Dependently Speaking

With Christmas and a trip back to the UK, new condo hunting (more on that soon) and getting on with day to day life in general I've yet to share one piece of rather exciting news (at least for me) with you.  This being that I've finally got my Dependent's Pass!  Whilst I imagine there are some who would and probably do cringe at the idea of being classed as a dependent and only able to stay here because of their husband or wife for me personally it is a welcome change to my status in Singapore.

When I first came to Singapore my husband and I weren't married so I did not qualify for a Dependent's Pass.  We hoped I'd be able to get a Long Term Visit Pass instead, unfortunately though the company my husband was working for at the time would not support our application, so that put an end to that route.

I therefore had no choice but to split my time between here and the UK on Social Visit Passes (tourist visas), commence job hunting, hopefully get a job and obtain an Employment Pass in my own right.  Job hunting was not (and has still not been) an easy, or so far, successful process for me and the background I came from in the UK.  Equally though I've not been looking continuously either for work since first coming here.  My reasons for this mainly being because not having a job gave me the freedom to travel back and forth to the UK as I needed to plan and organise our wedding and also to be available to look after my Stepsons whilst they were visiting Singapore during their school summer holidays.

As soon as we returned here after our honeymoon though I set about applying for my Dependent's Pass.  I'd heard good things from many others about how efficient Ministry of Manpower (MOM) were and having now experienced it first hand I can only agree and praise them for how organised all aspects of the process of applying for and collecting my Pass was.  I can't imagine for those moving to the UK and applying for visas the process necessarily being quite as smooth, but I may well be mistaken.

Regardless though I now have my Dependent's Pass and am now organising some of the things for myself that people usually do when they first move here.  Albeit though perhaps (and this is debatable) with a bit more knowledge having had long enough to swot up and learn from others experiences.  My recent trip back to the UK was the first time I'd been able to use my Pass with my passport at the customs desk and as silly as it might sound it was a very exciting moment for me!  Oh and I will be carrying on that job hunting again now too.

Comments

  1. Yay! Such good news & think it does definitely make life easier. I'm on a LTSVP and there is loads of stuff that's complicated - like getting my own bank account.

    Also on the hunt for a job so will send you anything I see that looks good! x

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  2. Thanks Claire, glad you could get the LTSVP though. Good luck with the job hunting too.

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  3. :-) true Paul there are many very talented trailing spouses out here.

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