Work pass application keep being rejected

bapobear · Post by **bapobear** » Tue, 31 May 2011 11:24 am

I have a degree, I've been working in Singapore for a year and am currently holding S Pass, I have basic salary of more than $2000. But I have been rejected for Spass/Employment Pass for 6 times consecutively with 6 different companies. No company intended to appeal for me because they thought the reason of my application being rejected was unclear and no point for them to take 3 weeks to appeal for me. I'm frustrated. I called MOM, they said I am not qualified which is extremely ridiculous. If I was not qualified, how could my current company applied S Pass for me a year ago? Do they have some sort of double standard?

Anyways, my new company, I have signed the contract with them. My agent and this company promised to apply work pass for me no matter what. But I don't truly trust them. so want to know is there anyone got rejected so many times like I do? Did you eventually get the pass approved?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Tue, 31 May 2011 1:09 pm

The criteria for S pass holders has changed considerably since your pass was originally issued. It's common for them to be rejected even though approved. Do a search of my posts. I applied for 5 renewals last week in three of our companies (all on the same day) the next morning 4 of them had be rejected on "credentials". All 5 guys had been here already 2 or 3 years. It's happening all over. Your salary is not material at the moment as long as it meets the minimum requirements.

As an example, in the past as long as you held a degree you could get an S pass without any problems. Now, if you are in a technicians position and you are not holding an engineering degree, your odds are almost 100% of being rejected, even though you now have several years experience. This is a ploy to help MOM to weed out some of the excesses of the past couple of years. It bites, but them's the facts.

We've been seeing it for the better part of this year.

bapobear · Post by **bapobear** » Tue, 31 May 2011 11:45 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:The criteria for S pass holders has changed considerably since your pass was originally issued. It's common for them to be rejected even though approved. Do a search of my posts. I applied for 5 renewals last week in three of our companies (all on the same day) the next morning 4 of them had be rejected on "credentials". All 5 guys had been here already 2 or 3 years. It's happening all over. Your salary is not material at the moment as long as it meets the minimum requirements.

As an example, in the past as long as you held a degree you could get an S pass without any problems. Now, if you are in a technicians position and you are not holding an engineering degree, your odds are almost 100% of being rejected, even though you now have several years experience. This is a ploy to help MOM to weed out some of the excesses of the past couple of years. It bites, but them's the facts.

We've been seeing it for the better part of this year.

I don't know, I have been offered $2500 and I still got rejected for SPass (not EP).
If every employer and government only looks at the relevance of degree to job scope, then I won't be getting any job, not in Singapore or my home country. The only way is to try my luck in UK or australia (impossible

).
Do you suggest if I look for job with same title/job scope as my current one? I applied for job with little relevance to what I am doing now.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:08 am

Why should Singapore allow foreign non-relevant degree holders take jobs that any non-relevant degree holding Singaporean can do? Foreign Talent is supposed to be able to bring something to the table that locals cannot do or are not qualified to do. If your education is in History, what makes you think that your are qualified to be a mechanical technician in an industrial/manufacturing complex, regardless of the salary offered? Doesn't make too much sense from the MOM's POV. Frankly, doesn't make too much sense to me either.......

rishenv · Post by **rishenv** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:16 am

KathyTan · Post by **KathyTan** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 2:51 am

Hi same thr.
My co help me to s pass which takes 5weeks to know the result which is a week b4 commencement date as stated in the contract of service.

I hav rented a room so I m hanging in the middle. they said will appeal for me but it wil takes 3weeks. I m worry.

Duno y MOM rejected my application without stating reason...
Help!

Mad Scientist · Post by **Mad Scientist** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 4:37 am

KathyTan wrote:Hi same thr.
My co help me to s pass which takes 5weeks to know the result which is a week b4 commencement date as stated in the contract of service.

I hav rented a room so I m hanging in the middle. they said will appeal for me but it wil takes 3weeks. I m worry.

Duno y MOM rejected my application without stating reason...
Help!

Nowadays there is no rhyme nor reason on the rejection. MOM now shifting the goal post every so often.

The only advise I can give for both you is to prepare for the worse and make contingency plans. Worrying will not help you one bit. In fact it will make you feel much worse. Easy to say that doing it but this life and it is so unfair .

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 7:05 am

rishenv wrote:Hello Bapobear,

You case is similar to mine, i got rejected from 7 company, from small to big one.

7 Company
10 New ep/spass Application
10 spass/ep Appeal
6 EPEC application

All rejected

One would have thought you would have gotten the message by now, wouldn't one!

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 7:08 am

KathyTan wrote:Hi same thr.
My co help me to s pass which takes 5weeks to know the result which is a week b4 commencement date as stated in the contract of service.

I hav rented a room so I m hanging in the middle. they said will appeal for me but it wil takes 3weeks. I m worry.

Duno y MOM rejected my application without stating reason...
Help!

It would have had the reason stated. As your potential employer what it was. Could have been either insufficient quota or could have been credentials or experience or salary not be sufficient under the newer criteria. I'm betting your credentials are not sufficient, e.g., your degree isn't relevant to the job being pursued.

bapobear · Post by **bapobear** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:38 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Why should Singapore allow foreign non-relevant degree holders take jobs that any non-relevant degree holding Singaporean can do? Foreign Talent is supposed to be able to bring something to the table that locals cannot do or are not qualified to do. If your education is in History, what makes you think that your are qualified to be a mechanical technician in an industrial/manufacturing complex, regardless of the salary offered? Doesn't make too much sense from the MOM's POV. Frankly, doesn't make too much sense to me either.......

yea...why would they approve my previous SPass while i am holding a non-relevant degree

Asdracles · Post by **Asdracles** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:26 am

Have you read previous posts? Criteria change continuously, so it might be that you fit the requirements one year ago, but not now.

Also, I do the EP/S Pass in my company and a subsidiary company, and I have the feeling (not confirmed as other posters said other things) that the requirements for a renewal are softer than for a new application.

A few of our employees working for company A have applied for company B when the current pass expired, and I would say that less than 20% got it. All them, after the rejection, applied for renewal at company A and all them got it.

By the way, this 20% who got the transfer are not better qualified, higher salary, longer time here or any other reason that might make a difference.

It's just a black dark box where we can only see the outcome, not what's going on inside....

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 01 Jun 2011 1:35 pm

bapobear wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:Why should Singapore allow foreign non-relevant degree holders take jobs that any non-relevant degree holding Singaporean can do? Foreign Talent is supposed to be able to bring something to the table that locals cannot do or are not qualified to do. If your education is in History, what makes you think that your are qualified to be a mechanical technician in an industrial/manufacturing complex, regardless of the salary offered? Doesn't make too much sense from the MOM's POV. Frankly, doesn't make too much sense to me either.......
yea...why would they approve my previous SPass while i am holding a non-relevant degree

Did you bother to read this thread at all?

Foreign Talent! NOT!

bapobear · Post by **bapobear** » Thu, 02 Jun 2011 2:17 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:
bapobear wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:Why should Singapore allow foreign non-relevant degree holders take jobs that any non-relevant degree holding Singaporean can do? Foreign Talent is supposed to be able to bring something to the table that locals cannot do or are not qualified to do. If your education is in History, what makes you think that your are qualified to be a mechanical technician in an industrial/manufacturing complex, regardless of the salary offered? Doesn't make too much sense from the MOM's POV. Frankly, doesn't make too much sense to me either.......
yea...why would they approve my previous SPass while i am holding a non-relevant degree
Did you bother to read this thread at all?

Foreign Talent! NOT!

sorry, I was specifically commented on your previous post. You meant MOM will not give chance for those holding non-relevant degree. Then they had made the mistake from a year ago, at least in my case. They have allowed me to work here. Shall I say MOM is a low quality government with very bad system and their staff lack of ability to judge?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Thu, 02 Jun 2011 3:12 pm

bapobear wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:
bapobear wrote: yea...why would they approve my previous SPass while i am holding a non-relevant degree
Did you bother to read this thread at all?

Foreign Talent! NOT!
sorry, I was specifically commented on your previous post. You meant MOM will not give chance for those holding non-relevant degree. Then they had made the mistake from a year ago, at least in my case. They have allowed me to work here. Shall I say MOM is a low quality government with very bad system and their staff lack of ability to judge?

You can say what you want. They have just fine-tuned the criteria from "holding a degree" to one of "Holding a relevant degree". This is having the desired effect of weeding out some of the Not so Talented foreign talent who were being abused by employers to avoid paying more to local talent. Now, since the GE, they are taking a hard line and rejecting lots of S pass holders who were let in when things were lax. I lost 4 last week for the same thing (and they have been here for 3 or 4 years). So not only were they bounced for criteria, their experience wouldn't be allowed without the relevant degrees.

They didn't "make a mistake", they were just being relaxed with the criteria. Big difference, albeit, not to the employee getting whacked though.

prashanna · Post by **prashanna** » Sat, 11 Jun 2011 3:05 am

Hi.. Just saw the thread and was interested in the topic.. I used to work at the Marriott in Singapore under an S-Pass as well... I do not have a degree.. I only hold a Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management.. The first time, my application was put on hold and I had to take a psychometric test or aptitude test. I passed and the pass was approved.. But after 2 years, MOM rejected the renewal of my S-Pass.. According to my company, they did not provide any specific reason but said that it was hopeless to appeal... I guess I was not qualified according to their new policies... That's how it works and there's nothing one can do about it.. You can only keep trying and hope you get lucky..

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Work pass application keep being rejected

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