What would you do?

[DailyBread]

Hi all,
This is my first post asking for advice. I'm currently in North America and currently looking for a job as I'll be laid off end of July soon due to restructuring.
I'm currently in negotiation for a position here (in NA) offering around $110k. At the same time, there are two vacant managerial positions in Singapore offering around S$150k. Both recruiters in Singapore have just sent me the JDs for the jobs, and both had told me to fly to Singapore right away (at my own expense) to talk to their clients. Would you do that? Is that the trend right now in Singapore that companies will not spend $$ to interview a candidate even if I tick all the boxes of traits they are looking for in a candidate? Or are the recruiters just fishing? I told them that I would like at least a phone interview with the clients before I fly out.
The attractive parts of working in Singapore again is the fact I'll be nearer to my family (in Asia) and bigger after-tax salary. I had worked in Singapore for 6 years previously. Please advice what you would do as I will soon get an offer here (they have just finished checking out my references and now want to discuss compensation package tomorrow). Should I just leave the Singapore option for now and rethink in a few years time if my circumstances change again? I can't help thinking right now is the best time to pursue the ops in Singapore ~ kind of like it's now or never. Help! Your insights much appreciated.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Most definitely do not fly over at your own expense UNLESS you have already had a telephone interview (preferably a video conference call). If at that point they are still interested, then they will possibly offer to reimburse your expenses for the flight & accommodations for the second or third interview (You could possibly have two telecom interviews before being invited over for the third). This is very typical of the unprofessional recruiters here. They probably took the JD brief and gave a real lowball fee to the recruiter, banking on finding someone locally, and did not factor in the possibility of having to front airfares & accommodation and the deal they struck with the client may not included the reimbursement of same.

As far as the now or later thing, I guess it's a gamble no matter what you do. A lot would have to do with your commitments and your risk appetite in a worse case scenario. Singapore is theoretically at the bottom and has leveled off so coming in now might be a good deal. However, a lot still depends on what happens in the US as any further degeneration of the market there will likely cause a further downward slide over here as well.

Just my thoughts.

sms

[DailyBread]

Thanks for your helpful comments, SMS! I was really looking forward to moving back to Singapore again. But not at the expense of selling myself short.

This website has been a wealth of info. Thanks to SMS and all the moderators for your contributions.

Cheers,
db