First time poster here.
I'm a qualified architect from the UK, and I'd like someone to explain to me the difference between E-Pass and S-Pass. I've been told I need an E-Pass (salary threshold too high for me) but nobody can really explain adequately why it can't be the S-Pass instead.
A bit of context;
My girlfriend is Singaporean, she moved to Scotland 15 years ago for university and never left. She's been keen to move back to Singapore for a few years (to be closer to ageing parents), but I was still working towards qualification. When I qualified last year, she asked again and I agreed. We're both keeping our flats in Scotland and we both see this as a two to three year thing.
I did the stupid thing where I quit my job, hopped on a plane and arrived with no job lined up. Yes, I know. To be fair, I'd just lived through yet another Glaswegian winter and I was also very much ready to leave that company anyway.
Work for her isn't a problem as she's a citizen. For me - I've given myself six months to find something architecture/construction related. I've been here a month now, living with her parents.
Obviously the E-Pass will be tricky. Architects are not well paid, anywhere. Also, I took a non-linear route to qualification and I'm 35 years old. My salary threshold is therefore $8400. I have five years industry experience so what I could actually expect is more like $4500 - way, way off the threshold (google "Singapore Architecture Pay Transparency Report" for source).
However. I'm qualified in the UK but that doesn't mean I'm 'qualified' here - I wouldn't be on the register of the local professional body (Singapore Institute of Architects) and my job title would not be 'Architect'. What, then, is to stop my hypothetical employer applying for an S-Pass? (disregarding whether they have the quota space for it - that's another conversation).
My girlfriend's parents, and other people I've spoken to, are convinced it has to be an E-Pass. $8400, as an architect at least, seems totally unattainable, for me and frankly, for all but the most experienced, specialised architects. However, an S-Pass would only require me to earn around $4000pm*. Add the $650 monthly levy and that's around what I would be expecting to earn anyway. An S-Pass seems much more my speed.
I guess the question is, where is the line between executives, professionals, managers and technicians (E-Pass) and 'associate professionals' (S-Pass)? Is it subjective, or is it written down somewhere? The list of every job imaginable, that you can find on the government website, doesn't differentiate between E-Pass and S-Pass roles.
I would love for someone to explain the difference clearly and ideally, point to the place where it is written down in black and white - if it really does have to be the E-pass, as people have told me, then my position is a bit clearer and at least I'll know where I stand.
Obviously, the next part would be finding a job but that's a different conversation involving quotas, and it's not quite what I'm asking here.
Thanks for reading this long, long comment. And yes, I know I've gone about this the wrong way.
(I know there is another route - marriage / LTVP / LOC - but my understanding is that takes time and I'm not ok with a long period as an unemployed trailing spouse. I've also heard that employers don't understand the LOC and shred your foreign CV on sight anyway?)
*I'm estimating, based on the fact that I'm halfway up the 23-45 age scale and they give the minimum and maximum S-Pass salary requirements. I can't find full list on the website though, like you can for the E-Pass.
