New requirement for Employment Pass

Most may have heard the recent change in regulation for EP VISA.

It used to be that for EP, a minimum salary of SGD2500 is required. That has been increased to SGD2800 as of 1 July 2011.

Health Screening for Employment Pass

Today I like to give more information about getting a working VISA in Singapore. In my previous post, I mentioned there are primarily 2 main types of working VISA namely EP (Employment Pass) and S-Pass. As far as I am concerned, this is pretty updated because I just did it for a candidate last week.

For EP application, the company will usually ask you to provide a:

1. Scan copy of your passport
2. EP Application form (downloadable from the MOM website)

The EP Application form can look pretty daunting if you are seeing it the first time because it has so many blanks to fill and many of which you probably don’t understand because you are not a local. However, fear not! The main sections for the EP application form you should take note are: Personal Details, Education and Working History. If you are married, be prepared to provide information about your spouse and his/her education background. Usually the company will apply the EP through an online submission after which, you can get the results within 3-4 working days (Depending on the volume of applications MOM may be handling).

Once the EP is approved, the company will issue a IPA (In-Principle Approval) to you. This IPA is a letter that says that your EP has been approved by MOM. However, to complete the EP application process, you now need to bring this letter (IPA) to a clinic/hospital for health screening. Usually they perform X-ray, blood test (HIV) and you can receive the result on the same day on a 1 page medical report. For which clinic/hospital to go, you can consult your company and if the company has a tie-up with certain medical groups, the company will recommend you to go there. If not, you can go to most Medical Groups in Singapore that have X-ray and blood test facilities. For a start, you can consider going to Raffles Hospital at Bugis. You don’t have to make an appointment (just walk-in) with your IPA. The process isn’t very long but it may take 2-3 hours depending on the number of patients there. The health screening fee is SGD42.80 (I just checked yesterday). Of course, it can and will change with time and inflation. Thus, you may want to prepare at least SGD50 with you to pay and remember to get the receipt because you can claim from your company. Some companies may have tie-up with certain medical groups, so those hospitals will charge directly to the company without you having to pay in advance.

Okay, so I wrote in detail above but in summary, these are the steps.

1. Provide scan copy of passport and complete the EP application form (E-mail both to company’s HR)
2. Wait for approval (usually 3-4 working days)
3. In-Principle Approval (IPA) arrives
4. Bring the IPA with you and go for health screening (costs about SGD50)
5. On the day you start work, bring the health screening report and IPA with you to the company.
6. The company will use the report and IPA to collect the EP card for you from Ministry of Manpower (MOM)

Then, happy working!

 

 

Be thoughtful about what you leave on social networking sites

With the rise of social networking, you have to be a hermit not to be on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Blogging or Linkedin. However, it may be wise to pay attention to what you post up there. Remarks or media that can paint you in bad light are best avoided. Let me share with you why.

As a recruiter, I use Linkedin extensively to look for people from relevant industry and experience. And Linkedin is just the start, usually for more information, I just login to Facebook and try a search for that person and chances are, his personal profile will show up with all the photos, videos and comments he had made. We all have a life outside of work and it is needed. No one is ever going to contest this fact. However, knowing that recruiters are using such networks to gauge your suitability for job matching, it pays to give thought to what you post on Facebook. A person whom I interviewed was shocked that I knew more about him than what he had given me on his resume. Thankfully he confessed that he didn’t write anything negative on his Facebook but it came as a shock to him that someone would check out on him in such a manner. He was thankful that I shared with him sincerely how I learnt more about him.

The bottom-line is while we are all entitled to the freedom of expression and the internet has been a great catalyst for promoting the ‘social’ factor, it is prudent to exercise caution especially when you know it can jeopardize your opportunity at getting a job, securing a scholarship, gaining entry to certain programs/events etc.

Here’s a link to a video that echoes what I just wrote.

Getting a working VISA in Singapore

I got this question a lot from the people I meet – “What is the procedure to get a working VISA in Singapore?”

Usually those who ask this question think that they need to apply VISA on their own. Well, with the exception of companies that do not have a HR personnel, the majority of companies will apply the working VISA on your behalf once they decide to offer to you the position.

Hence your concern should be how to get that job and once you get it, the rest is almost done. The MOM (Ministry of Manpower) website is the legal channel for VISA application and information. But for everyone’s sake, I will briefly explain the different types of working VISA. Essentially there are 2 main types: Employment Pass and S-Pass

Criteria for Employment Pass or EP for abbreviation is different from that of S-Pass’. For EP, you need to be at least a degree holder and your monthly gross salary should be at least S$2500. As for S-Pass, a diploma and minimum monthly salary of S$1800 are required. S-Pass has an additional requirement of staff ratio. For a foreign staff employed under S-Pass status, there should be in the company, a minimum ratio of at least 4 locals (Singaporeans or Permanent Residents) to each S-Pass holder. Thus, if the size of the company is not large, there could be issue in getting S-Pass. Regarding the ratio criteria (4:1), please always check with MOM website. However, just like what I mentioned earlier, the HR of the company will take care of it, so you don’t have to excessively worry about it. On the other hand, EP has no such manpower ratio criteria.

Though you need not apply for the working VISA (EP or S-Pass) on your own, you would be expected to provide to the company basic essential information such as: your graduation certificate (in English please), details of your previous jobs (start and end dates, job title, past salary etc), your passport information, personal details. Usually the HR will request you to scan and e-mail them the above mentioned documents. With the information, HR will apply for working VISA.

How long before VISA is approved / rejected?

With the proliferation of internet services, working VISA application is carried out electronically these days. For manual application, it takes up to 2-3 weeks to get a result. However with online application, the result could be out within 2 working days. On a safe side, I would say 5 working days or 1 week is probably more than enough. My previous experience applying for EP for a candidate was 4 days. It was a success and his EP application was approved. The waiting time could vary depending on the volume of applications. Although I don’t think there is a certain peak season for EP/S-Pass applications, most companies usually recruit in July or Feb. July is when the students graduate and Feb is usually after the Chinese New Year. However, these are just my personal observations and I subscribe to the notion that when you need to recruit, you will have to recruit regardless of season or festivities.

Can working VISA be rejected?

Unfortunately, the answer is Yes. There are a few reasons. First, your information (those mentioned above) wasn’t complete. Due to a lack of information, applications can be rejected too. This is one reason. The second reason is when the company fails to justify WHY they need to recruit you. If the same position can be handled by a local, then the government sees no reason to have that job taken away from the local community and be given to someone from overseas. Sometimes companies fail to explain properly in their application why they need to recruit a Korean Admin Assistant for example and thus leading to rejection. However, if they state clearly that their business requires co-ordination with Korea, then it becomes very natural to understand why a native Korean needs to be recruited for that position. If your application is rejected, don’t despair! You can appeal again, and this time with the proper information and reason. I too have appealed for a certain candidate before and she was able to get her S-Pass eventually after 2 weeks of review.

In brief, the MOM website is still the channel to go to if you want specific and updated information. What I shared here is probably a very brief summary but in most cases, this is all you need to know to get started.

Glocal

I am a recruiter based in Singapore specializing in the Korean Recruitment Market. Basically I look out for companies which may want to recruit Korean talents and at the same time, I meet Koreans who plan to look for jobs either in Singapore or elsewhere. But for now, my operations remain largely in Singapore. I started this blog because of a suggestion from a candidate who became my friend and advisor. He told me that I should write down in a blog the things people want to know about job-seeking in Singapore. After some deliberation, I felt it might be an useful thing and here I am, giving it my first try. I am not that good at writing but providing basic information should be manageable.

In the process of creating this blog, I spent a considerable amount of time pondering over what kind of title / name I should give it. My original thought was “Living/Working in Singapore”. Sounds very apt I would say considering I am going to focus on Singapore job market anyway. However on a second thought, I wanted and hope that this blog would serve a function greater than the boundary of this nation. I remember a word which I recently read in a HR magazine. It’s “Glocal”. What is Glocal? Glocal is the combination of Global and Local and it simply means a person who has aglobal mindset but who takes action with the local culture in mind. For I believe no matter where you are, in this age of increasing globalization, one cannot just think in terms of our current environment. The world is connected more and more with each day and to live in it and to play a part in contributing to humanity, one needs to think in global sense while doing things taking into consideration the cultural demographics he is in – he needs to be a Glocal.