30% of EP, S-Pass applicants rejected so far this year

[v4jr4]

The exchange rate for SGD-Kyat is stronger compared to SGD-IDR. I guess they can save very little with salary less than 2K.

Sometime ago, it was like follows ...

"Your exchange rate is based on the official Government rate of $1 = 6 kyats.
In reality, the rate is more like $1 = 800 kyats."

I understand the rates have been revised .. not sure how that went ..

There's no enough data in numbeo, so I'm curious about their lifestyle.

[v4jr4]

Following up from my post in this topic before I went away on holiday. Just got back to work to find that the appeal for one of our programmers on S-Pass has been rejected.

Her last day is on Friday.

She was from Myanmar and had been with the company two years.

We will struggle to get a local/PR in on the money we offer.

As for my boss, I'm not sure why he doesn't want to hire local for the development related stuff since he's trying to look for another FT from Chennai. The result? I'm not surprised if the application is rejected although the salary mentioned in the document is almost near to P2 (around 27-28 years old).

Why do you think application will be rejected? If they file for P2 pass and he/she is qualified he/she should get it.

I can't really say "gut feeling", but I think it's related to the EP quota (since my colleague can't renew his EP).

[revhappy]

Quota is only for S pass, I dont think P2 pass has any quota restrictions. As long as the company is in good standing and employee is qualified for P2, the pass is a given.

[v4jr4]

Its not the actual exchange rate that matters. For example SGD-INR is stronger than SGD-Yen but that doesnt mean India cost of living is higher than Japan.

Same thing for your own country Rupiah may seem dirt cheap, but then everybody there deals in Millions and Billions

That's the point

[v4jr4]

Quota is only for S pass, I dont think P2 pass has any quota restrictions. As long as the company is in good standing and employee is qualified for P2, the pass is a given.

Eh? I thought there's a EP holders limit for each company?

[ecureilx]

This week I'm at the SG offices of some of the Indian companies we contract with. The discussion yesterday was around how it is difficult for them to get their lower paid employees in on EPs now. But the HR guy followed up with (paraphrased): "It will be better for us though, because now we can hire locals for much lower than the high rates we used to pay to get the passes approved!".

I wasn't sure if I should have laughed or cried.

funny .. since sometime ago, before all the restriction kicked in, most employers, especially SMEs, were keen to employ Foreigners - at the same rate or slightly higher pay than Singaporeans, since they get away with the ~ 15 % or so of additional "cost" .. on top of not carry-forward of annual leave for foreign staff, reduced medical etc. etc..

I am talking of small companies, especially - where 10 staff X 15 % of their pay as Employer contribution works out to a lot of $ ...

[vestapo]

Following up from my post in this topic before I went away on holiday. Just got back to work to find that the appeal for one of our programmers on S-Pass has been rejected.

Her last day is on Friday.

She was from Myanmar and had been with the company two years.

We will struggle to get a local/PR in on the money we offer.

As for my boss, I'm not sure why he doesn't want to hire local for the development related stuff since he's trying to look for another FT from Chennai. The result? I'm not surprised if the application is rejected although the salary mentioned in the document is almost near to P2 (around 27-28 years old).

You know what, sometime I feel that the government is doing the right thing to restrict the foreigner even though I myself is a foreigner here. It is exactly this kind of situation that happens everywhere in Singapore especially in IT industry. When a local staff in my company fell sick and was off for many days in the year, he was sacked and instead of looking for another local to do the job, the boss try all the way to get someone from India, the salary I am sure is high enough to attract many local, but then the company keep using agent to source for staff from India. In the end they got a few candidate and their passes was rejected or they decline the offer after finding a better one elsewhere (I think in Singapore too) but then the local who applied was never selected (I am sure there are many locals vying for that job from reference by internal staff and even my colleague has referred a singaporean who submitted the resume but was never called for interview. After many months they manage to get someone from Hyderabad, fresh from school with only a few months of experience, paying him a huge salary to get the pass approved. This is so wasteful and I do not understand the reason behind it at all

[revhappy]

How do you know what the quality of the local applying is? Just because he is local, is he entitled for the job? There must be something going right with the job and thats why they get Indians who are less fussy about work compared to the locals may be?

[ecureilx]

How do you know what the quality of the local applying is? Just because he is local, is he entitled for the job? There must be something going right with the job and thats why they get Indians who are less fussy about work compared to the locals may be?

+1 !!!

and on top of it, is the guy from Hyderabad really getting every $ as stated in the Pass application ?

Those 'body shoppers' do body shopping for one reason, as is every business - to make $$$$$

[revhappy]

..

[sundaymorningstaple]

The reason why there is a specific list of universities is because the MOM DOESN'T reckon the rest produce graduates that are the equal of the poly grads here, let alone the local universities.

Especially the masters degree candidates.....

[revhappy]

..

[vestapo]

It is true that IT is dominant by Indian, I think it is because the universities in India has too much emphasis on IT courses and most students think they can get the jobs with IT degree but after that the competition in India is too fierce because of the supply so they spill over to the rest of the world. India should diversify its education, the IT industry has been cheapen a lot with the large supply of Indian IT professionals, indeed when I talked to Indian colleagues who work in IT, they themselves also want to change career, many of them hang on to IT because they have no other thing to do and cannot make a living without IT. With the rise of Fillipino IT and Burmese IT people, Indian themselves also feel the fierce competition from outside India too. A programmer need to go through a lot of education and hard work but getting paid 2K in Singapore speaks the fact, IT is really a slave industry

[v4jr4]

How do you know what the quality of the local applying is? Just because he is local, is he entitled for the job? There must be something going right with the job and thats why they get Indians who are less fussy about work compared to the locals may be?

I know nothing about the IT curriculum in Singapore, but although there are a lot of swarms of Indian/Filipino IT sources, personally, I think it's not fair to make a direct assumption that SCs are not strong in IT.

[nakatago]

How do you know what the quality of the local applying is? Just because he is local, is he entitled for the job? There must be something going right with the job and thats why they get Indians who are less fussy about work compared to the locals may be?

I know nothing about the IT curriculum in Singapore, but although there are a lot of swarms of Indian/Filipino IT sources, personally, I think it's not fair to make a direct assumption that SCs are not strong in IT.

Well, I work in software R&D and know a lot of people who are in it as well. The most common complaints about SC's is that they brush off any questions/queries if it's not directly related to their job scope. But wait, you're thinking, isn't that normal? Well, for most people they will tell you who to ask instead or perhaps ask someone who may know. But for SCs? They usually respond with "Don't know. Don't care." If they respond at all.

From personal experience, I've had Singapore project leads and managers not respond to me at ALL when I email them (and this is the preferred way of asking/escalating issues) after being told that these same people should know to whom to direct my queries. But when I ask someone else (of a different nationality), they would at least try to direct me to someone who may help me.

Others would say "Hmm...I don't know. Let me ask around who does and I'll get back to you."

There are exceptions of course but sadly, this seems to be the norm.