British Spouse of SC, EPEC or LTSVP(Spouse) or PR?

[LeeGirlGib]

Hi,

I have a major question. Hope someone can help me out.

I am a Singaporean citizen and my spouse is Brit. He is currently completing his PhD in Germany. Should I apply for a LTSVP with myself as the sponsor, or should he apply for the LTSVP with a EPEC through his own merits, or should I just apply for a PR for him with myself as sponsor?

A little bit into our background, we are both master’s degree holders and he would like to join me before he receives his PhD Cert. Does this mean that he only has a master’s degree (as he has not received his PhD cert)? Will a conferment letter be of any help?

Does anyone know what his chances are for LTSVP and PR applications? And will my status as a civil servant help in the approval of the application? Can anyone gauge the duration of the LTSVP he will be given if approved? He would like to join me in December and would then search for a job while he is here.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

In your case, I'd try for PR, there's nothing to loose really and would make looking for work much easier. It can be rejected but that doesn't stop you for applying later for something else. When he applies for PR it's anyway on his own merit plus your merit (you'll need to provide information about yourself too, more than just the marriage certificate).

In theory his only master's degree holder, but in you application you can make it clear that he's getting the PhD also. Chances of approval would obviously depend which area this PhD is and whether his got any work experience related to it. A researcher in biomedical field would have a higher chance say compared to PhD in Arts and Social Sciences.

[Saint]

Do a search on forum member Littlegreenman or EconoMIC as he's been through the same process recently, to some extent, so did I 18 months ago.

He'll probably be along soon to advise you, but in the mean time have quick search

[Superglide]

or move to Europe?

[Saint]

or move to Europe?

The last I heard, Germany was still in Europe

I know I've been away a while

[sundaymorningstaple]

I think SG was talking about 'her' moving to Europe

[Saint]

I think SG was talking about 'her' moving to Europe

You are correct, the coffee hadn't kicked in yet!

[sundaymorningstaple]

I do that a lot at 6:45 am before catching the bus in the morning!

[Saint]

Hi,

I have a major question. Hope someone can help me out.

I am a Singaporean citizen and my spouse is Brit. He is currently completing his PhD in Germany. Should I apply for a LTSVP with myself as the sponsor, or should he apply for the LTSVP with a EPEC through his own merits, or should I just apply for a PR for him with myself as sponsor?

A little bit into our background, we are both master’s degree holders and he would like to join me before he receives his PhD Cert. Does this mean that he only has a master’s degree (as he has not received his PhD cert)? Will a conferment letter be of any help?

Does anyone know what his chances are for LTSVP and PR applications? And will my status as a civil servant help in the approval of the application? Can anyone gauge the duration of the LTSVP he will be given if approved? He would like to join me in December and would then search for a job while he is here.

Thanks a lot in advance!

A couple of other question I would ask that would help with the advise we can give would be

As well as currently doing PHD, is hubby currently employed? has he previously been employed?

How long have you been married and where did you get married? And long you been living apart?

[econoMIC]

Hi,

I have a major question. Hope someone can help me out.

I am a Singaporean citizen and my spouse is Brit. He is currently completing his PhD in Germany. Should I apply for a LTSVP with myself as the sponsor, or should he apply for the LTSVP with a EPEC through his own merits, or should I just apply for a PR for him with myself as sponsor?

A little bit into our background, we are both master’s degree holders and he would like to join me before he receives his PhD Cert. Does this mean that he only has a master’s degree (as he has not received his PhD cert)? Will a conferment letter be of any help?

Does anyone know what his chances are for LTSVP and PR applications? And will my status as a civil servant help in the approval of the application? Can anyone gauge the duration of the LTSVP he will be given if approved? He would like to join me in December and would then search for a job while he is here.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi there. Yes I went through the whole thing in April and got my PR approved in late June. I posted under a different profile (littlegreenman) back then. Just let me know if you have any questions. The process is quite simple really. Just make sure you get all the documents they ask for and more. Where they asked for a P60 and I didn't have more than one I gave them my last payslip for the year highlighting week 52 and also provided them with my National Insurance Card so they could match the number against my payslip. Do it thoroughly and you will be rewarded. Feel free to ask if you have questions at any time. You can find my post with the whole time line and all details here: http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic58547.html .

Once piece of advise, I lived in Germany as well and once applied for a student pass in Singapore with my German documents as a have German a-levels etc. and didn't want to confuse them by bringing out Canadian documents as well as I am Canadian and German. The result was that they wanted all German documents translated and not any translator would do. So based on how many German documents your husband has I would suggest you call up the embassy in Germany and ask them which translation certification they want. I would also submit the application in person at the embassy in Berlin, even if it means travel as you might be able to avoid doubts from the start (eg. I had crossed something out in my form and they wanted me to initial next to it or else they would have sent it back to me later, things like this).

Good luck!

[Superglide]

I think SG was talking about 'her' moving to Europe

You are correct, the coffee hadn't kicked in yet!

Yes, I was.

[LeeGirlGib]

Wow! Thanks so much for the info and the links to the other threads.

As to moving to Germany, we can't do that because of my work reasons. I am already working in Singapore. My hubby is still in Germany. We have been married for about 3 months. We have been separated for about 2 months.

My hubby is currently employed by the University, but on a really low pay so I am not sure if the application will be affected by that. He is currently earning about S$1200 per month. And he hasn't been previously employed. Its one of the classic german cases of going on to do your PhD immediately after finishing your Diplom (masters) degree. Unless being employed as a research assistant counts...

From what I gather from lots of colleagues of mine is that many Singaporeans associate PhD/research assistant with studying?? So I am afraid that it might affect the application.

Hi there. Yes I went through the whole thing in April and got my PR approved in late June. I posted under a different profile (littlegreenman) back then. Just let me know if you have any questions. The process is quite simple really. Just make sure you get all the documents they ask for and more. Where they asked for a P60 and I didn't have more than one I gave them my last payslip for the year highlighting week 52 and also provided them with my National Insurance Card so they could match the number against my payslip. Do it thoroughly and you will be rewarded. Feel free to ask if you have questions at any time. You can find my post with the whole time line and all details here: http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic58547.html .


We are actually thinking of throwing in as much things as possible. I am getting my husband to get official university translations of his certificates, including letters from his professor about the conferrment of the PhD degree and his employment as a research assistant.

Once piece of advise, I lived in Germany as well and once applied for a student pass in Singapore with my German documents as a have German a-levels etc. and didn't want to confuse them by bringing out Canadian documents as well as I am Canadian and German. The result was that they wanted all German documents translated and not any translator would do. So based on how many German documents your husband has I would suggest you call up the embassy in Germany and ask them which translation certification they want. I would also submit the application in person at the embassy in Berlin, even if it means travel as you might be able to avoid doubts from the start (eg. I had crossed something out in my form and they wanted me to initial next to it or else they would have sent it back to me later, things like this).

I guess that means we have a lot of translation to do because my husband has been living in Germany for the past 11 years! So all his documents are in german. Guess this means I have to make quite a few calls to the ICA this week.

Good luck!

And yes, I think we are definitely going to try applying for PR. Any recommendations for good german translators ?

And now I just have to call up the NS board and check if my husband has to do NS. He isn't very keen and is afraid they might call him up for 2 years NS (very detrimental to his career). From what I gather from other forums, NS board isn't very sure about that either because sponsoring of husbands by their wives is quite recent? Has anyone been called up for NS yet? Because I understand that only PRs under the PTE scheme are exempted...

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

Better explain everything he's done, and highlight all research work, evenif part time research assistant role during PhD studies.

Probably easiest and cheapest is to find a translator it in Germany, cheapest would to get the university to issue the docs in English. This can be done by you translating them yourself and giving that to university and if they agree to stamp and sign that kind of docs officially you wouldn't have to pay legalisation or translator fees. Actual degree docs might not work that way, but other ones yes, ask the relevant party to write or at least sign an English version.

For legalised copies, I found out that Singapore embassy was the cheapest place to do it in Europe. My own embassy would charge 30 euros for each stamp on a photocopy as Singapore embassy only asked 1 euro per stamp per page.


NS, I doubt it, if you husband get's PR under the spouse scheme he's wanted for other reasons then doing NS, but of course there's no guarantees and I'm pretty sure they won't give any statement in advance, he'd normally would have to register like I think all of us did. After you register they just tell that you're not asked to active service or something like that.

[sundaymorningstaple]

PPF, you are correct, provided which, the husband is not under 25. If he's under 25 then he'll probably have to do it. I reckon by the time he's got his phd he'll be over 25 anyway (unless he was really good). If that's the case he still has to register but will get a waiver from active duty.

[LeeGirlGib]

Better explain everything he's done, and highlight all research work, evenif part time research assistant role during PhD studies.

We will be getting letters from his professor, so I guess that should be fine... I hope...


Probably easiest and cheapest is to find a translator it in Germany, cheapest would to get the university to issue the docs in English. This can be done by you translating them yourself and giving that to university and if they agree to stamp and sign that kind of docs officially you wouldn't have to pay legalisation or translator fees. Actual degree docs might not work that way, but other ones yes, ask the relevant party to write or at least sign an English version.

For legalised copies, I found out that Singapore embassy was the cheapest place to do it in Europe. My own embassy would charge 30 euros for each stamp on a photocopy as Singapore embassy only asked 1 euro per stamp per page.

Wow, thats cheap, I know the town council was charging 10 euros per stamp...

NS, I doubt it, if you husband get's PR under the spouse scheme he's wanted for other reasons then doing NS, but of course there's no guarantees and I'm pretty sure they won't give any statement in advance, he'd normally would have to register like I think all of us did. After you register they just tell that you're not asked to active service or something like that.

Great! That will probably reassure my husband. He is definitely over the 30 mark, so I guess he is pretty much on the safe side

But then of course the latest hiccup... I realised that I and my certs are here while he and his certs are in germany... which probably means we wont be able to apply for the PR until he arrives in Singapore and he may only be granted the 90 days short term visa...! Horrors!! Any ideas??