Derricktse said:
Actually I have not heard many sgvo applicants report their employers received verification calls. I do not think it is the case that sgvo do a more thorough scrutinization than other offices. E.g. I believe that my application is very simple and straightforward to verify - my wife and I studied and are working in Singapore now with 2 years of experience in one position with one single employer. However, SGVO didn't/haven't called to verify at all. They would have finished that step by now if they truly wanted to respect the 1 year promise.
Again I think it is more of a case in which SGVO has manpower shortage and is overwhelmed by the number of applications. If you are in Singapore then you should drop by SGVO at One George Street - tiny office with mainly aunties (with all due respects to the elderly!)
Thanks for sharing, I didn't know that. I always thought it was because SGVO does very thorough verification and thus the delay.
However, I do not agree that it is due to a shortage of manpower. You see, SGVO did not process applications for a very long time. For a long while, they only processed like less than 10 files which is weird right?
Could it be that SGVO has to call foreign bodies to verify work details of foreign applicants? I understand that the office is tiny, but verification checks are often outsourced, they only need to submit for approval. VO elsewhere are small too, no? I do not believe that the VO will be affected by the size and management of the office itself. You see, CPC process FSW applications in 20 days!? Why the huge difference? It could be that SGVO is not authorized to process so fast? I have no idea, but I believe there must be a reason. FURTHERMORE, SGVO do not have more applications to handle, the number of applications at VO elsewhere is the same starting from last year, just that SGVO has got backlogs to clear and they didn't clear when everyone else was clearing. So the numbers u see now is dated back from a long time ago.
Frankly, complain letters will only fall short. No harm trying though. CIC (or SGVO) will still justify their processing time with the 28 months time frame. CIC did not promise a 12 month time frame, they only mentioned that they hope for a 12 months time frame if I am not wrong.
And if they had wanted everything within a 12 months time frame, they would have updated the processing time in the website. Shortage of manpower? I do not see how difficult it is to do things, I suspect that they are unable to authorize certain processes that other VO may be authorised to do. My friend's VO is manila and he works in SG, but he submitted passport in SGVO, SGVO was very fast, returning his passport in 6 weeks. The VO was also very nice, eagerly handing him his passport. My friend got a call the day before and could collect the passport the very next day.
So imo, they are not inefficient. I suspect that there is more to what we do not know and that CIC do not want to disclose it.