My PR Approval Journey - Caucasian Spouse of SC

[jrrrcircle]

Hi all, as of today my PR has been approved.
Posting my journey here so that it may assist others in the same situation.

This post is purely informational only.
I notice on this forum people like to randomly question other peoples motivation for getting PR.
This post is not about that. Any comments like that please off.

The point in my learnings at the end about the 2 year marriage thing might enflame some posters so happy to have that discussed here.

I am married to a Singapore Citizen so let us begin with both our profiles:

My profile

Race/Age: 31 Caucasian from a major Western English speaking country. "Other" in ICA speak.

Background in SG:
On EP Since Feb 2018
Changed to LTVP with PLOC in Feb 2023 (one month after getting married).

Salary/Occupation: 9K a month in IT

Qualifications: Bachelors Degree


Spouse profile


Race/Age: 30 Chinese Singaporean

Salary/Occupation: 4K a month in advertising

Qualifications: Diploma


Now for the timeline of the actual approvals

• Applied for PR under Family Ties Scheme (FTS) in early February 2024 (13 months of marriage). Spouse was my sponsor.

• PR approved in August 2024 (7 months)

Here are my observations and learnings based on my experience that may be helpful to you:

• Having 6 years of history in Singapore with salary increases at each role probably helped me a lot.

• I could be wrong but I like to believe having a Singaporean marriage and certificate helped speed up the process and made things seem more official to ICA.

• Sponsor salary of 4K a month is within the threshold for approval.

• I do not know if the race of my spouse had an impact due to the super low quota for "other" approvals.

• A lot of posters are very adamant about this 2 year of marriage rule before applying for PR under FTS. Based on my experience, this was not necessary and there was a recent approval in this forum of someone only being in Singapore for a few months prior to approval.
  
  Therefore, I think that this 2 year rule is just a finger in the air guesstimate with no backing. Happy to be proven wrong on this with some empirical data. 2 years might help but it is not going to be the key deciding factor.

• Everything is based on my assumptions made from observations. As we do not have any concrete data from ICA please do not assume you will have the same experience.

[smoulder]

What helped to a large extent is most likely your marriage to a Singaporean.

On your point that you have been married for much less than 2 years. You are right that it is empirical evidence and the suggestion to wait for that long is also based on empirical evidence. Just that the latter is with more data points. You could be the exception. Quite likely that there are other things which ICA weighted in your favour. My theory is that you being from a developed nation might have played a role - a person from a 3rd world country married to a Singaporean for a short duration might have been viewed differently.

However, all this is speculation. We won't know for sure because ICA's algorithms are more closely guarded than China's military secrets.

[jrrrcircle]

What helped to a large extent is most likely your marriage to a Singaporean.

On your point that you have been married for much less than 2 years. You are right that it is empirical evidence and the suggestion to wait for that long is also based on empirical evidence. Just that the latter is with more data points. You could be the exception. Quite likely that there are other things which ICA weighted in your favour. My theory is that you being from a developed nation might have played a role - a person from a 3rd world country married to a Singaporean for a short duration might have been viewed differently.

However, all this is speculation. We won't know for sure because ICA's algorithms are more closely guarded than China's military secrets.

I suspect the developed country thing is on the ball.
Putting in my university and other things were seamless for me from the dropdown lists during the application.
Also didn't get stopped during the process for more information regarding my parents info + all the original documents I uploaded.

BTW FYI this is not really relevant but it triggered my aspie brain: 3rd world is a Cold War term developed Mao that was used to distinguish NATO (1st world), Eastern Bloc (2nd world) and unaligned nations (3rd world). It sounds really weird to hear it in 2024 haha.

You can just say developing, global south or least developed unless you wanna flex your age

[smoulder]

Lol I'm 44. Yes, quite aware of the background. In a Teams meeting and multi tasking at the moment so my brain just defaulted to the terminology I've been hearing since I was a kid.

[jrrrcircle]

Lol I'm 44. Yes, quite aware of the background. In a Teams meeting and multi tasking at the moment so my brain just defaulted to the terminology I've been hearing since I was a kid.

All good haha! I admire the multi tasking skills with being able to write up such a strong analysis while in a call! Unfortunately, my brain is not able to do the same

[jalanjalan]

I was married just barely one year before I got PR too. This was way back in '95 though. I doubt race of the sponsor has much to do with it, as my spouse and I are both minorities. We got married in Canada. Seems if you're married to a SC, it can be a really fast track (with a few exceptions).

[malcontent]

Perhaps the 2 year “rule” might be more applicable where the foreign spouse is from a country that is required to have a visa to enter Singapore and that spouse lacks strong economic means. In other words, their motivation to marry a Singaporean could be a little more sus.

Just a hunch.

[MOCHS]

‘Cos there has been numerous stories of PR rejections when they apply immediately after marriage. Hence the 2 year wait recommendation. But we always say if people don’t wanna wait, go ahead and apply, just manage expectations accordingly.

Being married to majority race and being of child-bearing age helps ‘cos SG needs babies. “Low risk” country helps as well.

[jalanjalan]

Perhaps the 2 year “rule” might be more applicable where the foreign spouse is from a country that is required to have a visa to enter Singapore and that spouse lacks strong economic means. In other words, their motivation to marry a Singaporean could be a little more sus.

Just a hunch.

yup. Economic means and stable marriage are factors, as mentioned here:
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/i-fel ... -singapore

[NYY1]

The point is often times these forum rules or beliefs are repeated ad nauseam without really thinking about the specific situation. Generalisations are true on average, but they are wrong on the margin.

People here try to share and help, and that's a good thing. Sometimes people know a lot and give good advice/perspective. At other times, that's not necessarily the case.

Anyways, congrats to jrrrcircle!

[malcontent]

The point is often times these forum rules or beliefs are repeated ad nauseam without really thinking about the specific situation. Generalisations are true on average, but they are wrong on the margin.

People here try to share and help, and that's a good thing. Sometimes people know a lot and give good advice/perspective. At other times, that's not necessarily the case.

Anyways, congrats to jrrrcircle!

It’s on a case by case basis - those were the verbatim comments from the officer when I asked MOM why they had just approved a Malaysian and rejected me, and we both had the same profile.

Of course, this was when I had less than 6 months on the ground here in early 1997 and was learning everything the hard way.

[nxtm]

Indeed, there’s no need to wait 2 years after marriage if you’re Western on EP.

Applied under FTS PR a month after marrying my SG spouse and it got approved within a year.
Went straight from EP to PR this way as EU citizen.

My guess is that they assess the risk of a sham marriage to be very low in these circumstances + know the couple has the option to move out to an equally developed country in the west if they don’t approve.

[MOCHS]

I think there are various permutations where you either wait 2 years or take the risk and don’t wait.

- If foreigner spouse is already on EP and has been in SG for past few years -> Can take the risk and don’t wait after marrying SC

- If foreigner spouse has never lived/worked in SG before and starts off on LTVP after marrying SC -> Better to err on the side of caution and wait