Guess we're going to be in Singapore for a bit longer.

In a few weeks we will have been in Singapore for 2 whole years. That means our permissions to be in Singapore and our condo lease were expiring.

Work sent in the paperwork to renew our work/dependent passes and now we're approved to stay in Singapore for 3 more years. Jonathan was ecstatic and I cried.

Despite agreeing that it makes sense for us to stay in Singapore, I also knew that if our passes were declined we would have to leave the country within 30 days - and so we would go home.

That would have been tough and especially hard on the kids. But we would have gotten to see all our family, and it wouldn't have been me making us leave Singapore. We doubt we'll be here for the full 3 more years, but this does seem to be how it starts.

Everyone we know talks about how you're here for 2 years and leave, or you wake up one day and realize you've been living in Singapore for 10 years and have no intention of leaving. There doesn't seem to be an in-between ground.    

If you have to be any where during a global pandemic, Singapore does seems to be the place to be. Just a few weeks ago, Singapore was listed as the safest place to be in the world. It's got low Covid numbers, high vaccine accessibility, and almost no crime. We certainly feel quite safe here.

We've also now renewed our condo lease for another year. Most of the time you are very locked into leases in Singapore; you need to pay out the full amount of the lease. There are no renter protections in Singapore. Luckily, we were able to get our Diplomatic Exit clause carried over to our new lease, so we only need to provide 2 months notice if we are exiting the country. In our first lease we were unable to break our lease for any reason before 12 months, plus 2, so a full 14 months. This is also why we chose to stay in our current condo. We also love the neighbourhood.

We should have lots of time to see what we haven't seen of Singapore now. Maybe we will even get the chance to travel through South East Asia before we leave. In regular times, short, cheap flights will take you to numerous countries near here. Our friends talk of how they headed to Indonesia or Malaysia for the day; to Bali, Thailand, or Cambodia for the weekend; to Japan, Australia, or India for the week.

MsE was the only person that need her documentation updated. As she is now school aged in Singapore (the school year you turn 7 in), she needed to be finger printed, so a new photo was also taken and a new ID card issued. Her appointment at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) went so fast. Jonathan and I both went with her and we were shown right up to the counter to be processed. We done and out within 10 minutes. Then we went for a little walk and a chocolate muffin to celebrate.