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Amici cari, From my last emails I received quite a few replies asking specifically about Singapore’s Permanent Residency. Quite unsurprising as there has been some controversy surrounding it! This week, I spoke with the most qualified man I know on this topic:
Needless to say, the takeaways you’ll get today will be from an excellent source. But quickly before we dive in, here’s a quick breakdown of the situation to bring you up to speed: Singapore considers several factors of eligibility when it comes to PR:
Other than family ties and students, the main routes available are through 2 schemes:
That all seems pretty usual. But Singapore’s PR approval rate has plummeted. Out of 150,000 applications each year, only 30,000 are accepted. 20% success rate. Even for applicants who’ve often invested years of their lives building in and contributing to Singapore. Why is this happening? And what is causing this low acceptance rate? The discretionary nature of approval and Singapore’s criteria is not transparent and so it is almost impossible for people to plan ahead, regardless of how qualified they may seem on paper. Recently, Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, went viral as he shared that his PR application was rejected. And this was also in spite of having a wife who is already a PR! In terms of qualified applications, it’s hard to see how his wouldn’t be accepted. But in a follow up post on LinkedIn, Alex made excellent points: “ 1/ It’s not a human right to receive PR. Nor do I feel “entitled” to receive it. Beware people spinning this narrative to score points on social media. 2/ It’s up to SG to judge whether I am a net contributor to its society - and I fully respect the judgment. My tweet was a genuine question of: what does it take? As is common here, there’s no transparency into why someone is rejected. This is what prompted me to tweet.” Indeed, this is the crux of the situation. The government prioritizes candidates in what they deem to be critical sectors and those who meet their stringent and intransparent criteria. Even the most established professionals might face rejection and not understand why. So now we arrive at the key points (the ones stressed by my friend): Even if this all may seem quite draconian (à la other Singaporean policies such as chewing gum ban and drug laws)… This is the prerogative of Singapore to decide who they see as valuable in their society. And that all must be respected. We are entering what I’ve been referring to as “The Age of Optionality.” The options are available for people to become Global Citizens and choose where they feel gives them the most freedom and sovereignty. But this also means the relationship between states and people will be built on reciprocity. Just as Global Citizens will be shopping around for the best set up, governments will be open to choosing their new citizens based on their criteria. In Singapore’s case, they are already wealthy and so maintaining the strength of a cohesive society is much more of an achievement than collecting more investments. Money is not the aim, so it will not talk. This is about values and mindset. Ok, so what’s the main takeaway from all of this? Alex Svanevik mentioned in his follow-up post, he is now exploring other options. And this is the key! In this day and age, you MUST have multiple Plan B's. Relying on any single path to for permanent residency/citizenship is ill-advised. So one example, and this is now based on my personal set-up:
This is one great option for perfectly hedging your position and still giving you optionality throughout the year and for the future. So hopefully that clears things up a bit! These are complex topics without absolute conclusions but the key takeaway here is to look at these programs in the right way. If you are interested in learning more about:
Reply to this email for more information. And of course as always, send over any other questions or requests for topics. I love hearing from you all! Ciao for now, Ale |
Welcome to Ale's Letter
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