S Pass Appeal Duration

rokiabal · Post by **rokiabal** » Tue, 10 May 2016 8:04 pm

Hi everyone.

I'm an Indonesian who's stayed in SG since 2009. I graduated from polytechnic (under MOE Tuition Grant) last year and after about a year of job hunting I've finally got accepted by a company and signed the contracts and everything on April 6th. HR applied for SPass on the same day, but on the 11th they called me and told me that the application was rejected. They informed me on the 13th that they've submitted an appeal with my Tuition Grant contract as a supporting document.

It has been about a month since the appeal date. How long do SPass appeals usually take? I checked the application status and the application date is still April 6th and the status is still rejected. Should the date change to be the appeal date or not? I'm starting to panic because it has taken so long

Thanks guys

boafan · Post by **boafan** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 10:59 am

Hi, I am also on appeal process now and it has been 2 weeks. Btw have you receive any news on your appeal? May I know if the status when the appeal submitted is still "rejected" or it do change? Do you see that there is a change on the application number and application date?

dynamic.dante · Post by **dynamic.dante** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 1:15 pm

Any reason stated for that rejection?
You're here since secondary?
Did you get PR invitation letter?

The thing that i do finally came to conclusion after few years is that ... the TG bond matters little to nothing when it comes to applying for working passes

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Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 1:22 pm

Not sure how long it is taking for appeals processes today, but when I had my meeting with the Director of the MOM a couple of years ago (via invitation through PM on this site) regarding the speeding up of appeals, it was taking around 6 weeks to 3 months. They had it down to around 6 weeks but since the elections, as rejections have ramped up, I'm assuming appeals, for the most part useless unless some major was not included in the original application, will probably have lengthened as well. So if you have 6 weeks, no need to worry yet. Anyway, the odds of an appeal being successful, short of you being given a 100% raise and/or a new position (vertical) along with the salary and responsibilities (e.g., not in name only), are slim anyway.

The original rejection will remain until or unless the appeal is successful. It will not normally turn into 'pending' as it isn't. It's rejected. IF the appeal is successful, then it will change to approved. But it that happens, you will probably know it before it's changed online anyway.

If you went to Uni here and were given a invitation to apply for PR while still in Uni and you didn't take them up on it, you will find that they are very vindictive when you rub their noses in their offer if you change your mind at a later date. Very difficult.

boafan · Post by **boafan** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 1:47 pm

@dd: the reason of rejection is due to lack of local quota but my employer has submitted the appeal on 15th June. My Spass is applied on 1st April. My employer can only submit an appeal after the lack of quota issue is solved. I got my diploma here in SG and degree from UK but unfortunately I am not qualify for an EP even though my salary offer is more than EP requirement. I was on SPass with my previous 2 company so my record should be clean. I try to apply PR twice when I am working previously but get rejected.

@sms: May I know if the appeal is done on the 15th June meaning to say my employer submit some documents to support the appeal will the application number and date change? I am on my 2 weeks of appeal and the status is still rejected and would there be a possibility that it has completely rejected?

Thanks a lot for the help guys

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 1:56 pm

boafan wrote: My Spass is applied on 1st April. My employer can only submit an appeal after the lack of quota issue is solved.

It depends how the employer got to "quota issue is solved"

If MOM believe that the "solution" isn't genuine then you will be out of luck.

Suddenly "finding extra employees" on the payroll can raise suspicions.

dynamic.dante · Post by **dynamic.dante** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 1:57 pm

EP salary increases along with your working experience. The 3300 is only the floor for freshies as far as i know.

Which is why you found yourself ineligible for it.

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boafan · Post by **boafan** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 2:06 pm

@barnsley: apparently when they offer me they have enough headcount of locals but the other 2 are newly hire so they have not contributed 3 months CPF yet. But as of June the issue should have been resolved.

@dd: my employer is aware that I am not eligible for EP because before applying, they use SAT tool to check my eligibility and the system says that I am only qualify for Spass hence they apply that for me. There is no change on the salary offered even when they submitted the appeal.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 2:46 pm

If it's a quota issue, then you may have a real problem as the employer, depending on the industry you are in. Just to give you a idea. Take the service industries. Let's assume your potential employer has 24 local staff. The have quota for 16 foreign staff. Let's assume 3 are S pass holders and 13 are WP holders. If the company tries to apply for an S pass for you, it will be rejected as they are already at full quota. in order for them to gain an additional quota slot for another S pass they would need to hire they would have to hire 2 more local employees.

However, that is assuming that the quota is based on the monthly staffing strength. It's not. It's based on a three month running average (like the PQP for COEs). So, in order for a company who has been at full quota for quite some time, in order to gain an additional slot for an S pass holder, they would need to hire 6 new employees at the beginning of the month, and then wait until 6 weeks later after the FWL has been paid (middle of the following month) in order for the three month average to reach 2 additional staff in order to gain a single new S pass holder. I think, unless they have just received a 5 million dollar contract, that isn't going to happen very soon. So, my suggestion is to figure out a Plan B.

You can play with the foreign worker quota calculator here:

http://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permit ... rker-quota

boafan · Post by **boafan** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 3:42 pm

@sms: actually at the moment this company don't have any WP worker. There is only 1 EP. The sector is service. So even if there are 6 locals which based on the total workforce the company is entitled for 1 Spass, the appeal might be rejected again?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 04 Jul 2016 10:14 pm

It's always a possibility. Regardless of how many or little WP they have, S passes are subject to a sub-quota under the foreign worker total quota. The EP holder doesn't count for anything plus or minus unless there are a over abundance of EP holders in the company, then the MOM may get suspicious of kick-backs. It's the sub-quota that is the killer as you can see by playing with the calculator (it's only based on a month but the real quota is based on the average of the last three months of paid CPF. When it comes to S passes you haven't be qualified for that company yet. You were rejected due to quota. They haven't even looked at your application yet as why should they waste their time if the employer doesn't have quota in the first place. So we wouldn't have a clue at this point in time as there is no quota.

boafan · Post by **boafan** » Tue, 05 Jul 2016 9:27 am

@sms: will my record turn bad due to this rejection? as this is the first rejection after working in SG for more than 4 years.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Tue, 05 Jul 2016 10:57 am

Not bad, per se. But if you no longer qualify under their changing criteria, you could find yourself "unqualified" under the new criteria. I've lost half of my S pass staff in the past 4 years due to new criteria which they no longer pass or reduced quotas (which caused some renewals to be rejected as we were over quota due to the changes (for almost two years we were over quota. Now we are back under quota and losing some staff with 5 to 8 years experience with us who do not qualify academically now (before they had the requisite degree, but now the criteria is a requisite degree in a related field, e.g., a B.Sc in Psychology will no longer allow you to get a job as a technician. It's getting rough, even for those that are already here when renewing and/or trying to move to a new job, not realizing that what was good enough before is not quite enough today. Good Luck

boafan · Post by **boafan** » Tue, 05 Jul 2016 1:51 pm

@sms: oh gosh rules keep changing every year

hopefully I will hear some good news *finger cross*. Btw thanks so much! Really appreciate your help.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Tue, 05 Jul 2016 1:54 pm

Not changing every year. More like every 6 months or so. Levies just went up on 1 July for WP holders to a max of $800/mo. Lower tier S pass holder just went up from 315 to 330/mo. High tier still at $550/mo for S pass.

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