PEP approval prior to Sept 1

[gundbugg]

I applied for a personalised employment pass (PEP) about 8 weeks ago under the current requirements of "Earn a fixed salary of at least $144,000 per calendar year, regardless of the number of months you are in employment." However it says "From 1 September 2023, the fixed monthly salary criteria for both existing EP holders and overseas foreign professionals will be raised to $22,500."

I'm still waiting on approval. If my PEP isn't approved before Sept 1, will I be subject to the new salary requirements or will they consider my application against the old requirements since I applied prior to Sept 1?

[NYY1]

MOM's website says the following:
If your PEP is approved after 1 September 2023, you must earn a fixed salary of at least $270,000 per calendar year.

I'm sure they (MOM) know a deadline with a step function is coming. Whether they rush to process all applications that were submitted a bit before the deadline, make exceptions based on application date, or follow the text above is anyone's guess.

It is odd that there will be people approved days/weeks/months apart and the salary requirement is nearly 50% lower (for those that were approved earlier). Of course, this would have been known when the policy change was announced (and one could have expected an increase in applications in the months ahead of the deadline).

Call and check on the application and/or ask about the above scenario. Or, just wait and see what happens. Good luck.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Good point!

If it were me running MOM I would use a cutoff date that was exactly 8 weeks before Sept 1. That way it eliminates all of the whining and crying as I believe they say it should be issued within 8 weeks (but we all know that this isn't always true). So they should have cut off the approvals for anything that was submitted after July 1, give or take one day. If they are overloaded it's only those who are trying to game the system that is going to get burnt.

[nivoj25]

Seems there was a recent change.... MOM's website now shows "If you applied for your PEP before 1 September 2023" instead of "approved before 1 September 2023".... anyone who recently got approval after 1 Sep but applied prior?