Pending PR Application - 3 Questions

[HermanHesse]

Hi,

I have 3 questions regarding my pending PR application.

Profile:
- 29 years old European male
- Applied via SG spouse in October 2016 (got married a few months prior)
- 7 years in SG (2 years studying, 3 years working under S-Pass, 2 years working under EP)
- Marketing Professional
- Applied once before in 2014

Questions:
1) Can a minister help to expedite a PR application?
My wife and I have been advised to approach our Minister, but surely a Minister cannot have any say in these matters except when it comes to writing an appeal letter?

2) As I applied via my spouse, would it jeopardise my pending PR application if I resign from my job under employment pass?
Note: I do understand that it may sound ridiculously stupid to consider resigning during the pending process, but I have a 3 months resignation period and I am finding it harder and harder to tolerate my work environment.

3) Why is my application taking so damn long?
Hehe any insights to this question is appreciated.

On a final note, I greatly appreciate the time and consideration people on this forum gives to these kind of threads. It means a lot to those of us that are still waiting for a reply.

[PNGMK]

It's a numbers game, 25,000 PR approvals p.a. - Europeans are <3% of the population. That means even if the approval are pro rated (which they are not - Indians are out of favour) you're only see ~500 to 750 Euros approved per year. Fortunately the bias is towards breeders not leavers and I think you'll fall into that category.

However there are no better jobs in Singapore. I would much much rather work in Europe than this hell hole.

PS why so long? They keep slots open and fill them up as the applications come in - take some of the top of the pile and approve every so often. Yours is somewhere in that pile - if the quota (and don't kid me - there is one) runs out before they get to yours this time period (and I don't know how long the period is - maybe quarterly) then you wait for the next time period. If your application ends up being below some cut off point in the pile (for example less than 33% of the way up) on review (annual?) it gets thrown out.

[HermanHesse]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Finally some insight that I hadn't read before - the "ethnicity pile theory" makes a lot of sense and would explain why i can't compare myself with Malaysian Chinese for ex.

With some luck my papers will hopefully find their way to the top of that pile before the end of this month.

[BigginHill]

The government grants around 30,000 PR's year - this total is a stated policy quota.

However, less than half of those are alloted to professionals - the majority goes to people applying via the family scheme.

https://www.nptd.gov.sg/PORTALS/0/HOMEPAGE/HIGHLIGHTS/20120116-parliamentary-reply-dpm-teo-profile-new-singapore-citizens-and-prs.pdf

There really is no great mystery to getting a PR in Singapore.

Primarily you should be perceived as quality citizen material. They need 20,000 PRs a year to convert into citizenship.

The rest would need a stand-out resume/circumstances, luck & good timing to make it into the remaining quota. When the quota is filled the rest gets rejected, including objectively highly qualified applicants.

Read: If you're not "citizen material", you really shouldn't plan your life around getting PR. Keep a plan B & C. If you do get it, great!

if the quota (and don't kid me - there is one)

Completely agree - at the very least they would definitely have race & possibly nationality based sub-quotas for PR allocation.

For PR there's also the GIP scheme, but that one is mostly for attracting *new* investors outside SG. The requirements are substantial. Also I believe the numbers admitted on GIP pr year is quite low. The scheme is mostly for SG public relations.

So in total, maybe around 5,000 PRs/year are up for grabs for professionals who doesn't fit the citizenship mould. There's a total of 372,000 people on EP & S pass. So there you go!