Looking to volunteer

[Ian Fitzgerald]

Just signed up for the Kind Exchange. Have you found it's very active? It seems geared towards technical professions, accounting and web design. Any experience with it?

[ecureilx]

So your mother comes into town on a social visit and makes you dinner. The Singaporean authorities then deport her for depriving a maid of work?

If I sit in a park and play chess with people, is that depriving a chess coach of work?

I understand the point about under the table work. I'm not asking where I can get a job. Everyone who is telling me I can't participate in things on a social pass is missing the point.

How's this, does anyone want to go for a run? How's that? Simple and innocuous enough? Am I allowed to run with someone web denizens?

Well, you need to slow down a bit.

Your mom cooks for you while she is on holiday, nobody cares

if your mom cooks for the neighbor hood, well, somebody may infer she isn't doing it free of charge, and in the past, a lot of people have claimed to be doing stuff free of charge but immigration has found they were not, and in the process, they have violated one too many laws.

An example, girls hanging around bars, and claiming to just helping the bar owner or friends, and serving drinks etc., and all knows they are not doing it free of charge, and when there is an inspection, the 'friends doing favour' also get hauled, and given warning.

So much so, except in those bars where they take risks, most bars will not let customers carry their own drink to the table, lest somebody reports it as illegal employment.

And if your mom is on social visit, people get jittery, and if anybody reports to ICA, ICA is not gonna deport her, but when she comes back again, they are gonna wonder what her intentions are for visiting Singapore

If you have travelled in this region, you can hear all kinds of stories, from people who try to get to SG or MY.

In Singapore, you can hear people telling immigration officers, that they want to learn the culture . and the immigration officer goes, you already did spend a month here, what culture are you going to learn for more than a month ?

Singapore is a magnet for young males and females and also older people who want to make 'pocket money' and earning in Singapore $ is great, vs the currency and earning potential of the neighboring countries, if you have travelled around here.

btw, If your mom was on a long term pass, and made friends and cooks for a friend, not likely that the friend may start suspecting about her intentions ..

Since you talk of chess etc, did you try to go and make friends in the American Club, or some other organisations like Junior Chamber etc ?

they may not have need for your talent but .. you can kill time, if that's what you want to do.

Or .. well, as I suggested, try taking a short holiday on the cheap to Thailand, or Philippines or Indonesia, to see if you can keep your experience current

The idea Is, in Singapore, err on the side of caution, that push your luck.

[Ian Fitzgerald]

Lynx, thanks for the link, but unfortunately doesn't see to be much recent activity (I started to volunteer to photograph an event and realized it occurred in Nov '12). I'll check back with it on occasion, definitely the right idea, though.

Thanks again.

[the lynx]

It depends on different charitable organisations on different projects/occasion, sometimes it looks for someone specifically for a particular task, sometimes it just looks for extra pair of hands.

If you have a particular cause you feel strongly for (soup kitchen, disabled community, etc), you can contact them directly and sign up as a volunteer.

Since you're American, you might be interested to know that the American Club has a volunteer arm here http://www.amclub.org.sg/volunteers.html. Something I found on Google few seconds ago.

That's one good start.

Oh wait, if you would like to meet new friends or someone who share your interests, you can look around the Events, Gathering and Making Friends section in this forum. Or just use search feature if you have something you particularly like. Maybe "Cuban cigar", "shooting club"?

But please do not take other regulars' input on negative note. Any form of employment or paid hobby is illegal in Singapore. If it is grey, it is better to assume that it is illegal. I know it is not you but many people have tried exploiting loopholes for illegal employment, using keywords like hobby, helping family/friend, etc, so better be safe than sorry. If there is one thing we are known for, it is for giving honest inputs to difficult questions.

Having LTVP would be a good base for you, considering that you're going to be around here a lot to be with your girlfriend. It saves the headache, gives you clear status here, and hassle of answering immigration officer's interrogations.

[Addadude]

Tell you what Ian, you're right.

I mean why pay any attention to what myself and so many of the other responders have said here? After all, what the hell do we know?

Okay, we might have been living here for quite a few years - decades in fact for some of us - but what does that matter if the answers we give you aren't the ones you want to hear?

So by all means pay no attention to all this "negativity" and go ahead and do whatever it is you want to do.

And if the relevant authorities happen to demonstrate an equally narrow-minded attitude about how you are spending your time, I'm sure you'll be able to argue them around to your point of view.

[PNGMK]

To summarize the good advice:

1. Go for LTVP. Solves some of the problems with an SVP visa (not all - you can't 'work'). Failing that look for a job in an area that interests you - the Police special ops / NAvy commandos come to mind.

2. Be aware that SVP's cannot even volunteer - I am on a misson board and getting charity workers in here cannot be done unless they come in on a full visa (i.e. like a fully paid employee)).

3. There are a lot of regions around Singapore that could do with your help.

4. Start a company in your area of interest. Lots of threads on how to do this and eventually get a work permit from said company.

[PNGMK]

On a side note ... are there any Singapore ex SAF mercernaries around? Or is it illegal such as it is in Australia?

[JR8]

OP is frustrated, but needs to lose his anger. Needs to determine the way things are, rather than banging on about how they, within his experience and outlook, theoretically 'should be'.

He will change nothing via frustration/anger, but he will spoil his week.

'When in Rome.'

[ecureilx]

OP is frustrated, but needs to lose his anger. Needs to determine the way things are, rather than banging on about how they, within his experience and outlook, theoretically 'should be'.

He will change nothing via frustration/anger, but he will spoil his week.

'When in Rome.'

LOL

[PNGMK]

OP is frustrated, but needs to lose his anger. Needs to determine the way things are, rather than banging on about how they, within his experience and outlook, theoretically 'should be'.

He will change nothing via frustration/anger, but he will spoil his week.

'When in Rome.'

How many times have you opened up the local rag and read about a bunch of peaceniks or other do-gooders from the west stopped at Changi? That gives you an idea of how seriously your week can go wrong.

(For the OP - interfering in the domestic politics of Singapore as a foreigner is verboten.... even if you are an esteemed group like the WWF or Greenpeace or even TeaParty love LKY).