Possible Move to Singapore - Any Advice?

[dom9]

Ladies and Gents,

As per the title really... Been offered something over in Singapore with a good company, salary etc.

Very tempted, as is my other half, but would like some honest opinions from some ex-pats out there.

I have lived abroad for much of my 10 year career but not out East, mainly Europe and the US.

Anything to watch out for? Does everyone enjoy the lifestyle out there?

Will there be a problem with the future Mrs Dom9 living with me as someone suggested that moving together, if we are yet to be married, and living together may be a problem!

I will miss my family, friends, cars etc that is for sure, but I think it might be nice for a couple of years!

Cheers in advance,

Dom

[XJSJohn]

tips on accomodation
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to Singa and finding a home - a good article.

General tips on moving here
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to Singa in 5 weeks!

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to Singapore

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to any PH'ers in Singapore

I have been here quite a while now and love it, no plans on going back to the UK currently either.

Its basically Asia with training wheels, everything is easy yet everywhere else is quick to access and we have our own version of the Paddy Luftwaffa here too, Air Asia so flights are even cheep!

Regarding unmarried partner, there is no social stigma to that at all, things are pretty easy going that way here, however i have no idea about the Dependants Pass for her, but i do know of people who have managed to secure these, however you get a 3 month entry visa these days so a trip abroad every 3 months and a year passes prety quickly!

more details can be found here

http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communi...

Best place to start will be your incountry HR department.

[XJSJohn]

And having just seen your industry - probably already know people where you are going ... have a lot of mates in the O&G industry ... guess you will either be all the way out west in Tuas or all the way East in Loyang.

[Ej74]

Mate,

When I moved, we simply went to the High Court here in Singapore and filled in a decleration that we were common law partners, there was no background check on the statement. This allows your GF to get a Long term social visa which will allow her to stay for as long as you do but not to work.

My experience in 2 years has been a mixed bag, we have extensively travelled, got married in Bali and made some good friends, taxes are low however we can't wait to get out of Singapore !!!

If you want my opinion just pm me as i don't want to share them publically as i may get hung drawn and quartered.

We are both so happy and excited to be getting back to London and normality

Edited by Ej74 on Sunday 18th April 03:20

[XJSJohn]

Ej74 said:

If you want my opinion just pm me as i don't want to share them publically as i may get hung drawn and quartered.

horses for courses!!

[drillfield47]

We had no issues, my company had us both sign a form saying we had been living together for a certain period of time (which they could not check anyway) and my GF was given a dependants pass. If she wants a job then this can be converted to an EP without too much trouble apparently.

I work on Jurong Island on the ExxonMobil job so Singapore really needs people (expats) to do this work as the locals just arent up to it!!

We have been here since last June and love it. Work hours are long and the traffic sucks in the evening but i really would let that dictate where you end up living. (for me it take 15 minutes in the am to get to the JI check point from Tanjong Pagar and then 30 minutes to get to my desk!!) We like where we live and that helps the situation.

SIngapore is great place and is Asia for beginners!!

PM me if you want specifics regarding working on Jurong if that is where your headed.

Try it you might like it.

[Bing o]

Ej74 said:

We are both so happy and excited to be getting back to London and normality

I can only think that you may be in for a bit of a shock

[XJSJohn]

Bing o said:

Ej74 said:

We are both so happy and excited to be getting back to London and normality

I can only think that you may be in for a bit of a shock

Bing o, You around the rest of this week? I may be in your office downtown tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon

Edited by XJSJohn on Monday 19th April 03:12

[Bing o]

XJSJohn said:

Bing o said:

Ej74 said:

We are both so happy and excited to be getting back to London and normality

I can only think that you may be in for a bit of a shock

Bing o, You around the rest of this week? I may be in your office downtown tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon

Edited by XJSJohn on Monday 19th April 03:12

I will be around for the rest of the week.

And maybe the week after, and the week after that (Pyroclastic clouds permitting).

I'm in DBS Tower 2, not Raffles BTW.

[XJSJohn]

Bing o said:

XJSJohn said:

Bing o said:

Ej74 said:

We are both so happy and excited to be getting back to London and normality

I can only think that you may be in for a bit of a shock

Bing o, You around the rest of this week? I may be in your office downtown tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon

Edited by XJSJohn on Monday 19th April 03:12

I will be around for the rest of the week.

And maybe the week after, and the week after that (Pyroclastic clouds permitting).

Cool. Not sure which one it will be for me. Round3 and 4 of a job interview. Which building has most of your IT function?

I take it that Iceland as a country has gone up in your books

I'm in DBS Tower 2, not Raffles BTW.

[Bing o]

XJSJohn said:

Cool. Not sure which one it will be for me. Round3 and 4 of a job interview. Which building has most of your IT function?

I take it that Iceland as a country has gone up in your books

IT are a couple of storeys up from me, so happy to grab a coffee after your interview if you want?

And yes, the Icelanders have timed the explosion of their country very well indeed

[phumy]

Bing o said:

XJSJohn said:

Cool. Not sure which one it will be for me. Round3 and 4 of a job interview. Which building has most of your IT function?

I take it that Iceland as a country has gone up in your books

IT are a couple of storeys up from me, so happy to grab a coffee after your interview if you want?

And yes, the Icelanders have timed the explosion of their country very well indeed

Maybe as theyve run out of money in Iceland, perhaps theyre thinking of trying to put in an insurance claim on their mountain exploding

[XJSJohn]

phumy said:

Bing o said:

XJSJohn said:

Cool. Not sure which one it will be for me. Round3 and 4 of a job interview. Which building has most of your IT function?

I take it that Iceland as a country has gone up in your books

IT are a couple of storeys up from me, so happy to grab a coffee after your interview if you want?

And yes, the Icelanders have timed the explosion of their country very well indeed

Maybe as theyve run out of money in Iceland, perhaps theyre thinking of trying to put in an insurance claim on their mountain exploding

I will drop you a line when i knw when it will be ... looking like an end of day F2F with some local people yet to be determined and a VC with some bods in US and UK a few hours later so perhaps in teh gap between

Phumy - sounds like the ultimate 3rd Party Fire & Theft caim to me

Gotta love the irony of all teh effort made by the UK gubberment to reduce carbon oputput caused by MMGW through tax and then Mother Nature sticks two fingers up at them and shows everyone just how insignificant man is!!

[Bing o]

XJSJohn said:

I will drop you a line when i knw when it will be ... looking like an end of day F2F with some local people yet to be determined and a VC with some bods in US and UK a few hours later so perhaps in teh gap between

Phumy - sounds like the ultimate 3rd Party Fire & Theft caim to me

Gotta love the irony of all teh effort made by the UK gubberment to reduce carbon oputput caused by MMGW through tax and then Mother Nature sticks two fingers up at them and shows everyone just how insignificant man is!!

Sounds good to me mate, I'm here all week

Worryingly I can think of a lot of stupid people who will put the cause of the volcano down to climate change.....

[XJSJohn]

Bing o said:

Worryingly I can think of a lot of stupid people who will put the cause of the volcano down to climate change.....

as opposed to Volcano's are a major cause of climate change. Love to see is anyone is going to be brave enough to publish the stats of how much CO2 etc that thing is spewing out against years of human CO2 output

Anyway we digress, to OP - welcome to drop me a line if you have any questions on singa.

Been out here off and on for 10 years so can at least point you in the right direction for any questions you may have.

[dom9]

Brilliant, thanks for the info chaps.

I spoke to one of the guys on the ground and his HR department advised that the 'holiday' visa would be monthly, but it does look on the government website like 3 months is ok if you are from the UK. I would send the missus home every 3 months to see her mum, I am sure of that, anyway. I am still not 100% sure whether she will want to work or not, so may just get a 3 month visa to start with and see if she likes the look of anything. Do you guys know if anyone is looking for an AutoCAD draughy?

Otherwise, it all looks pretty good to me. they would provide a car and fuel and we can live where we like. The office is in the middle of the island, just north of Orchard Road, so a fairly good location, not yard based, as far as I can tell. Frankly, with our horrendous rate mortgage in London, the rental doesn't even look 'that' expensive in Singa, so we should be able to get something nice.

The package is good and should allow us to save some money (as long as we stay out for a couple of tax years) and it would make a nice change compared to being in the UK, so I suspect it will happen. Only issue now is that the offer was based on 'married status' and it needs to be re-jigged to reflect 'single status' keeping the bottom line the same, based on the fact that the incountry HR department don't seem to recognise 'common law' partnerships. A trip to Bali could be in order

[XJSJohn]

dom9 said:

I spoke to one of the guys on the ground and his HR department advised that the 'holiday' visa would be monthly, but it does look on the government website like 3 months is ok if you are from the UK.

Its only in the last year or 2 that they have upped the chop to 3 months for certain nationalities, partially to keep oversees tallent here when they are switching between jobs and partly for situations like yours as the western workers here are getting younger / married later.

dom9 said:

Do you guys know if anyone is looking for an AutoCAD draughy?

What sort of drafting? Engineering, constructioon etc etc... that is actually a skill that is quite sought after.

have a look on www.jobsdb.com.sg

dom9 said:

They would provide a car and fuel and we can live where we like. The office is in the middle of the island, just north of Orchard Road, so a fairly good location, not yard based, as far as I can tell. Frankly, with our horrendous rate mortgage in London, the rental doesn't even look 'that' expensive in Singa, so we should be able to get something nice.

with that location and a company car provided you can go anywhere on the island and your morning commute will be 30 mins max. Pick somewhere based on your hobbies / socialising rather than convenience to work!

dom9 said:

A trip to Bali could be in order

EJ74 is your man there

[dom9]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Contracts are signed, visa is approved (for both of us, Lou on a long term visit pass) and I just have my chest x-ray to go, this evening... Once the results of all the medical bits and pieces are in, they will book the flight for the 29th May and I will be on my way over.

Lou will join me about 10 days later and we are staying in serviced accomodation near the Shangri-La for the first month, before we have to find our own place.

Very much looking forward to it now and many thanks to all of you for your help and advice.

[XJSJohn]

Drop me an email if you want someone to give you a flying lap of the island to get your bearings ...

ohh and that car allowance thing .... want to buy an old 911??

[dom9]

XJSJohn said:

Drop me an email if you want someone to give you a flying lap of the island to get your bearings ...

ohh and that car allowance thing .... want to buy an old 911??

I get a 1.6 company car and fuel card - yee haw!

There will be one old 911 left in storage in this country, cant see Lou letting me get away with having one over there as well! But... Maybe

I may well take you up on the flying lap of the island offer though, that is very kind of you!

Bloods, urine, normal stuff all ok... Had a look at the x-ray myself last night and (despite not being medically trained) nothing stood out for me, so should be fine (touches wood)...

Just hope they book Singapore and not BA/ KLM for the trip over!