If you want to apply for permanent residence in SG, you need to read this post. Several months ago, we talked about the things that you should not do during your submission process. There was a woman who got jailed for bribery of an ICA officer to expedite and approve her submission. Just a few days ago, we have an update about the employee who accepted that bribe – she and her daughter involved in the same case got sentenced to jail time too!
Ladies and gentlemen, please, do not under any circumstances, do stuff that you may get away with today, but will incriminate yourself years or decades from now. Not only will you get jail time, your PR application, even if granted previously, will likely get revoked too, and you will drag others down as well. You can tell that from the above case which just happened!
Now, we are perfectly aware that it is ridiculously irritating and frustrating because ICA never reveals anything before you get approved or rejected, and there is no way to check on that status too. Additionally, while most of the turnaround time for submissions to be a permanent resident in Singapore take roughly four to six months in length, there is no hard and fast rule. This means that you can only hear a reply after potentially 1 or 2 or even 3 years, and there is no guarantee whether the answer is a yes or a no. This can be mentally taxing for most people, and thus some resort to unscrupulous ways to expedite it or overturn the decision.
There could be lots of reasons for a slow turnaround time. Sometimes, it could be a case of the government feeling that they need to do some adjustments to maintain racial balance for new Singapore PRs. Sometimes, it could be political changes in SG causing policy changes. Sometimes, it could be that yours already got approved but the government needs time to get back to you.
As long as you get all of your documents required in order – every single one that is requested for during the submission, and work on improving your profile since day one of arrival into Singapore, then trust in the process.