ICA Response to PR Application - Request for more informatio

[Stiffmaester]

I had applied for Permanent Residency in Early May this year (2012) with ALL the information requested in Form 4A (birth certificate, educational transcripts from high school, college, university, marriage certificate, etc etc).
Recently I got a letter from the ICA asking me to submit a CV for my entire family (wife, dad, mom, wife's dad, wife's mom and siblings). The funny part was it wanted the CV in chronological order, which is quite a pain in the case of parents as you need to go back 30 years to catalogue their entire work history . Anyway, managed to pull all that to together and submitted it.
I wanted to check with folks here if this is common or is it some kind of new process added in recently? I had applied for PR only for myself and my wife so I obviously focused only on submitting the documents just for the 2 of us. I paid a lot of attention to detail at that point in time and I don't think there was anything in form 4A about CV for the rest of the family. Not that I have anything to hide its just seemed weird that they wanted so much additional info. Cheers!

[JR8]

I understand that they do that to estimate the potential unproductive collateral damage that bringing in your extended family on the back of PR might cause.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Exactly.

[Stiffmaester]

Yeah I guessed as much. Nothing much to worry about there, they are all working. On a related note, if they want to minimize PRs bringing in multiple family members, can't they just deny any future DP/LTVP application made by the PR for his or her family members instead?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Why go to all the hassles and correspondence & appeals and grumbling when they can just stop it with a simple no in the beginning? They are looking for talent that can add to the country something besides just more population.

[revhappy]

Well you can apply ltsvp only for your parents and your spouse's. How does it matter whether you have 1 sibling or 10 siblings. It's just 4 people, that you could sponsor and if you have retired and wealthy parents how would ica judge whether they want to come to Singapore or not. Singapore doesn't like oldies and oldies don't like Singapore, so I don't get the reasoning.

[Stiffmaester]

Thanks for the clarifications to my question above. Wanted to check some othere stuff with the regulars here who know the process:

Background: I applied for myself and my wife in May, 2012 (been close to 7 months since the application) and 2 months into my application the ICA had sent me the letter asking me for my family members' CV details which I furnished. I am currently on PEP and my wife is on DP, working on LOC with Mediacorp.

Recent Developments:
My company is considering sending me over-seas on a expat assignment for 12 months from Jan. If I accept this role, I will have to move out of SG by end of Dec to Bangkok with my wife for a year. I will remain an employee of my company in Singapore (XXX company in SG) but as an expat I will be living outside SG and will be paid salary in Bangkok. While there is a chance that I might have my PR processed by then (processed = approved or rejected ), its likely that I might not hear anything back from ICA by then given that off late its taking upwards of 9 months in some cases.

Questions:
1. Does my PEP and my wife's DP get cancelled automatically? Or given that I am an employee of a Singapore based company will I retain my PEP?
2. Further, if I move out for a year, does my PR application automatically get cancelled?

Would love some thoughts on this from those who know MOM processes. I actually did call them twice but I got 2 different answers from the call operators (1 said no issues, other said PEP will be cancelled). I have been clear with my company that I will only accept the role if there is no impact on my PR application so will welcome some clarity on this from those who might know.

Cheers!

[offshoreoildude]

Thanks for the clarifications to my question above. Wanted to check some othere stuff with the regulars here who know the process:

Background: I applied for myself and my wife in May, 2012 (been close to 7 months since the application) and 2 months into my application the ICA had sent me the letter asking me for my family members' CV details which I furnished. I am currently on PEP and my wife is on DP, working on LOC with Mediacorp.

Recent Developments:
My company is considering sending me over-seas on a expat assignment for 12 months from Jan. If I accept this role, I will have to move out of SG by end of Dec to Bangkok with my wife for a year. I will remain an employee of my company in Singapore (XXX company in SG) but as an expat I will be living outside SG and will be paid salary in Bangkok. While there is a chance that I might have my PR processed by then (processed = approved or rejected ), its likely that I might not hear anything back from ICA by then given that off late its taking upwards of 9 months in some cases.

Questions:
1. Does my PEP and my wife's DP get cancelled automatically? Or given that I am an employee of a Singapore based company will I retain my PEP?
2. Further, if I move out for a year, does my PR application automatically get cancelled?

Would love some thoughts on this from those who know MOM processes. I actually did call them twice but I got 2 different answers from the call operators (1 said no issues, other said PEP will be cancelled). I have been clear with my company that I will only accept the role if there is no impact on my PR application so will welcome some clarity on this from those who might know.

Cheers!

1. PEP - no. DP not sure.
2. Not necessarily but the PR itself may not be approved.

[Stiffmaester]

thanks offshoreoildude, appreciate the help.

[Saint]

PEP will be cancelled after 6 months due to no Singapore income and therefore DP as well

[sundaymorningstaple]

See, PEP isn't all it's cracked up to be.

[Stiffmaester]

yeah seems like it . Probably gonna tell my company am not interested in going overseas now. The role is great but dont want to jeopardize mine & my family's future in Singapore . There is a reasonably high likely hood of rejection as and when they process it as im not the flavour of the year (Indian ) but I guess ive been here for 7 years and this is as good a chance as ill ever have rather than coming back in a year or so and applying again from scratch. 1 year of an expat life doesnt compensate for what I hope is a lifetime in Singapore .

Thanks a lot for the advice folks. Appreciate the help.

[Stiffmaester]

Hi folks

Finally made it . Wanted to share my expire nice here as it's a slightly tricky case. You can find my profile and application details earlier in this thread.

Applied in may 2012 with my wife. In Nov 2012 my company asked me to move abroad for an expat assignment which was good go for my career but I was afraid it will impact my application. After getting clarifications (again above in this thread) I took the plunge and moved in may 2013 (1 year after applying still showing in process in ienquiry). My only hope was that wince I am on PEP which is valid for 6 more months I was hoping the approval would come in by then (if I didn't I was screwed).

Note that all along I continued to remain a Singapore employee with my name on payroll.

Lo and behold in July my status changed to approved . They had send the ipa letter to my old address so I arranged to have it collected.

The tricky part here was the forms they sent required me to declare an address. Since I was outside Singapore I didn't have a residential address in sg which got me worried. My company gave me the declaration that I was a Singapore employee but the address piece bothered me.

In the end I truthfully declared my overseas address knowing fully well it could cause compications when I go to the ica office to complete my formalities.

Booked an appointment for September as the ipa is valid for only 3 months. As expected when the officer saw an overseas address in my form she started asking questions and got her superior officer to come over. I truthfully explained that I am employed by a Singapore company which has sent me overseas on assignment for 1.5 to 2 years and I will be returning after that. She asked me will I pay cf when overseas and I said yes as I had checked with my company and they will deduct cpf from may salary and credit to cpf account even if I am overseas if I become pr. She they proceeded to actually commend me for being truthful on my address as she had seen other cases where people in similar situations had fudged a local friend's address and said "they never get away they always get caught"

The only things she advised me on is 1. Make sure u r cpf is paid regularly and 2. Come back soon as 5 years later when my pr is up for renewal then the duration i have spent in Singapore as pr will be a factor.

Stamped, sealed, done!!! Got both our nric cards in November and am now a proud pr!

My advise to all who apply: be very very honest in everything. It matters more than anything else.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Stiffmaester, congratulations. It was a dicey situation but as you found out, they have seen most every ruse possible, so honesty from the outset is definitely the best policy. That and being armed with sufficient documentation to back up your claims.

Thank you very much for getting back to us with your good results.

Cheers