Applying for new company's first EP

[nate]

Hi Everyone,

I've been lurking here for a few weeks as I'm preparing to temporarily relocate to Singapore with my wife. There's some great info here!

One thing I'm still unclear about -- do we need and "In-Principle Approval" for my Employment Pass before traveling to Singapore?

More details: I'm a U.S. Citizen living in San Francisco. My U.S. based company has just formed a Singaporean affiliate, and I was picked to be employee #1 to live there for a year and build up our local practice. Since we're a new company, it's taken some time to incorporate in Singapore, get the banking and legal stuff completed, and apply for access to the EP Online system.

I'm supposed to be entering Singapore on July 8th to start work on July 12th. I will be traveling with my wife, who is a Taiwan (R.O.C.) citizen and U.S. permanent resident. Our contact in Singapore says that we should have access to the EP Online system this week which means that my EP application hasn't been submitted yet!

Do we need to wait for EP approval before traveling to Singapore? Should I delay our departure, or is it ok to be on the ground there while it is processing?

Thanks for your help.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Nah, you can travel on a normal SVP and get a 90 visa although you wife will probably only get a 30 days visa (you would have to check on that). However, it would be better to ensure you have the IPA first as otherwise, you may well be wasting a trip if all comes to naught and MOM won't issue the EP. Probably will, especially if you are bringing an established foreign company to Singapore. But I'd be remiss if I didn't at least bring it up as a remote possibility.

sms