Stay on EP or PEP?

[Hatem]

Good evening to everyone,

I have an enquiry where I would love to hear the opinion from the most "experienced" on the forum.

In 2015/2016, I have been transferred by my company from Europe to Singapore.
At the time I had an EP, the salary was 100.000SGD/year and up to 15.000 of annual bonus. (115.000 OTE)
The EP took approximately 1 day and half.

In 2018, about 18 months after my relocation, I have moved to another company in Singapore.
I was again under a new EP, salary was 120.000SGD/year and up to 50.000 of annual bonus. (170.000 OTE)

6 months ago (July) I was sent to run an expansion project in China, and since my posting abroad was supposed to be 12 months long, I had my employment pass cancelled in October and paid all the tax even if I was abroad.
The goal was anyway to come back to Singapore after the posting.

However, long story short, the company plans has changed, and I moved back to Singapore in end of November, about one month after my EP was cancelled.
My EP was approved in about 10 days too, my new salary is about 160.000SGD/year and 50.000 of annual bonus (210.000).

Now:
- I come from France, and I work for an IT company as a pre-sales professional;
- I have a good track records with EP, never got it not approved, and I have paid tax 3 times already in Singapore.
- In my plans I want to stay here long term.

The question is simple:
- Should I apply for PEP immediately, since I am now eligible (I have a new EP Singapore since about a month ago) or is better to maybe stay a bit longer and apply for PR?
How should I do? Even though I know there is no guarantee of approval for PR, I was wondering what would be the best course of action.
EP, EP, period abroad, EP for maybe 6-12 months, PEP, PR?
EP, EP, period abroad, EP for a month, PEP immediately, PR (eventually?)

I am a bit lost.

Thanks a ton!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Either way would be okay, but this from my point of view only (others may differ and that's is why we are so effective here as we tell it the way we see it and why but at the end of the day only you can make the decision but hopefully we will have given you enough food for thought.)

Due to the now, rather long waits for PR approvals (6 mo minimum but normally 12 -18 months in real life). I believe, personally applying for PEP is only a method of avoiding having to leave Singapore in the event of the loss of a job (theoretically, it's to give you an option to leave your company and change jobs without having to go through the EP process. As you have applied for and received without hassle 3 EP thus far, I see no real reason to go the PEP route as in it's inception it was to be a stepping stone to PR, but due rampant abuse of a good thing, the length of the PEP was reduced to three years from the original five. Additionally, as I am sure you already know, it is only good for one use only and is non-renewable. Obviously this could give you a breather, but from another viewpoint, Sitting on the PEP for a while only lengthens what could be already a lengthy wait for PR approval.

With 3 EP approvals already and a salary climb that is very attractive I would be tempted to go for broke and apply for PR after you have been here six month on this trip. Your base is not so high yet as to cause another worrying trend that we have noticed - once your salary base exceeds 250k/pa - getting PR in the IT and Financial sectors seems to be more and more liable to rejection. We are only guessing, but it makes some sense as they might be seeing it as Foreigners once they reach those levels are always willing to jump for an additional 20 or 30K/pa which makes them poor PR risks as those types will almost always follow the scent of money.

If your period of Non-Singapore employment had been the better part of a year it would be better to wait a while, but with only one month and returning to the same employer for more money. I think you bases are covered there.

SMS

[Hatem]

Thanks a lot!

Yes, effectively I was away from Singapore from July to basically end of November, with the employment pass cancelled only in the beginning of October (due to some organisational issues).
In the meanwhile I was spending about 7 days a month in Singapore and 23 days in China, and still employed for the same company that hired me in Singapore (and re-hired me in Singapore right now), it was an Intra Company transfer due to a strategy that did not go through.

Right now on Holiday in Europe, I am returning to Singapore in a week time, and I will make my plan, but definitely interested in the PR.

Thanks a lot, as usual, for the help!

[bgd]

A friend knew redundancy was coming so changed from EP to PEP which allowed him to stay in Sg and find another role. That's an example of a good use of PEP.

[sundaymorningstaple]

^^^This as well. Tks bgd. I thought of it, but as I'd already gotten pretty long-winded again, I thought I'd just leave it alone.