Singapore EP Education verification check

The 3rd party agency, was it engaged by MoM, or was it engaged by you directly as requested by MoM?

Hi, it happened to me. You can check with your institution directly. My case, the institution has responded to the agency, but the agency keep telling me that the institution has not responded. This agency ask another party (they call it local agent) to contact your institution by email.
I asked my institution to screen shot the reply email to the agency, and I forwarded the screen shot to them, on the same day finally I received the report, from the date I can see they have prepared it few days before.
You need to actively check and keep follow up with the agency, they act very slow, and lack of communication internally with their local agent, only send email. If the other party has not responded, they will just sit on it, no action like make a phone call or anything.
Good luck, hope you will get your report soon.

MOM pointed 4 Agencies to choose.

kaushikpal12 wrote:

Hi all for my EP Renewal MOM requested educational qualification check. That was done . The third party verification agency say institute did not respond to verification request. What path is open for me. Thanks in advance for all your kind advice

You can try a couple of agencies out of the 4, as this will help you accept the report from whoever gets back faster. You will lose a couple of hundred dollars but then you would have bought peace. You will also have to accept that it would be very slow now in India with the Covid second wave, have an alternative plan. You might get a faster turnaround time if your university has online verification, see you can also call or write to your principal and ask for help, they usually do.

Wish you luck.

Is it allowed to try multiple vendors together ie all four

Hi good people can you please advise if I can employ more than one verification agency simultaneously for my MOM education verification check

Yes, it's your money. But outcome would be same I think. It's standard process.

Yes, you can employ all 4. But what’s the logic behind it? Just trying to put a fact across, (doesn’t imply to you)- If your educational certs are from a recognised university and legit, outcome would be the same., you employ 1 or 4.

Totally agree with @Shekhz. It'll be frustrating for your university as well.

... and you burn money for nothing.

I have seen another post where one agency took more than an month for the verification whereas another agency completed it in 10 days. So there could be differences.

Thanks again all of you. My Uni and all is genuine. I am just getting Super worried by this wait of now three weeks since I submitted all documents to the agency. Worried that they may not be trying hard enough to verify. Also that in India you sometimes really need to be persistent to get verification replies. Was thinking if another agency may try harder based on some of the posts in the forums. Can we not present the evidence directly to MOM say mail of genuineness of certificate from university.

The process at MoM is they engage with a third party vendor or agency who does the independent verification. They don’t do any communication with the employer or employee. So, you have to wait. Good luck

If you need a tailored shirt and there are several tailors who could make it, do you order one from all of them? I believe not.
But doing so would be very "kiasu" - a Singlish term you may want to read about!

The only problem I see think is that no matter how independent these companies claim, indeed they are private profit making companies. So, in my opinion it is not 100% fair if a government organization relies more on private agencies rather going through official government channel via embassies. The private agencies doesn't take lesser time.

Government organisations or embassies do not offer services to answer "Was this applicant at school A and had got the cert he claims to have?" or "Was this applicant at employer B from XXX to YYY?" It is NOT their job!

Best Practice: I am slowly coming to a conclusion that before we apply for a new EP or our EP comes up for renewal, two months before sending in the application get the verification done by any of the four agency. Then simply attach the report along with the application

Reasons for doing this
1. The cost 200 SGD per certificate is a small cost to avoid all the stress and tension when MOM asks for this and you are running against uncertainty and deadlines.
+++++++++++
There will be 2 requirements from MOM:
Education verification S$96.30 – To check certificate if it is a genuine/original.
Accreditation Status of awarding body S$107 – To check on institution if it is an awarding/accredit body.
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2. I say two months because that will be I think sufficient time as I have checked on the various forums to have the answer from the vetting agency without getting antsy and anxious
3. I guess to have that on you application will make a good impression on MOM and one aspect of the four below will be taken care off. The most time consuming one

4 I broadly see four criteria to any successful EP application
  i. That your education degree is above board/ genuine
ii. That your salary is above limit for EP and commensurate (within correct range) with (a) position (b) experience
iii That your company has meet the criteria for advertising in local job portal for at least 14 days and can prove that no local candidate exists
iv. You Company meets any quota requirement
As you will realize point ii, iii, iv are straight forward to prove or comply as is the employers responsibility nothing complicated there
Only point i as you are dependent on agency / institution / others with whom you are not in close/direct contact or have influence with becomes most frustrating and time consuming.

5. You can get things corrected if something comes up or make a fresh approach with another agency knowing where the road block will be . This can be then advised to the new agency

If I knew this I would have done a pre-emptive Edu background check
Waiting for the agency to expedite the result now
Hope above helps someone

Kaushikpal: Excellent post, thank you!
The only thing I want to add: Posting time on the local job portal ("Jobs Bank") is 28 days now.

Consulates do take the qualification and background check enquiries.