EPEC 101 (from a Filipino writer)

Okay, so what is EPEC? If you are planning to move here in Singapore to look for a job and not want to be hassled or suffer from the anxiety or lack of sleep due to worrying when a job interview or job offer will be ringing your phone because your 30-day social visit pass is coming to an end, then you must definitely get an EPEC. 

EPEC stands for Employee Pass Eligibility Certificate. This pass is the key to holding a long term social visit pass (LTSVP) which is good for one year. 

Who is eligible?

That would be up to the Ministry of Manpower but we have it on good authority that it is dependent on the university of your undergraduate degree course. For example, in the Philippines the six almost certain alumni that would be approved for the EPEC are the following:

University of the Philippines- Diliman (yaaaay! cheers schoolmates!!! :D)

University of Santo Tomas - (the tigers...raaaar!!)

Ateneo de Manila University- (well of course!)

De La Salle University- (ummm...the rich)

Mapua Institue of Technology - (lots of openings here for engineers guys!!!!)

Asian Insitute of Management - (and for management too!!)

Six is very few, I know, but there's always your degree level. I mean if you're taking your Master's already or your PhD, that should make profile information more professional and hireable. Those should be the ministry's deciding factors. After all, their concern as with every other country is that the people coming in will not be a liability to them or will not drain them of their resources. Everyone likes a self-sustaining, self-supporting contributor.

And another thing, let's always hope for lady luck can sprinkle us a few drops of her Felix Felicis. :)

What are the documents needed?

Once you've decided to apply which you can do for free via https://epec.mom.gov.sg/epec/index.do, by just filling in the fields in that page. After filling that up, you will receive a submission acknowledgment email. On my case, I submitted it on a Sunday and then the next day I received the e-mail requesting for supporting documents. These are the following:

passport sized photo taken within the last three months

diploma

passport particulars page

In my case, what I submitted under diploma was my diploma translated in english already. (By the way, if you are a UP Diliman graduate, you can just request for a translation of your diploma via e-mail.) So anyway, I submitted my documents though afterwards I was asked to resubmit my diploma on May 16. Yes, it was only after a month that I was notified to re-submit as per their requirement,take note the first request was on April 18. Therefore, I proceeded to upload the Tagalog original scanned diploma. On May 20, I got the e-mail with subject field "EPEC Application Approved". Yaaay!

Congratulations!! One worry down!!! But like I said, the EPEC is only the key to getting a LTSVP which is the main goal for getting the EPEC  in the first place, for the end goal of obtaining  permission to stay for a longer time than the initial 30 day social visit pass in order to facilitate for the job hunting. 

This email of EPEC approval will contain the next step for the ultimate LTSVP. It will basically tell you that although you need the document hard copy which is sent via snail mail or post mail, you may apply for the long term pass via the ICA E-Services which I shall discuss at length on the next article, (coz my connection is getting slow too). Besides let this remain a free page,  know what I mean? :)