work permit

[cbavasi]

if you have been offered a new job and have signed the contract and submitted the paperwork to the new company for MOM to process the work permit - when should you inform your present company that you are leaving? is it best to wait and see that there are no problems with issuing the new work permit? should you inform your current employer before the papers are submitted and hope that there are no hold-ups?
(ps - thanks for moving this over to the correct forum! i noticed last night but didn't want to spam the lot )

[Robertzhang]

Hi,
What do u want to say? I am not sure!
I want to find a work in Singapore, so I need a work permit? Could u give me some other idear?

[cinder]

I did this way on my previous job:

Once I wanted to hire a girl who was working on S-Pass with other company. During S-Pass application process period (the new S-Pass applied by us), I told our HR NOT to ask her to resign yet, in case the second S-Pass application was refused.
When the S-Pass application by us had been approved, she then resigned. This way was to protect her - since it will be darn if she had resigned, but then the new S-Pass was not approved.

Of course we then had to wait untill she finished her notice period, counted from the date S-Pass had been approved, but I think that was a living prove that we (at least me) were a considerate employer.

[sundaymorningstaple]

When the S-Pass application by us had been approved, she then resigned. This way was to protect her - since it will be darn if she had resigned, but then the new S-Pass was not approved.

Of course we then had to wait untill she finished her notice period, counted from the date S-Pass had been approved, but I think that was a living prove that we (at least me) were a considerate employer.

Unless you are like me. I, or my HR Exec, will periodically check the online application facility to see if any of our S pass holders (I have almost 40) have pending "S" pass applications. If they do and have not yet been employed at least 12 months by us we terminate them (we have to invest in almost $1500 in government certification courses in each new employee). Any company registered with MOM to do online applications can check on their employees pending applications any time they want. So, whether you are being a considerate employer would depend on who you are talking to. Especially if the employee did not tell their current employer that they would like to leave for whatever reason.

[cbavasi]

many thanks for the replies. as it happens the HR dept advised not to say anything until the work permit had been approved - but i didn't realize the current employer could check status of pending work permits. very interesting!

[cinder]

many thanks for the replies. as it happens the HR dept advised not to say anything until the work permit had been approved - but i didn't realize the current employer could check status of pending work permits. very interesting!

Ha! Neither did I. Thinking about it, my HR should know that!! Lucky it ended pretty well, her second S-Pass was approved. The problem was actually from her previous employer who verbally let her leave earlier than the notice period (hence didn't pay her salary), but didn't submit S-Pass cancellation letter to MOM untill the end of notice period (so we couldn't formally start hiring her)

[sundaymorningstaple]

Surprisingly a lot of HR personnel do NOT know this. My HR Exec didn't know it either at first. All they have to do is log in and enter the FIN number of their staff and it will tell them if that FIN number has any pending or approved S pass applications in the system. It will not tell which company applied for the S pass however, only that there is one and it's current status.

[cinder]

Surprisingly a lot of HR personnel do NOT know this. My HR Exec didn't know it either at first. All they have to do is log in and enter the FIN number of their staff and it will tell them if that FIN number has any pending or approved S pass applications in the system. It will not tell which company applied for the S pass however, only that there is one and it's current status.

Just mumbling out loud: somehow I am not really impressed with HRs I've worked with..