Izaboo wrote: ↑Fri, 02 Apr 2021 3:34 pm
Again, I contacted another forum and posted the same kind of message and received 3 PM asking for his resume. Would it have ended up with a job proposal? I have no clue.
When I said that the vast majority of headhunters aren't worth a damn, this is exactly what I meant. They will source resumes from anywhere and everywhere, not with the intention of providing a candidate for an open position but for the purposes of collecting resumes to show their bosses that they are actively searching for candidates. Were you to search these forums, you'd find many posts from people wondering why they submit a resume to a headhunter, then hear nothing back.
And second, even with that basket full of resumes, most headhunters can't seem to read a job description or read it so literally that they eliminate all the good possibilities. One reason foreigners don't get presented to companies by headhunters is that their client, the company, says, "I want someone local, I don't want to pay relocation." So, it doesn't matter if you're perfect for the job, the headhunting muppet focuses on exactly one criterion.
Well, I heard that it is only recently that the spouse of a permit holder was no longer automatically getting a work permit as well. A lawyer (should!) know the the subtleties of the law, and sometimes applying for a different visa (investor visa, permanent resident, etc) makes a whole difference for the spouse. You're American, in our experience, USA is the worst! If you obtain an H1B visa (business visa), your spouse can't work. But, if you get an investor visa or a transferee visa (L1A) your spouse can work. So I don't know the specificies of Singapore, but it could be similar?
A spouse of a work permit holder has never been "automatically getting a work permit as well." A spouse comes in on a dependents pass, which gives her/him the legal right to reside but not work in Singapore. In the past, a spouse on a DP could apply for a job and the company could apply for a letter of consent (LOC) to hire that spouse. Unlike work permits, there was no minimum salary, no minimum work requirements. It meant DP spouses could be hired for low pay, amongst other things, and the government has shut that door. Your husband still comes in on a DP, but now he must qualify for an EP in order to work.
More info:
https://www.mom.gov.sg/-/media/mom/docu ... 05F69CC3D1
I agree, the USA has some onerous work permit regulations, but what I don't understand is why people think that Singapore is some kind of work permit paradise. 20 to 30 years ago, it was a relative paradise, as the government attracted high tech industries such as computer manufacturing and bio tech. But as salaries have increased those jobs have been lost to lower wage countries, and while the desire for strong technical professionals remain, Singapore has greatly increased its own technical expertise, and there is a strong populist sentiment that foreigners are taking jobs that the government has to deal with.
Singapore does have a couple of options, and at the risk of offending, I don't think you or your husband will qualify for either one. The first one is the investor program. It gets you and your spouse PR, which lets you do just about anything. I would note that the application fee for this program is $10,000, non refundable. Anecdotally, the size of this non-refundable fee suggests that the Economic Development Board has already been inundated with all kinds of scammers and fairy tale thinkers, hoping to find a way into Singapore.
More details:
https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/how-we-help/g ... ramme.html
The other, recently enacted, work permit option is the "tech pass". Again, the eligibility criteria are challenging, to say the least. The Economic Development Board website is an interesting page to peruse as it gives you a sense of what Singapore is looking for.
Tech Pass:
https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/how-we-help/i ... -pass.html
There is one other possibility for your husband, and that is a personalized employment pass (PEP). Unlike all other work permits, the PEP is issued to the individual, not the company. This means that the company can hire a PEP holder without regard to filing for an EP, and could improve his chances of finding a job. The PEP requires that a foreigner have a minimum of SGD 18,000 per month in salary in order to apply.
More info:
https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permi ... yment-pass
Myasis Dragon wrote: ↑Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:47 pm
I'm not trying to be a hard case here; only saying that if you're husband's employment matters a lot, you'd be wise to verify the information you have been getting before committing.
No, thanks, I appreciate you being forward! We don't need a pat on the back.
It's an extraordinary opportunity for me and a dream job, but my family will always come first. I know how the spouse feels when he/she cannot work (again, experience from the US) and I don't want this for my husband. If family and expatriation in SG are not compatible, well, we'll find other projects!
Some anecdotal feedback: I came over and started a business in 2004 (my dream job), also much easier to do at that time. My wife was the Information Technology Director for a large section of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. She was getting kind of burned out in what was a high pressure job, and she was OK with coming to Singapore and not working, at least for a while.
My wife, alpha that she is, ended up on the boards of a couple of volunteer groups, Friends of the Museum and AIDHA (
https://www.aidha.org/). Through these organizations, she ultimately ended up with a part time job (all she wanted), handling IT for a 30 person local headhunting firm (and yes, she's got lots of war stories about the shenanigans that the company used to pull off).
When we finally came back to the USA (the recession ultimately killed my business), she decided that she didn't want to get on the rat race track again, and chose to serve as IT manager for a small Catholic school. It suited her well, and time off in Singapore didn't hurt her chances for getting a job.
So... depending upon how long you are planning to stay in Singapore, there are other options available to your hubby while you slave away, including fabulous travel opportunities (my wife has been to Bhutan, Taiwan, the Silk Road, and quite a few more), golf, part time jobs, and drinking beer at Penny Blacks on Boat Quay! It just all depends.
To muddy the water: You should pursue your dream. Living in Singapore was/is a wonderful experience. Unless your hubby discovers that a break in employment would severely limit him in the future, he really ought to consider the adventure as a trailing spouse. He can always pick back up again if he doesn't get the jobs he wants. And I can tell you, had I not pursued my dream because others didn't want me to, I would regret it to this day.
