duration the TEP is valid for it's not extendable.

The selection criteria are either a monthly salary of at least 3000 S-Dollar or the internship must be part of the study programme of an accepted institution. As my University requires me to do an internship either in Germany or abroad I was granted the visa even though I do not meet the salary criteria. To see all requirements please visit the website of the Ministry of Manpower.