EP Pending - Need Advice

[vketl]

Hi,

I have 6+ yrs of experience in IT. I worked in Singapore for a short term contract (6 months). During last month of the contract, I got another job opportunity with 7200sgd offered salary in an MNC. My EP was applied via recruitment agency as I will be under their payroll. The EP status is pending from last 10 weeks. I already completed my previous contract of 6 months and moved back to India now.
I got to know via other posts that because of my nationality and new stringent rules, verification process might take long time and this could be one of the reasons for delay in EP approval But HR from agency told me that they have not got a single EP approved in last 2 months which makes me think about the employer verification part at MOM for EP's. May be the recruitment agency has failed to follow MOM guidelines.

Is there any way to check if the agency is blacklisted or under watch list at MOM ?
Is it possible to re-apply the EP directly through client instead of recruitment agency, will it disturb the on-going EP process ?

Thanks in Advance

[sundaymorningstaple]

The client can only apply for the EP IF they want you on their direct payroll. most IT staff for a lot of MNC are agency supplied as the MNC doesn't have the manpower allocation/budget so they outsource it to an agency (different GL Code). Unless the client wants you as a full time employee with all the bells & whistles, which I doubt, your only other choice is to wait.

[ecureilx]

I got to know via other posts that because of my nationality and new stringent rules, verification process might take long time and this could be one of the reasons for delay in EP approval But HR from agency told me that they have not got a single EP approved in last 2 months which makes me think about the employer verification part at MOM for EP's. May be the recruitment agency has failed to follow MOM guidelines.

Through the grapevine, I did hear about an agency whos' passes are getting rejected upon first submission, and only upon appeal, are approved. No idea how far true that could be.

Now back to agency blacklist .. nope. It's just that, since May, MOM has further tightened the approval process.

So as SMS said, Wait. !!!