Singapore Expats

Hi All!

I have been living in Singapore (arrived in March 2013) for more than 10 years, and my family members have been living here for around 3 years. As such, we applied for Singapore PR for last year's February 1st week, and the application status is still showing as "pending".

Some information about ourselves:

Me (main applicant)
Job: Senior engineer role at Food Industry
Age / Nationality: 37 / Indian
Length of stay in Singapore: 11 Years +
Annual salary: S$90,000+ Bonuses
Qualifications: Master's degree (from local university)

Wife (joint applicant)
Job: House wife
Age / Nationality: 31 / Indian
Length of stay in Singapore: 3 Years
Qualifications: Masters Degree

Children - 2 (daughter 5 years, son 3 years)
Both are studying at local kindergarten

Additional information perhaps worth mentioning is that I have applied for the PR three times before and it has been rejected every time. All my previous applications were rejected in 6 months or less, but this time my application has been pending for more than a year. Moreover, this is the first time I have applied PR along with my family members. 

I am not sure if this is normal or not. It would be great to get feedback from anybody with experience going through PR applications on what our chances seem to be based on our current situation.

Thank you!

510098rpk wrote: ↑

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 12:22 pm

Hi All!

I have been living in Singapore (arrived in March 2013) for more than 10 years, and my family members have been living here for around 3 years. As such, we applied for Singapore PR for last year's February 1st week, and the application status is still showing as "pending".

Some information about ourselves:

Me (main applicant)
Job: Senior engineer role at Food Industry
Age / Nationality: 37 / Indian
Length of stay in Singapore: 11 Years +
Annual salary: S$90,000+ Bonuses
Qualifications: Master's degree (from local university)

Wife (joint applicant)
Job: House wife
Age / Nationality: 31 / Indian
Length of stay in Singapore: 3 Years
Qualifications: Masters Degree

Children - 2 (daughter 5 years, son 3 years)
Both are studying at local kindergarten

Additional information perhaps worth mentioning is that I have applied for the PR three times before and it has been rejected every time. All my previous applications were rejected in 6 months or less, but this time my application has been pending for more than a year. Moreover, this is the first time I have applied PR along with my family members. 

I am not sure if this is normal or not. It would be great to get feedback from anybody with experience going through PR applications on what our chances seem to be based on our current situation.

Thank you!

The following is just my opinion.

One year of waiting time is nothing, especially if you are indian. It is generally more than 1 year of wait for indians (sometimes rarely some get approved less than 1 year, e.g. i have seen some indians get approval in less than 1yr of application but they are usually undergrads from local university).
In my mind, i feel that the average time for indians would be somewhere around 18months, be it approved or rejected. This time your application is pending close to 1year probably due to the factor of long length of stay (10years) and many indians applying. Even if an application is pending for 20 months we cannot consider it as a sign of approval, but to be optimistic and reduce anxiety you can say that 'ica is still giving consideration for your application'. One of the most repeated lines in this forum is similar to "The length of an application does not guarantee a success or failure".

From general information gained from this forum and my personal first-hand information, the following could be your problem.
1) Being indian (yes, we have to accept it)
2) Salary is quite low for your length of experience.
3) Spouse not working is a drawback. You have to understand that once your family is given pr, your wife's contribution is expected. So being housewife is not positive, although i understand the reason could be to take care of your kids.
4) Govt already knows you want to apply pr for reducing the school fee, indeed there are many hundreds of indian families applying that are similar to yours.
5) Although your length of stay is good (10yrs) i feel that nowadays that most indians who apply for pr last year or this year will be having 8-10 yrs of stay. So in that case, length of stay may not help you all the time. Moreover, the length of stay for your wife and kids is less than 4yrs.
6) Many indians think having a local masters degree will increase their chances greatly for pr. May be that was true 10yrs ago, but nowadays this factor does not add much. It may help a bit, but not to great extent. But having local poly or undergrad degree will greatly increase chance. One more fact (just from my observation) is that more than half of the indians who apply for pr will be having at least 1 local degree, i.e, a local poly, or local undergrad, or a local masters or a local phd. Long gone are the times when having local masters increases your chances greatly. However, having local masters can be a small positive for you.

The above is just my guess and based on that, i feel that it may be difficult for you to get approved this time. But who knows, we have also seen some 'simple' indian families get approved. I wish you good luck and do update here your outcome so it can help other readers.

Hi.. Thanks for your feedback with more insights; it helps a lot. I will update here once the result is out.

Hi, Just a quick update.
My application got rejected after 14 months and 1 week. Thanks for your valuable information. In my case, will applying for me alone (excluding family) make any difference? Thanks

510098rpk wrote: ↑

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 7:02 am

Hi, Just a quick update.
My application got rejected after 14 months and 1 week. Thanks for your valuable information. In my case, will applying for me alone (excluding family) make any difference? Thanks

Hi, thanks for updating here. Like i have said before, it is quite tough criteria for indians nowadays. So the only thing you can do is keep improving your family profile and apply later.

ALWAYS ICA PREFERS TO GIVE PR TO WHOLE FAMILY UNIT. If you apply pr as a single especially if you have a family it is going to be a sure reject. Since you have family with you here and you already applied with kids and spouse, if you submit a new application with only you as applicant, ICA will surely see this as negative. So to answer your question, excluding family will surely make a difference, and that difference will more likely be a sure reject.

Only preferred races may likely be successful, if they apply as a single applicant and even if they dont include their family in the application.

Hi, Thanks for your prompt response. Understand your points, we will try again after improving our profile. Thanks again.