PSP’s Jeffrey Khoo questions the apparently lenient PR application process after being invited to apply on LinkedIn

Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Jeffrey Khoo took to Facebook on Friday (2 October) to highlight a rather strange incident in which he was sent a message on LinkedIn by a company stating that he is a “highly eligible” candidate to apply for a Singapore PR.

In his post, he shared a screenshot of the message which said: “I came across your profile and we believe you are highly eligible to apply for Singapore PR”.

If that’s not all, the company also stated that it has a “proven track record of Approved PR Applications with over 15,000+ satisfied customers”.

After receiving this message on LinkedIn, Mr Khoo hoped that people are not granted PR status this easily in order to make sure that only the most useful individuals will become people of Singapore.

“Just received this a few minutes ago from my LinkedIn account. I do hope our PR application process is tightened up to ensure that only the most useful to our country will be given PR status,” Mr Khoo wrote.

He added that some companies specialise in helping foreigners to get PR status and they have excellent track record for it.

“There are companies that specialise in helping foreigners get PR status, some have a ‘proven track record’. This also means that there could be potential loop holes to be exploited… hopefully not”.

Besides Mr Khoo’s recent experience, another company called Sleek also posted on its LinkedIn profile last week stating that it had applied for more than 100 Employment Passes (EP) in the last three months, and none of the applications got rejected.

According to the firm’s website, it said that it “incorporate companies in Hong Kong and Singapore, and help them manage their governance, accounting and tax matters using technology”.

The CEO of Sleek congratulated the team who worked on achieving zero rejection.

“Well done team Peter Haarmark and John Chia for this great achievement of 0 EP rejected these last few months on +100 cases. Especially when everyone is observing that it is getting more and more difficult to get EPs through!”.

Although Sleek is not the same company that offered Mr Khoo an opportunity to apply for Singapore PR, but this company is just an example of how some firms claim that they have zero rejections.

In order for a foreigner to apply for a PR status, he or she needs to be a spouse, unmarried child under the age of 20 or aged parent of a Singapore citizen. If that’s not all, an EP or S Pass holder as well as student and foreign investor in Singapore can also apply for a PR status.

MOM increased minimum salary criteria for EP and S Pass holders

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo announced on Wednesday (26 August) that the there will be a hike in the minimum salary criteria for Employment Passes (EPs) and S Passes amid the weak labour market conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With COVID-19 and the economic disruption it has cause, there is now more slack in the labour market. We will therefore make further adjustments to our foreign workforce policies,” Ms Teo said.

She added, “Even as we stay open to the world to accelerate our recovery, the crisis makes it all the more important that employers give fair treatment to Singaporeans”.

“We will ensure that employers uphold both the letter and spirit of the Fair Consideration Framework. We will closely examine retrenchment exercises to ensure they are carried out fairly.”

Based on MOM’s addendum on Wednesday, Ms Teo noted that Singapore’s foreign workforce policies are made to support economic growth as well as to create good jobs for Singaporeans.

“There is regular calibration, to enable firms to access the manpower they need while ensuring a strong Singaporean core,” she said.