Is the PR application fee a deterence for habitual appliers?

[Wd40]

I am just curious, is the $100 PR application fee, per person, a deterence for people who apply for PR every alternative years? If you look at your history of application, has it reduced or you are still applying every couple of years?

[MOCHS]

Those with high income will find the fee to be fairly affordable and can apply frequently upon rejection.

[sundaymorningstaple]

How can $100 every two years be any kind of deterrent? If on at least an S pass, it's extremely affordable. Lot's of people spend more than that every week on 4D & Toto. All three are a gamble but winning the PR normally pays off better and the odds are much better as well.

[Wd40]

How can $100 every two years be any kind of deterrent? If on at least an S pass, it's extremely affordable. Lot's of people spend more than that every week on 4D & Toto. All three are a gamble but winning the PR normally pays off better and the odds are much better as well.

$300 for a family of 3. I personally find it as a deterence. It is like money thrown into the drain. Atleast Toto has better chance.

The way I convince myself to pay the $300 fee is I apply for credit card signup bonuses via singsaver and they pay like $300. So I kind of net it off.

[malcontent]

By comparison, I submitted a US petition for my alien spouse earlier this year and that cost me US$535 . Assuming that gets approved before I collapse of old age, next is another US$445 for the non-immigrant visa, affidavit of support, yada yada. And this is just for one person.

Of course, at the end of it, I am 99.99% sure of getting PR for my spouse, so I admit that it’s a different calculus… but, according to the US government, these fees only cover their cost of processing this stuff — and even despite US government being far more inefficient and bloated, it can’t be THAT different.

I can’t believe S$100 is enough to completely cover the processing cost here, and it might be just the opposite — a cheap price to allow more to apply, and apply more often. You’d need to apply 10 times here before it starts to approach the cost in the US .

[malcontent]

Oh, funny thing happened the last time my wife got her a US tourist visa renewed, the guy who interviewed her at the embassy got mixed up and thought she was applying for an immigrant visa (PR) and told her she was approved and can proceed to medical… ahem, there is no medical, unless you are applying for an immigrant visa. My wife was a little surprised but just smiled and said ok… thank you very much.

[Wd40]

By comparison, I submitted a US petition for my alien spouse earlier this year and that cost me US$535 . Assuming that gets approved before I collapse of old age, next is another US$445 for the non-immigrant visa, affidavit of support, yada yada. And this is just for one person.

Of course, at the end of it, I am 99.99% sure of getting PR for my spouse, so I admit that it’s a different calculus… but, according to the US government, these fees only cover their cost of processing this stuff — and even despite US government being far more inefficient and bloated, it can’t be THAT different.

I can’t believe S$100 is enough to completely cover the processing cost here, and it might be just the opposite — a cheap price to allow more to apply, and apply more often. You’d need to apply 10 times here before it starts to approach the cost in the US .

If I was sure of getting PR I wouldn't mind spending even 10k. But I am someone who is totally frugal and absolutely hates wastage. So $300 is not about the amount, but the principle behind it. I was wondering if other people thought the same way.

[malcontent]

If I was sure of getting PR I wouldn't mind spending even 10k. But I am someone who is totally frugal and absolutely hates wastage. So $300 is not about the amount, but the principle behind it. I was wondering if other people thought the same way.

I’d say it’s well worth the money to try. If my employer didn’t have a CPF substitute program, I’d have reapplied long ago.

I can’t even recall how much I paid when I applied and was rejected for PR back in 1999. Couldn’t have been much, because I was only earning around $3k/mo back then.

[smoulder]

By comparison, I submitted a US petition for my alien spouse earlier this year and that cost me US$535 . Assuming that gets approved before I collapse of old age, next is another US$445 for the non-immigrant visa, affidavit of support, yada yada. And this is just for one person.

Of course, at the end of it, I am 99.99% sure of getting PR for my spouse, so I admit that it’s a different calculus… but, according to the US government, these fees only cover their cost of processing this stuff — and even despite US government being far more inefficient and bloated, it can’t be THAT different.

I can’t believe S$100 is enough to completely cover the processing cost here, and it might be just the opposite — a cheap price to allow more to apply, and apply more often. You’d need to apply 10 times here before it starts to approach the cost in the US .

If I was sure of getting PR I wouldn't mind spending even 10k. But I am someone who is totally frugal and absolutely hates wastage. So $300 is not about the amount, but the principle behind it. I was wondering if other people thought the same way.

Is it 100 per applicant or per application? Regardless, I think it is a small price to pay for most of the folks who apply, save for the most frugal. Like SMS said, many people waste more money on all kinds of crap.

I really wonder if they intended it as a deterrent or a way to reclaim some of their own costs incurred to process applications. I am learning towards the latter.

[bro75]

For me, 100 SGD is not a deterrent.

[Wd40]

I wish we could know how many people are applying these days Vs prior years when application was free of cost but you had to visit the ICA office.

Maybe instead of deterent it is now more encouraging to apply online since it is much more easier to type in the PDF form and submit online Vs write with your hand and go visit ICA.

[malcontent]

If I was sure of getting PR I wouldn't mind spending even 10k. But I am someone who is totally frugal and absolutely hates wastage. So $300 is not about the amount, but the principle behind it. I was wondering if other people thought the same way.

The US doesn’t even have something like LTVP for a foreign spouse, so PR is the only real option for my wife to stay in the US while our kids are in college. It’s PR or nothing! That will probably work against my wife when she tries to renew her REP.

What we will do after the kids graduate? Will Singapore make things difficult and not renew her REP while we are over there? Will there even be good job opportunities for my kids in Singapore by that time? Will I be ready to retire at that time, and will LTVP still be an option for me? I can hardly venture a guess to any of these questions right now — so I guess we’ll just have to go with the flow.

[jalanjalan]

I think I paid around $75 for the admin fee way back in '95. We were pleasantly surprised as Canadian PR, by comparison, was around 1500 CAD with all the various fees.
So no, no deterrent at all.