Demonstrating ties/integration on PR form

[hrld8]

Hi everyone,

I've read through many (possibly most!) of the posts on PR here and one of the common refrains of advice seems to be that it's to your benefit to demonstrate some degree of integration/assimilation.

That all makes sense and is fair enough.

But how do you get any of this across in the PR form? As far as I can see the only is space, short of marrying a citizen, is the Memberships section. Is there anything else you can use to communicate the point you have integrated or am I missing something? E.g. I see people mentioning donations and charitable work etc in some posts but seems there's no way to list that?

Really appreciate any advice

[sundaymorningstaple]

ICA field officers do the leg work just like MOM officers to the leg work to verify credentials claimed. Singapore is a small country, people here are creatures of habit. Easy to target an individual and to monitor them for a couple of weeks/months if necessary. Integration is just what is says. A simple example when you do lunch at the kopitiam, are you usually sitting with a bunch of your colleagues who all just happen to be from your home country or is your grouping of a mixed lot of individuals of various races & genders? This is but one example. There are many. Charities have been so abused by foreigners using them for brownie points on PR & SgC applications, then disappearing as soon as they get what they want, that they don't even look at them anymore as they know it is nothing but a ruse. As a long time RC member (well over a decade) I've seen this happen even in my own RC on several occasions. It actually leaves a sour taste in ones mouth.

[Lisafuller]

The issue is that integration is something so intangible, its very difficult to prove. Even showing community service records will only do so much for you.

[hrld8]

Thanks, that makes sense.

Having an ICA officer trail PR applicants around for a few weeks/months to tally up and analyse interactions certainly sounds very expensive/thorough. Cost of their labour must be a few hundred dollars a day -- are you sure that's practical? Maybe made easier with TraceTogether now though!

On the other hand, that would work in my favour -- I'm not very social but if one really were to follow me around and total up my interactions, it would be 80% a mix of citizens/PRs of various races, and none with anyone of my own nationality...

ICA field officers do the leg work just like MOM officers to the leg work to verify credentials claimed. Singapore is a small country, people here are creatures of habit. Easy to target an individual and to monitor them for a couple of weeks/months if necessary. Integration is just what is says. A simple example when you do lunch at the kopitiam, are you usually sitting with a bunch of your colleagues who all just happen to be from your home country or is your grouping of a mixed lot of individuals of various races & genders? This is but one example. There are many. Charities have been so abused by foreigners using them for brownie points on PR & SgC applications, then disappearing as soon as they get what they want, that they don't even look at them anymore as they know it is nothing but a ruse. As a long time RC member (well over a decade) I've seen this happen even in my own RC on several occasions. It actually leaves a sour taste in ones mouth.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I reckon it's pretty cost effective if you think about it. How many would be determined by that fact alone? Probably not that many, if one ticks the vast majority of other boxes, the weighting will probably not make a difference, however, those borderline cases, may warrant somebody just doing a random check over a period of time (after all, some of the approvals/rejections are taking in excess of 18 months. Field officers are necessary in any ministry. I doubt if they would follow an applicant like a PI for days/months on end, but they could take a random number of days/locations, etc, etc. and still get probably a pretty good handle of the person.

[the observer]

Reminds me of stories of IRAS lurking around certain hawkers to estimate their daily takings. Lol

[sundaymorningstaple]

They did that (the IRS in the US) when I was a young man living on the Chesapeake Bay in MD. The crabbers & oystermen went out and often sold their catch at the dock to all and sundry and always crying about little profits were made on their income tax returns. Yet, all lived in brick waterfront, drove big trucks and nice muscle cars, etc. IRS sent down their field auditors, in flannels and bib overalls and started buying off the docks. didn't take long for them to get enough data to do net worth audits on all of them. Quite a few ended up in bankruptcy before it was over. US IRS reckons it only costs them $0.04 for every dollar they collect. I know these for facts as it was my home town of less than 10K people. I also work as the district director for H & R BLock back in the 70's in Washington DC, 100 klicks from my home town. Been to literally '000's of audits over the 8 years I was there. Field agents be they immigration or income tax are efficient! I also shared an office with the US INS office stationed here in Singapore from 1988 to 1991 in Int'l Plaza when I was attached to the UNHCR resettling the boat people from VN. They are NOT stories.

[MOCHS]

Reminds me of stories of IRAS lurking around certain hawkers to estimate their daily takings. Lol

How do you think this these sellers got jailed for tax evasion?

That or they bragged on TV on how popular their food were. I vaguely remembered Ch 5 or 8 food shows reviewing the Tip Top curry puff stall.