Yes. S pass holders are eligible to apply for Permanent Residency in Singapore. Also, it is worth noting that there is no salary limit for this. So even if the salary is less than 6000 SGD, and because of this, the S Pass holder can not bring his family here to Singapore, they are still eligible to apply for PR.
It is also worth noting that, even if the family members are not in Singapore (on a dependant pass) they can still be added to the permanent residency application.
Most of the S pass holders we talk to often are concerned about the prospects of getting PR. Many of them believe that their application will not be considered for PR in the current competitive PR market.
The view often expressed is, when so many highly qualified EP holders are available, why will my application get approved? With this view in mind, many of them don’t try to apply for PR at all.
However, this is the wrong approach, in our opinion. How will your chances be considered if you do not file the application? We have had cases where S pass holders’ applications for Singapore PR were approved.
A key point all S Pass holders need to understand is immigration and accepting an immigrant as PR in the country is not all about education and high salaries. In a country, you need people with diverse backgrounds to do all types of jobs. Government authorities are not looking only for high-tech executives, bankers, and consultants. They also need junior accountants, technicians, Construction supervisors, and so on. So there will always be some quota for people from this background.
We routinely handle supporting PR applications to S Pass holders. Our experience shows that the cases of S Pass holders tend to be a bit more complicated than Employment Pass holders. This might be a surprise to the reader. But below are three reasons for this ;
They may have done certificate courses from a technical institute or may have a diploma. Often these institutions do not appear in the ICA and Ministry of Manpower databases. The documents that are given to them are also often not in a standard format. This sometimes poses a challenge as to if these documents are acceptable to the ICA.
Maybe the family is not eligible to apply for a dependant pass, or maybe due to cost concerns, the applicant has preferred to keep them in their home country.
But when the family is back in their home country, and the documents require translation, it can be tricky as ICA accepts translation of documents in specific formats only.
Since some of the S pass holders have limited education, which might be in the local language of their country, they often times find difficulties in communication.
For example, Suppose such a person identifies an issue with one of his documents and needs to find the solution. Then calling a government department, explaining the problem in English, understanding the alternative resolution, and implementing it is often difficult for such a person. In other words, they may need more handholding in their cases.
Do not presume that your PR will always get rejected. If you have stayed in Singapore for a sufficiently long time, apply for PR. Because only when you apply, you will know the results.
Once you decide to apply for PR, take an assessment of all your documents. If you notice any complexities about documents or have doubts about the acceptability of some of the documents, then take advice from an expert.
If you find difficulties with your PR application, then you can consider engaging our services. Our prices are reasonable, and we employ expert staff to assist people like you. Our staff will assist you on all the aspects of your application.
Applying for PR by S pass holder is not different than other cases. However, S Pass holders might find it difficult to complete the process of applying for PR on their own. A professional consultancy firm like ours can help them in this case.