Unidentified business people cross road in downtown Singapore. (Image by TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock.com)

A foreign expat posted a message on an expat forum yesterday (18 May) seeking help.
The expat said he came to Singapore on 8 Mar. He has extended his social visit pass twice. Apparently, he was given a one-month extension each time. With the second extension, his social visit pass will now expire in 2 weeks’ time on 5 Jun.
The expat appears to be quite lucky in his search for jobs during his stay in Singapore under the current COVID-19 period. He was in fact accepted by a company after looking for jobs here close to 2 months. The company then proceeded to apply an Employment Pass (EP) for him.
Presumably, the company has already advertised the job on the national Jobs Bank and considered any Singaporean candidates fairly and obviously, the expat must have been deemed to be better than any other Singaporean candidates by the company.
The company applied to the Manpower Ministry for an EP for the expat on 1 May. Four days later (5 May), his EP was rejected but the company continued to support his application through an appeal. The appeal is currently pending.
However, as the expat has to legally leave Singapore in 2 weeks’ time, he is worried that his appeal outcome may not arrive sooner. To add to his woes, his native country has closed all the airports, which means he can’t fly back home even if he wanted to.
He said (sic), “If MOM will take more time to give result (verse-case scenario). i have to go to my country (still my country not decide to open airport, but they will open soon).”
“Is there a way to speed up MOM side EP process? Or is there a way to extend SVP again?” he asked. “Please guide me. Thanks.”
Note that this foreign expat supposedly a “talent” use the term “verse-case” instead of “worst-case” to describe “verse-case scenario”. But still, the company obviously thinks he is the “best” among the applicants.
In any case, a fellow expat on the forum advised him to seek help from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), “In the current crisis, if you really cannot leave Singapore to another country, you should approach ICA and explain the situation. I am sure they will help you!”
He just might have a chance to stay and work in Singapore if the ICA decides to extend his social visit pass again and MOM decides to finally approve his EP appeal.

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