EP got rejected & HR appealed about 15 days now

It was done through my consultancy I got within 2 days

After approval, the IPA is issued almost immediately - at most a few days!

Hello, i have a question.
will mom check on scholarships bond declared in company’s job application form?

MoM does not care about private bonds or contractual duties. But if you are talking about government bonds, e.g. after getting a scholarship to study in Singapore, no need to tell: they already have that information.

Bro how long to take time for appeal?

Ashwinachi: Please read the thread "How long will my work pass (EP, S-Pass, WP) application take" to get an idea of the time involved and the factors influencing it.
And why do you start or end every sentence with "Bro"? Is that a word? What does it mean?

It means brother

Sorry then that I replied, despoite not being your sibling!

Hi,

My  EP got rejected with the new employer as per MOM the reason is salary mismatch, i.e. salary offered is more than job ad .Currently I'm holding EP with current employer valid till Oct 2020 which is no use as project is getting scrapped.. So the new employer has re-post the job ad with revised salary range and then will appeal to MOM after 14 days of job posting.Can anyone tell what's the probability /how long it takes to get EP now??

My goodness, as Im reading these comments, my stress is rising to the sky ...
My new employer just lodged for my EP application on 12/09/2019.
I am a civil Engineer (Fresh Graduate).
Well recognized qualification, some training certificates.
The employer has set my salary 3k plus 550 benefits every month.
Question: Does nationality/age matters to MOM?

It is very difficult to get an EP as a fresh graduate. Do you have something that sets you apart from Singaporean fresh graduates (and is relevant for the job)?
The minimum EP salary (for fresh graduates) is S$3600/month. Only base salary is counted (no benefits). Thus your pay is too low to get an EP.
Officially, nationality does not matter for EP issuance. But anecdotal evidence tells a different story (although more towards race than citizenship).

The company I got hired regularly hire fresh graduates from Malaysia and china.
This time around also, 2 from china and one from malysia and me from iran (studied in malaysia).
The company is the biggest construction company in SG. I believe all HR team know what they are doing other wise they wouldnt be wasting their time.

Im just worrying about my nationality which may cause some issues 🤦🏻‍♂️

Check the MoM webpage for the EP salary requirements if you don’t believe me.
(There is a lower, unpublished threshold for Malaysians only.)

Well I look forward and positive.
Thanks

You are wrong on the salary:

This is how it counts for your information:

Fixed salary= base + fixed allowances

You can detect this easily on their website too.

Yes, you are right if (and only if) the allowances are contractually guaranteed and are paid in cash (not indirectly by, for example, the company paying your rent).
But even then you are below the threshold!

No . You clearly missing out .
It is up to the capacity of the company and sponsorship. 
By the way my EP got approved as a Graduate Engineer with the fixed salary of3.55k per month.
***

Have a nice lawfully day!

Okay, so your EP got approved, must be a genuine case where MoM found with your skills is required in Singapore even though you are a foreigner, fresh graduate studied in some other country. I too had doubt about your country Iran could make a spoil party but it didn’t happen.

At salary part, it’s the fixed allowance which can be included as mentioned in MoM. So, not sure if your gross salary is $3.55 which looks to me sceptical (from employer point of view, if they have submitted different salary at MoM) with the number nearly matching the threshold $3600 mentioned at MoM.

As we know time to time, MoM considering other yardsticks to define whether you need to be given work pass or not. In your case, it came out as positive. Good luck

Thanks!

Just to add a few points here:

1. The most important factor for MOM is the reliability of the company.
(in my case this x company is very well known and contributed most of giant projects in SG.. they are international company with having branches in 7/8 other country...)
2. Another important factor is the qualification.
( I have obtained my engineering degree from a reputable university in Malaysia (UK education system)
And is tied with Washington accord where my degree is equivalence of US degree.
3. In terms of skills.
( I would say im a small potato and nothing special..I just know a few software that will help me in the long run but other than that nothing special. Im not sure why they hired me instead of 10/12 other SG graduates!  But I do know that they hired 1SG and 4 foreigners.   The ratio tends to be 1/4
4. Nationality does not matter for them but what the person can contribute is more important and usually large companies they will never ruin their reputation by hiring some dush bag.
5. Salary and financial matters.
( I had anxiety and stress after reading stuff on internet which is the wrong thing to do since every case has its own merits and criteria... so this is how the salary counts:
A fixed Base salary ( what ypu get fixed per month)+ fixed allowances/benefits (what you get fixed per month)= FIXED SALARY
Mine worked out to be 3.55k and I was nervous as hell.. I don't know what happened there at MOM but no issue raised from them. By the way I doubt a company would Show another salary to MOM that is not a professional act)

Again, every case is monitored differently it is like getting a Visa for a foreign country.. and the officer will look into the case in different prospective compare to other cases.

Hope this helps and Good luck to everyone!

There are many criteria including those you are highlighted to get approval of work pass. We have a special thread named with “criteria to get work pass approval at MoM”, can be seen at the top of this Singapore forum threads.

Yesterday I was notified by agency that my EP application was rejected.

Situation:
Resigned on Oct 16
Applied for EP on Oct 21 - I had $0 tax owing at this point in time
Received tax bill from IRAS dated Nov 1
Called IRAS - they advised to pay tax by Nov 11
Paid by Nov 11 (& I confirmed with IRAS that payment cleared)
Nov 14 - MoM rejected EP claiming the reason was unpaid taxes
Appealed Nov 14

Aside from the obvious need to automate/fix the MoM<=>IRAS tax-checking process (MoM must have only checked outstanding tax at some point in the week Nov 1 to Nov 8, and also didn't bother to check that the bill had only been sent a couple of days earlier),
My main question is:

How long should I extend working at my current employer before this appeal gets finalized?
I'm thinking two weeks extra?

Secondary question: every time I extend my last date at my current employer they recalculate the tax owing and send the updated total to IRAS.   So I am making an assumption here that this drama will not further affect my current appeal process.  Or should I proactively reach out to MoM and explain the full situation?  I really don't want my dependents to be thrown out of their school/Singapore just because of an MoM mistake.

Furthermore, this scenario of receiving a new tax bill mid-EP-application should not result in EP rejection - it should simply result in MoM asking the agency to explain the situation just like they do when they need other extra information (and just pause the EP process instead of immediately rejecting it).  What IRAS advised me and what MoM expected did not align with each other.  The process needs more transparency for the applicant to reduce the number of heart attacks.

I never heard of a rejection for unpaid taxes, other than in cases where it was outstanding for extended periods (after the deadline). So I assume this was a simple mistake by MoM‘ or IRAS.
But why the hell did you resign before your next EP was approved? This is an unnecessary risk (in addition to complicating matters, as you experienced) and therefore unadvisable!
Your suggestions on how MoM and IRAS should improve their internal processes is wrongly placed on this forum. But even if you send them to the respective authority, I doubt that anything would change.

The new employer wanted me to start this week.

And actually that would have been possible if not for this mistake by MoM.

Furthermore my current employer allows me to un-resign at any point. So there is no actual risk for me - just annoyance at the lack of transparency and fair process.

It's also worth noting that my employer by law had to freeze my final salary payment to pay IRAS - however they actually paid 5 days after the date on the IRAS bill. So technically this was completely out of my control. Hence the absolute flaw in the current MoM process.

If you think the Singapore authorities lack in competence and/or transparence, you should look elsewhere: Singapore regularly gets TOP marks in worldwide rankings on these!
I think in this case the problem was your lack of understanding of their processes, plus undue impatience: An EP approval process can take anywhere between 1 to 3 months and there is no way to predict any individual case!

'undue impatience'?

In 2013 my E-3 work visa for the USA was approved and express posted to me in less than 3 days. I was over there working a week later. So you are completely wrong that Singapore has a superior work visa process.

Also note that I've been working here for 3 years - the MoM already know everything about me. IRAS also know I've paid all of my taxes on time.

This should take less than a week.

First-time applications should take longer I agree, but that isn't the case here: I've already had two EPs approved. Just because a process may have been the world's fastest 10 years ago does not mean you don't keep trying to improve it. The MoM should be constantly aiming to improve instead of resting on their laurels.

The worst part of all is that appeals go to the back of the queue behind other EP applications that were submitted after mine. This is blatently unfair.

Finally note that I have not once blamed one person or the Singapore government. The one single MoM process is to blame, so you should quit being so defensive. I love Singapore and the Singapore government - they raised and educated my wife, a top medical specialist, so I am forever in Singapore's debt for my amazing family.

Hm, you continue blaming the Singapore authorities - and even call me defensive (as if I need to defend anything here).
It is what it is, and MoM/IRAS make the rules for it - take it or leave it!
(Remark: Even if you demand they "should" make speed and predictability of process a priority, obviously they don't - and I believe they have reasons for this.)

Where have I blamed Singapore authorities? Quit putting words into my keyboard mate.

As I have stated several times: the process is to blame, not the people.

No one could blame a Singapore citizen unless they know who designed the process, and who implemented the process. I don't know who did either - and I don't think you know either.
Who knows, the process was probably implemented by some foreigner. So stop shooting from the hip.

I have problems understanding your rant about which persons designed the processes. Why and how would that matter?
But I am pretty sure Singapore officialdom has everything well thought through (at least much better than in most other countries) and designed them for good reasons.
That work passes are approved slowly and aqpplicants face various hurdles is a common tool in many countries to dissuade foreigners from taking local jobs. It works!

I have to agree that the process is rather slow. My EP has been pending since 29Aug and the latest update from my employer is that MOM is still processing the EP. I'm really unsure why it is taking so long to get an outcome.

Seriously,  I dont think MoM did a great job in Visa work pass.

An application that stuck up to 3 months just prove that MoM just drag without reason. MoM needs to improve alot in this

Furthermore, the MoM rejection letter I received is dated Nov 13th, whereas the IRAS records prove I had paid all taxes by Nov 11th.

So the EP application process is broken in more ways than I originally thought.

Either MoM delayed the printing of that rejection letter by 5+ days, or it means IRAS are providing out of date tax information to MoM.