I'm really not doing well....

[SAgirlRuth]

...since last year my PR was rejected (ok, I get it, I hadn't been in Singapore long enough) but now my EP renewal application was rejected too!

So now what? HR is going to appeal but I'm not holding my breath. I don't think my chances of getting a PEP are fantastic if PR and EP renewal have already failed.

Any bright ideas...?

[Scrummy Mummy]

Did they tell you why EP renewal was rejected?

Could you get someone from HR to go with you to ICA and speak to someone? SEveral years ago my husband had a colleague whose Letter of Consent (on DP) was rejected. He went down to ICA and kept politely asking for someone more senior and it worked.

[Lili Von Shtupp]

In my experience with government bodies, the thing to do is to never give up, be extremely polite but very persistent, write letters, make follow-up calls, talk to people as high up as you can go, never stop pleading your case. I think they expect a number of people to just give up and walk away, but if you are tenacious and you have a logical case, you may be surprised. Don't give up!

[Kooky]

Has anything significant happened since you were last granted an EP? Has the number of locals your company employs reduced, affecting the ratio, for example? Sounds a bit mean that they would refuse when they've already issued one.

[SAgirlRuth]

They didn't give a reason on the rejection letter - just a one liner saying the application was not successful.

I don't think anything has changed in the company - should be around the same ratio between local and foreign as before. Plus I don't think we're hiring as many as we used to anyway, so if anything I would think I'd have a better chance than usual.

HR is going to appeal for me, but seem to think having a back-up plan would be a good idea. (Which I do have, sort of. I'm marrying a PR in April, and will be able to apply for PR as his spouse, but that's some time away still..)

[baloo]

ICA are notorious for rejecting with no reason. When we were applying for our maid, we got two rejections in a row. Finally found someone willing to explain the reason which was I didn't have a copy of my CPF statement as part of the applictaion.

[Addadude]

I went through something similar back in 1997 when a guy I wanted to hire had his EP application rejected. Like you he had previously held an EP for about 3 years but when he changed jobs to work with me he had to reapply. I appealed only to have my appeal rejected. Because he was a guy I really wanted onboard, I made an appointment and went down to ICA with my company secretary to try and ascertain the problem.

At first the guy behind the counter was pretty defensive, saying that an explanation wasn’t required. I acknowledged this but replied that I simply wanted to know what was missing from my would-be employee’s application as he appeared to meet all the ICA requirements. Thus I was hoping for ‘clarification’ so that I could avoid having to go through this again if or when I hired another foreigner. This appeared to mollify the ICA guy and he agreed to study the application there and then.

After looking at it, he agreed that there was nothing wrong and that my guy fulfilled all their requirements. He said that there was a different committee approving EP applications from week-to-week and he would be on the committee next week – and that there shouldn’t be any more problems. Sure enough, my employee’s application was approved the next week.

(And yes, it does indeed appear that EP approvals are every bit as arbitrary as that!)

The lesson I would take from this is that your HR should approach ICA in a very polite and business-like fashion. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask what is missing from your application so that they can avoid further issues with other hires. Hopefully this will lead to your appeal been accepted.

Good luck!

[SAgirlRuth]

Thank you so much for the advice! The appeal should be submitted today, so I'm hoping it will all work out...

[mandychong]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Mandy and I am a producer at Channel News Asia. I am currently producing a show called "Get Rea!" in which the episode I am working on, covers the topic of "Permanent Residency" and on what grounds does it get rejected and the repercussions of being rejected.

I would like to call upon any individual who feels he/she has a story to tell, whether it be someone who feels like they've been out done by, or unfairly treated, or have been applying for a long time but have failed despite efforts, I would appreciate it if I could hear from you.

I hope that by producing this show, it would highlight to the relevant bodies on the situation at hand, and also at the same time, a transparent more clearer process of determining permanent residencies for individuals.

Of course, this is a sensitive topic, so I will be more than willing to provide full anonymity to the individuals.

Please feel free to contact me on:
mandychong@mediacorp.com.sg

Look forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,

Mandy

[Sardonicus]

This week's.....