If you are thinking of applying for a Singapore PR, should you do it yourself or through an agency? The answer is that it depends on your personal circumstances and identity documents. However, in general, if you want an expedited and automated process to a permanent residency in Singapore, then use an agency for help in applying for a Singapore PR because in recent years, it has gottenĀ a lot more difficult now to get PR status approved.
Most people who apply for a Singapore PR through an agency actually do it mainly because they have failed to get their PR status approved when they apply for it by themselves. There are many reasons as to why this can happen. Perhaps you missed a necessary document, or wrote a bad cover letter or the qualifications is too low in the eyes of ICA or more. A good immigration agency will be able to advise you whether they can realistically get your PR status approved, and help guide you and significantly improve your application, or advise you otherwise if your qualifications are way too low compared to the expected standards by ICA. While these exact requirements are kept secret by ICA, an experienced and reputable consultant can help advise you based on past experience.
If you find yourself time constrained, you should probably consider an immigration consultant if their fees are reasonable. Average fees cost a few thousand dollars of around $4000 to $7000 per applicant. If that is a small sum to you to take care of this headache, and you are time constrained, then consider using one. While the process to apply for a PR here is relatively straight forward, there is a fair amount of identity related document and cover letter which are all required to apply for a PR. Many people from around the world still want to stay in our country and hence a Singapore PR is still proving ever so popular. Because of the high demand of people who want to apply for and become a permanent resident, but a significantly lowered amount of PRs given out yearly now, a single, seemingly insignificant mistake or item missing will cause your application to get declined.
Are you apply for yourself or for your other family members too? Most immigration consultants will charge per applicant, and if you are applying for a family of five versus for yourself, it can potentially become cost prohibitive pretty fast. Keep in mind that one of the primary purposes of using a Singapore PR application immigration consultant is to save yourself time, they certainly do not help you save money. That is why it is usually those who are in relatively good financial positions who use them to help them expedite and take care of the process. If the cost is prohibitive for your case, then they are not suited for you.