General visa confusion :S

[abbym]

Hello!

Firstly to introduce myself as I am new to the forum. My name is abby and I'm coming to Singapore next week for three months and hope to be using this forum plenty to keep myself busy and make new friends and find events to attend!

I'm having some trouble working out what the deal is with visas for my particular situation...which I'll explain; My partner (we're not married) works for a UK business whose HQ are in Singapore. The business are sending us both to singapore for three months so he can do some installations etc over there.

As for visas, I initially thought we'd both be just using a visitors 30 day pass, and applying for a sponsored extension to 90 days when we get there, as he is still employed by the UK branch, just working out of singapore temporarily (and I'm just along for the ride).

However now I'm thinking maybe he actually will need an employment pass to be able to work in the offices there. Also that I'd quite like to get a job there (something basic like in a coffee shop or something to get me out the house) and I've read that I may be able to do so if he has an EP and I get a dependants visa? However I'm not sure if that is possible as we aren't married and the wording isn't all that clear to me: "spouses (legally married)
unmarried or legally adopted children under 21 years of age."

Also there are so many organisations, I don't know who I'd call to ask these questions to the correct body! Is it the MOM, ICA or british embassy?

Also to confuse things, my partner is actually canadian and has british citizenship and indefinite leave, but not the british passport yet (though he can apply for one).

Sorry for waffling on. I didn't want to leave out any critical points! I hope someone could advise which visas we're likely to need, or who I can call to ask these questions to the correct authority!

Thank you all,
Abby

[AngMoG]

Hi Abby,

Well I think if he is here for 3 months based in Singapore, he may need a (short-term) EP. I am not sure whether he can do this on business visa, somebody else will need to advise on that.

As you are not married, that makes things a bit more complicated. In principle, Singapore recognizes your common-law marriage if the UK recognizes it (not sure on that). But I am not sure either you or them want to go through the trouble of having that processed if he is only going to be here for three months.

Forget about working, just come along to enjoy the ride. See if you can apply for an SVP for those three months, after your partner gets his (P1 hopefully) EP.