Renewal of EP

[EP]

My EP's validity is until 30 December.  I am planning to be away from Singapore from mid Decemmber to mid January.  When should I apply for extension / renewal?

[EmployerSP]

In my case, the employer was the one to apply for the renewal of the EP. I only had to go and pick it up from the MOM when the application was approved.

[eppy]

Not a bad idea to start now: some of the comments on the Jobs page are telling tales of longer-than-usual wait times.

[beforehand]

Yes, apply soon.  We went on holiday this summer while our EPs/DPs were being renewed and we had to get a letter from MOM before we went (to hand in to immigration at this end before departure) otherwise apparently the EP holder gets arrested when trying to leave the country!  So you have to tell them that you're going anyway, even if you've already put the application in.

Coming back we had to fill in the usual immigration cards that tourists do and the MOM took those out of our passports this week when I picked the passes up.