Ireland to Singapore - 2year+ Stay - Partner Visa Advice

[kortizol]

Hi All,

So we've made the decision, discussed with work - and it looks like we're moving to Singapore next February for at least 2 years (we will see what happens).

We're not looking at "where to I live" just yet, and will get to that eventually, though it seems we might be better off renting something for perhaps 3-4 weeks to enable us to find a condo once we are there.

Realy excited now - we've been talking about this since our recon mission to Singapore 12 months ago, and now it is actually happening !

Thanks

K.

[Strong Eagle]

If you don't get married, common law or otherwise (and common law is only recognized if it is recognized in Ireland and the Irish high commission issues a letter to that effect), then short term visit passes are the best you can hope for, with the caveat that it seems that the gahmen has become stringent about preventing short term pass abuse.

[kortizol]

OK - thanks.
And what's the "gahmen" you refer to ?

[Strong Eagle]

OK - thanks.
And what's the "gahmen" you refer to ?

"Gahmen" equals Singlish for "government".

[x9200]

Are we likely to have issues with her getting visa access on my work visa without being married - even for X Days that could enable her to find employment?

Also (adding to the earlier poster), consider her education/background, experience etc. This may not be that easy to get a job, and more importantly a work pass approval unless she is well educated with a number of years working in the area Singapore has some manpower deficits.

[PNGMK]

Do you really need to bring her? Unless she has an actual profession she won't find a job (seriously - she will NOT find a job if it competes at all with local service type jobs, if she's an engineer or teacher or similar then she may find one). If she has a job in Ireland she's giving that up as well.

[kortizol]

LOL

[kortizol]

OK - thanks.
And what's the "gahmen" you refer to ?

"Gahmen" equals Singlish for "government".

Cool - thanks. I'll need to brush up my Singlish for sure !

[bgd]

She's an IT professional working in Financial Project & Program Management and currently earns 6 figures SGD.

IT is a tough market to break into unless she has some niche in demand skills. Most financial institutions have been downsizing here for years.

Contracts may be her best bet but search these forums to see the difficulties others have had, especially with agents.

[kortizol]

Thanks for the insight.

K.

[PNGMK]

Can she work remotely for her current employer?

[kortizol]

Nope - they're not international and dont support remote work unfortunately.

[PNGMK]

She might want to begin searching now where you are for a remote (from Singapore) position in other companies.

[bgd]

Personally I like KL, but only visited, never worked. A few years back I knew of some big IT projects that moved from Sg to KL due to the uncertainty around manpower levels at the time. Typically these sorts of things never come back. I think it was Citi so that could be worth a punt.

Manila would be baptism by fire if you haven't lived in Asia, but a lot of institutions have outsourced there so likely some openings, at the lower end of her salary expectations.

Standard Chartered (in Sg) always seem to be hiring, high staff turnover though. I know people on both the business and IT sides and none are happy. But that's not limited to just StandChart.

[ecureilx]

The other location options potentially on the table for us in Asia right now are Manila and KL, but Singapore seemed the best choice of the 3 for standard of living, opportunities, earnings potential, tax, and as a base hub to travel in South East Asia while we're there for the few years.

Manila you say ?

There's a vibrant expat community in Manila, living the Expat life.

Not so much, if you wanna go native.

Things are changing, but not yet, not so soon.

Plus I didn't see taxation as that attractive in PH ..