PR Application Rejected. Seeking advice.

[stormmonarch]

Dear all,
I am a Vietnamese and have stayed in Singapore for more than 10 years. I studied at local secondary school, NJC and NTU. My academic results are good, with 6A in A level, first class honour and many national awards.
I graduated in May 2014 and started working as an engineer under EP in August 2014. My basic salary is $3600. In March 2015, I applied for PR and last week, my application was rejected. I have not received the official letter yet.
Do you have any advice for me? I plan to become Singapore citizen since many years of staying in this country have fostered a bond between me and this land.
Many thanks for your help.

[Strong Eagle]

You need to have a few more years of work experience under your belt and you need to make more money.

If you do both of those, you'll be a more serious candidate. Right now, you look like a fresh college graduate, and I don't think you'll be successful.

[stormmonarch]

Thank you for your reply, even at this late hour.
My current company is an international corporate. Many of my colleagues stay in Singapore in fewer years than me and applied for their PR immediately after they started working. Their applications were all successful. Encouraged by them, I applied after 6 months of work. However, their time was 4 years ago. I guess the situation has changed.
I am waiting for the rejection letter. I pray that it will not be the death penalty kind of rejection.

[Strong Eagle]

The situation has very much changed in 4 years. First, not so many PR's are being issued as before. Second, whereas the ICA used to seem to be OK with many different nationalities, they have had a rethink. It's much easier for them to manage their racial quotas with they stick with the four basic races that they use to set quotas for HDB, etc. When someone like you comes along, you don't fit into any nice neat racial box... how do they count you when trying to determine quota? And finally, they are focusing on ethnic Chinese, both because they have this idea that they will better integrate with the existing population, and because they want to return the percentages of Chinese to where they were a decade ago... and since the local population isn't producing, 'importing' Chinese is the answer.

Thus, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for this to happen. A steady work record, advancement, and increasing salaries, _may_ get you PR. Then again, 'fair' isn't necessarily one of the words in the ICA vocabulary and you may get screwed for reasons that have nothing to do with you personally.

[stormmonarch]

Thanks for your reply. I got the letter from ICA today.

"Thank you for your interest in Singapore Permanent Residence (PR). All SPR applications are assessed holistically under the prevailing criteria, including economic contribution, education qualifications and integration with Singapore society among other things.
We have considered your application, including supporting documents. We regret to inform you that your application is not successful.
Nevertheless, you can continue to work and reside here on your valid Work Pass."

I read from this forum that the last line is basically a death sentence to my future application. So I have no chance at all. As a person growing up here, this is devastating to me. It is a home where I no longer belong to.

[kentlim]

dont give up. i noe frens from malaysia only diploma have got their singapore passport. they apply for hdb also got it too. your education is good, you will do well in singapore. your intelligence excced many pple.

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[sundaymorningstaple]

^^^There is a person with total disconnect to what is happening around him.

[martincymru]

Anybody really know what the "among other things..." are ?

Strong Eagle: Refer me to the relevant citations as evidence for your assertions.

[Barnsley]

Thanks for your reply. I got the letter from ICA today.

"Thank you for your interest in Singapore Permanent Residence (PR). All SPR applications are assessed holistically under the prevailing criteria, including economic contribution, education qualifications and integration with Singapore society among other things.
We have considered your application, including supporting documents. We regret to inform you that your application is not successful.
Nevertheless, you can continue to work and reside here on your valid Work Pass."

I read from this forum that the last line is basically a death sentence to my future application. So I have no chance at all. As a person growing up here, this is devastating to me. It is a home where I no longer belong to.

Its only a "death sentence" if you keep applying with the same information.

[Strong Eagle]

Anybody really know what the "among other things..." are ?

Strong Eagle: Refer me to the relevant citations as evidence for your assertions.

You think ICA is publishing their decision making process? I don't think so. My sense of what is going on and the government reasoning behind it is based solely upon ten years of reading this board, and from time to time, researching in depth some of the cases that have been posted here.

I could be wrong... and I don't think so. There are two ways to reduce the Indian percentage in Singapore... don't let 'em in and bring in more Chinese.

OP's own letter includes "among other things", and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the gahmen doesn't care about Vietnamese... you know those damn Vietnamese... you let 'em in, next thing they are saving up money and starting a business, next thing you know they are cornering the market in something or other... you ought to research Houston... the Vietnamese community bought up all the total shit east end property near downtown, and 30 years later when it turned you should have heard all the assholes complaining about the foreigners 'stealing' the property'. Allowing very much of a Vietnamese community in Singapore would be disruptive in the long haul... they are tight knit, industrious, and they are escaping communism and won't be fans of the paternalistic gahmen here.

Think it through... HDB quotas and the ministerial 'teams' that are elected to promote racial harmony are what? Hmmm... a Malay, a Chinese, an Indian... oh shit... what about the Vietnamese or the Korean... this puts a fundamental hex on the whole idea of racial proportioning the gahmen uses to keep the Chinese as the majority race.

Hey... I might be wrong... but I doubt it... I'm close in any case.

[ecureilx]

Think it through... HDB quotas and the ministerial 'teams' that are elected to promote racial harmony are what? Hmmm... a Malay, a Chinese, an Indian... oh shit... what about the Vietnamese or the Korean... this puts a fundamental hex on the whole idea of racial proportioning the gahmen uses to keep the Chinese as the majority race.

+1 About the racial quotas.

There was a general feel in a particular CC that there are too many new citizen joining the CC from a Asean country . ... everybody felt it but nobody talked about it ... as talking about it didn't go with the theme of welcoming new residents etc.
And the new folks sort of felt they are being over looked when they planned themed integration events ... showcasing their country, culture etc and no money was being allocated. When they raised it a bit vocally, the CC chairman nicely and diplomatically said Singapore is of 4 races, and your country is not among the 4 races / languages, and for now and future, other races will not get priority .. you can continue your community events in your church and such ... but tone it down in the CC. Ouch ...

And soon the number of folks from that country being asked to assist in general CC events reduced ... and trimmed.

And a few years ago one of the ruling party MP even famously threw tantrum when another ASEAN country new arrivals put up posters in their own language for a gathering ...

, and they are escaping communism and won't be fans of the paternalistic gahmen here.
.

They sums up the PRC arrivals too...

[martincymru]

Everyday we hear of "leaks" (1mdb being an example).
Why do you think the "criteria/data" here has never been leaked let alone speculating as to who is in control of this vast social experiment.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Everyday we hear of "leaks" (1mdb being an example).
Why do you think the "criteria/data" here has never been leaked let alone speculating as to who is in control of this vast social experiment.

That one is easy. The there is nothing to leak as it's a fluid number based on an ongoing assessment. There is nothing cast in stone and ICA as well as MOM always leave the back door open to change/tweak/abolish/add to any policy whenever they receive direction from the Minister in charge of that ministry. This is why, when you use the online assessment tools that MOM provides, they tell you that the assessment tool will tell you if you are qualified to apply for 'X' pass. It does not say you will get applied for pass. Only that you are qualified to apply for it. Big difference. Almost all of their policies are the same. That's why they are able to turn on a dime as the saying goes. The government has already stated in the aftermath of GE2011 that they would be endeavoring to right the demographics to the traditional numbers pre-2000 when the government started ramping up the drive to make Singapore an IT hub. This increased the Indian element to around 9+% of the resident population instead of the long time traditional 7%. They have been working hard at it for 4 years, not shutting off the tap completely but slowing it down to a trickle and to appease the SG Citizens, putting a damper on the numbers of PRs (who tend to purchase resale flats at exorbitant rates, causing the sellers to keep holding out for more money and putting it out of reach of a lot of SG Citizens for whom the HDB was designed & built for. By the same token, They mis-judged the ground-swell against the heavy influx of PRCs (which, due to the Chinese having the lowest TFR of the 4 races here, was increased in order to offset/replace the 2% of their demographic that was lost over the same period).

Some interesting reading here on the covert drive to increase the Chinese Fertility rate:

http://ww.populationasia.org/Publicatio ... MCRP12.pdf

And the numbers here I've crunched from SingStat:

From the 2000 census: Racial percentages:
Chinese: 76.8%
Malays : 13.9%
Indians : 7.9% The run up to the 2000 IT push had already started.
Others : 1.4%

From the 2010 census: Racial percentages:
Chinese : 74.1%
Malay : 13.4%
Indians : 9.2%
Others : 3.3%

I believe the 1990 Census had the Chinese population at close to 78%.

[stormmonarch]

Thank you all for taking your time and effort to reply me. Appreciate your gesture.
The rejection, especially in the "death sentence" way, was a great blow to me. I came from a poor family in a poor country, having not enough to eat and would have not been able to continue my education. It was a miracle for me to get a scholarship to study secondary school in Singapore, and subsequently JC and university. Throughout all the years, I was living solely on the allowance since my parents could not support me. At time like that, my Singaporean friends and teachers were the ones who lent me help, emotionally and financially. I get used to the life in Singapore. My friends are all Singaporeans and they consider me as part of them. Having worked many low end jobs, I have seen both the glamour and the ugliness of Singapore. Regardless, I love this land because it is where I was given hope, because I am indebted to every taxpayers who contribute to my scholarship and because it is "where I know I must be". No matter what other countries I travelled to, I always feel at home when I am in Singapore. Thus, I apply to be a PR because I want to be a citizen subsequently. I understand all my feeling, how I integrate into the society and my experience cannot be translated into the application.
I understand that you all have different views on the chances that I have for future application, considering the letter and the policies. I do not have enough knowledge in this matter to make a judgment, neither can I change things out of my control. I can only improve myself to make me look more favourable and hopefully a change in policy one day can grant me the PR status. I am going to take PhD next year and follow a research career. The journey ahead is tough, but I have fought my way throughout my life. So I guess the struggle will have to go on, until the day I can call Singapore "home".
Thanks for reading my post.

[kentlim]

you are a talent. i think you will get SPR . pple from malaysia only diploma really got a citizenship. these two are ladies, they work here for some times. they are single not yet married. thank you for sharing a important msg to me. indeed alot foreigner like to call our lands as home.interesting!

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