I have without any real basis aside from more subjectively better facial and bodily features of foreigners usually have had such a high regard for them foreigners, europeans to be specific. Besides they have the rich history and culture dating from since the earliest account that has been made of their civilization. They have always seemed advance or ahead in progress. I admire them and sometimes envy the seeming superiority of the western race. After all, from that part of the world came the most famous conquests, the most controversial or sadistic human murder,the first advances in industrialization,modern technology, advancement of all kinds.
I am currently reading the second book of the Millenium Series by Stiegg Larsson. This series is the first I have read written on Swedish background. I am not getting a very good picture of the country. All I know about it is its blue flag with a vertical cross in yellow aligned and regarded by me in the past with awe due to its association with the European Nations. Upon reading this, I read sick sexual relationships (the husband that concedes to the woman having an affair, the woman that regards a threesome as the most fulfilling sexual act for her), men in authority involved in base exploits (true for the movie The Whistleblower as well), and the overall disregard for humane values. With just the flag as my image of Sweden, this book is not painting a very flattering image of the country. I am just as lacking in information with regard the country's economy or present stature in the overall world ranking. I guess I am ignorant but I think I am right in asserting that the other European countries have advanced to such a liberated degree that they hold the same stance with regard sexual relationships. Spain.France.Netherlands.Holland for example. One. It just might be that sooner or later some movies will be based on some true story on the corruption and debased conjectures in one or those european countries.
I was led to ask myself:
Is this where progress leads to?
But then again here I am right now living in a first world country, declared as one of the three most uncorrupt countries in the world (together with Denmark and New Zealand) at least as of the time when that survey was taken which was last year (2010). Singapore is a country I have fallen in love with, a note of dejection on that statement since for the last two months and counting I feel like Singapore has not yet officially accepted me through a job offer. That is however beside the case. I was thinking of calling it quits after four months here without any job and just going back to the Philippines but then I remembered what it was like there. No doubt I can get a job again with more ease than before (I have been getting interview trainings here) and a high paying job at that. However, I remember the noise, the pollution, the daily emotional upset the people or the circumstances evoke from me because everyone was trying to get ahead or take advantage of other people compared to the ease and simplicity of living here because the people are objective, rational, think holistically, law-abiding. I would just like to add as a rebuttal to statements that Singapore can be easily managed unlike the Philippines because it is such a small country, often adding that it is not even bigger than the whole metropolitan region of the Philippines. To that statement, I would say that size is not the determining factor on a country's development. Singapore is not even in the top ten of the smallest countries in the world, without any need to mention but which I would like to add that none among the top ten smallest countries in the world make it to the top ten most progressive countries in the world. So size is not an advantage or a disadvantage.
Going back to the thoughts which formulated this entry, I am glad Singapore is a first-world country that still has its morals and values in tact. So I guess it is not about GDP or economy either, it's all about the management, how those with power accommodate their talents.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Friday, 29 July 2011
L'anniversaire
Quelle est l'importance de l'anniversaire? Je suis en train de le celebrer et je pense comme tous
Maintenant j’ai encontré la réponse. Même que beaucoup de gens se sente très excitant pour cette occasion, c’est pas rien que le marque du jour ou a eu naître. Ce jour on passe tout le temps ainsi que le défi est comment faire chaque fois plus spéciale. Donc, une personne peux donner les grâces a Dieu pour avoir le donner autre jour pour vivre. Mais, dans mon cas, depuis que je le fais tous les jours, ce qu’on peut faire et exprimer au Dieu dans une manière plus plus extraordinaire.
Attendez…maintenant le défi c’est quoi faire…
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Job hunting
Je n'avais pas d'opportunite d'ecrire toute la journee parce qu'il n y'avais pas d'internet. Je pratique mon francais pour un entretien cette semaine.
Souhaitez-moi bonne chance!!!
Souhaitez-moi bonne chance!!!
Monday, 25 July 2011
LTSVP walk through
Whilst, the whole point of my blogging is to test out the HTML course and web page creation that I am taking, I still can't seem to make it work in any of the sites I have tried namely, this one that I am using now and the first one I tried which is Google Sites.
I might really need supervision and further instruction from my IT/network engineer partner :p
Right now, I shall contend myself to writing away. 2nd topic of this blog is the Long Term Social Visit Pass or LTSVP in short.
If you're reading this, then you should and probably already have your EPEC approval email. Just to reiterate, EPEC will be sent to you via the old mailing system, meaning a physical document with the cute stamp and all, :) Though MOM doesn't really use a physical stamp, just that stamping with the date on it etc, usually seen with legal mails.
Anyway, the following is the account of how I obtained my LTSVP.
On May 20, I received the EPEC application approval email. The next step is to update it via the e-services of ICA with this link https://ltpass.ica.gov.sg/eltsvp/newAppPreLogin.do. Among the choices on that page, you will choose "Holders of Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate" which will then lead you to the next page that will ask you to fill in your passport and EPEC particulars. Note that it is asking for the EPEC issue date. At that time of filling it up (May 23), I didn't yet have the EPEC document and I was quite worried as to what to put in the issue date. Anxious and impatient I entered May 20 (the date I received the approval notification); later on I would see in the EPEC document issue date of May 25. Anyway, going back to the first step: I filled in those four fields (passport and EPEC particulars) and tan-ta-da-dan!!!!--------- first payment: application processing fee of SGD 30.
On June 4, I received the In-Principle Approval e-mail from ICA. In this e-mail, you will be given a specified period during which to make the payment otherwise this approval will be considered withdrawn and the EPEC will be deemed invalid since you've already opted to activate it when you made the procedure in the preceding paragraph. With regard this period, in my case I was given 2 weeks exactly to make the payment in the amount of SGD 90.
I made the payment on June 16, and received the confirmation e-mail that the LTSVP has been approved that same day.
When the LTSVP is activated, you will only need to complete a few more formalities in-person at the Immigrations and Checkpoint Authority. The e-mail I mentioned from the preceding paragraph will contain the link to be able to print out the documents that you will need to fill-up and bring to the ICA. What are they?
Medical Examination Report- This can be done in your home country provided that the information encoded is in english. It would be wiser to have this done in your home country actually as it might be cheaper. You can opt to have it done here as well since all clinics here are can perform the only two procedures for the medical exam which are the x-ray and blood testing for TB and HIV detection respectively. It cost me SGD 58 for these two alone. Ugh! I know!
Form 14 - The tricky part here was the one in the last page Part V. Declaration by Local Sponsor. It is a declaration that the signing person will be responsible for all your expenses for the entire time that you are in Singapore. I'm not really sure if this is a required field. I decided to take a chance and have my boyfriend sign it (I was in doubt because he wasn't a local here, but he's all I have here, awwwwww!!! :p)
Approval Notice - you just have to print it out. It will basically contain the appointment date that you choose via the e-appointment service.
Terms and Conditions of Issuance of the LTSVP- Like the previous one, you just have to print it out and sign it.
Again, all these documents are in the link that the e-mail sent to you will contain.
I set-up my appointment a few days before my 30 days social visit pass was to expire so that I could take advantage of the free days. I'd like to commend the government staff here in Singapore for really being efficient and on-time. My appointment was 3:15PM and I was entertained at exactly that time. If you miss your number, they will have an instruction for you on who to check with. :) By the way, ICA is exactly adjacent to the Lavender Station of the MRT EW Green Line. Talk about convenience!
Not to move to far from the topic coz Im not yet finished actually. :) When I got there, I was a bit worried because the other people before me really had companions, I was assuming they were their 'local sponsors' and the applicants would really call their other companions after a brief talk with the staff. They all looked 'locals' to me. I was really worried that time because I was there by myself coz my boyfriend had work that time. I decided to take a chance. I thought the worse that could happen is that I had to go back another day with my bf in tow. After all, I still had a few more days until the 30 days expire. One by one they were finished until it was finally my turn-----and yaaay! I was not asked to present my local sponsor!! (Although, there was a notification posted on the wall of the sort of customer service area for that floor stating the need for local sponsor to be present when applying for the LTSVP. However, since it was not stated in the approval notice that they sent me, perhaps it is not necessary for e-applicants. Remember though to always check everything printed in the documents sent to you so you are always well prepared.) So the first staff took my documents and told me to wait until my number (a new one she issued) appears on the screen so I can collect my LTSVP card. And when it did, ... :( I was told I had to make 30SGD payment.
At that point I was a bit confused because there was nothing in the e-mails nor papers that stated that another payment was to be made upon collection of the card. To top that up, they don't accept cash nor credit card, rather NETS card. After a few wrong trips from and to the e-payment lounge in the first floor of the building, I found my way to a 7-11 store (in the MRT building) that sells NETS card. The card itself costs 10SGD with a prepaid value of 5SGD so I only had to add 25SGD more plus the 50cents that 7-11 charges for the top-up or loading transaction. After that, I went back to get my LTSVP card (yes, it's the same day, just took about 2 hours in total) and paid with the NETS card.
All in all, for the card itself, I paid a total of SGD150.
That's all for now. Hope I helped. :)
I might really need supervision and further instruction from my IT/network engineer partner :p
Right now, I shall contend myself to writing away. 2nd topic of this blog is the Long Term Social Visit Pass or LTSVP in short.
If you're reading this, then you should and probably already have your EPEC approval email. Just to reiterate, EPEC will be sent to you via the old mailing system, meaning a physical document with the cute stamp and all, :) Though MOM doesn't really use a physical stamp, just that stamping with the date on it etc, usually seen with legal mails.
Anyway, the following is the account of how I obtained my LTSVP.
On May 20, I received the EPEC application approval email. The next step is to update it via the e-services of ICA with this link https://ltpass.ica.gov.sg/eltsvp/newAppPreLogin.do. Among the choices on that page, you will choose "Holders of Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate" which will then lead you to the next page that will ask you to fill in your passport and EPEC particulars. Note that it is asking for the EPEC issue date. At that time of filling it up (May 23), I didn't yet have the EPEC document and I was quite worried as to what to put in the issue date. Anxious and impatient I entered May 20 (the date I received the approval notification); later on I would see in the EPEC document issue date of May 25. Anyway, going back to the first step: I filled in those four fields (passport and EPEC particulars) and tan-ta-da-dan!!!!--------- first payment: application processing fee of SGD 30.
On June 4, I received the In-Principle Approval e-mail from ICA. In this e-mail, you will be given a specified period during which to make the payment otherwise this approval will be considered withdrawn and the EPEC will be deemed invalid since you've already opted to activate it when you made the procedure in the preceding paragraph. With regard this period, in my case I was given 2 weeks exactly to make the payment in the amount of SGD 90.
I made the payment on June 16, and received the confirmation e-mail that the LTSVP has been approved that same day.
When the LTSVP is activated, you will only need to complete a few more formalities in-person at the Immigrations and Checkpoint Authority. The e-mail I mentioned from the preceding paragraph will contain the link to be able to print out the documents that you will need to fill-up and bring to the ICA. What are they?
Medical Examination Report- This can be done in your home country provided that the information encoded is in english. It would be wiser to have this done in your home country actually as it might be cheaper. You can opt to have it done here as well since all clinics here are can perform the only two procedures for the medical exam which are the x-ray and blood testing for TB and HIV detection respectively. It cost me SGD 58 for these two alone. Ugh! I know!
Form 14 - The tricky part here was the one in the last page Part V. Declaration by Local Sponsor. It is a declaration that the signing person will be responsible for all your expenses for the entire time that you are in Singapore. I'm not really sure if this is a required field. I decided to take a chance and have my boyfriend sign it (I was in doubt because he wasn't a local here, but he's all I have here, awwwwww!!! :p)
Approval Notice - you just have to print it out. It will basically contain the appointment date that you choose via the e-appointment service.
Terms and Conditions of Issuance of the LTSVP- Like the previous one, you just have to print it out and sign it.
Again, all these documents are in the link that the e-mail sent to you will contain.
I set-up my appointment a few days before my 30 days social visit pass was to expire so that I could take advantage of the free days. I'd like to commend the government staff here in Singapore for really being efficient and on-time. My appointment was 3:15PM and I was entertained at exactly that time. If you miss your number, they will have an instruction for you on who to check with. :) By the way, ICA is exactly adjacent to the Lavender Station of the MRT EW Green Line. Talk about convenience!
Not to move to far from the topic coz Im not yet finished actually. :) When I got there, I was a bit worried because the other people before me really had companions, I was assuming they were their 'local sponsors' and the applicants would really call their other companions after a brief talk with the staff. They all looked 'locals' to me. I was really worried that time because I was there by myself coz my boyfriend had work that time. I decided to take a chance. I thought the worse that could happen is that I had to go back another day with my bf in tow. After all, I still had a few more days until the 30 days expire. One by one they were finished until it was finally my turn-----and yaaay! I was not asked to present my local sponsor!! (Although, there was a notification posted on the wall of the sort of customer service area for that floor stating the need for local sponsor to be present when applying for the LTSVP. However, since it was not stated in the approval notice that they sent me, perhaps it is not necessary for e-applicants. Remember though to always check everything printed in the documents sent to you so you are always well prepared.) So the first staff took my documents and told me to wait until my number (a new one she issued) appears on the screen so I can collect my LTSVP card. And when it did, ... :( I was told I had to make 30SGD payment.
At that point I was a bit confused because there was nothing in the e-mails nor papers that stated that another payment was to be made upon collection of the card. To top that up, they don't accept cash nor credit card, rather NETS card. After a few wrong trips from and to the e-payment lounge in the first floor of the building, I found my way to a 7-11 store (in the MRT building) that sells NETS card. The card itself costs 10SGD with a prepaid value of 5SGD so I only had to add 25SGD more plus the 50cents that 7-11 charges for the top-up or loading transaction. After that, I went back to get my LTSVP card (yes, it's the same day, just took about 2 hours in total) and paid with the NETS card.
All in all, for the card itself, I paid a total of SGD150.
That's all for now. Hope I helped. :)
Sunday, 24 July 2011
EPEC 101 (from a Filipino writer)
Okay, so what is EPEC? If you are planning to move here in Singapore to look for a job and not want to be hassled or suffer from the anxiety or lack of sleep due to worrying when a job interview or job offer will be ringing your phone because your 30-day social visit pass is coming to an end, then you must definitely get an EPEC.
EPEC stands for Employee Pass Eligibility Certificate. This pass is the key to holding a long term social visit pass (LTSVP) which is good for one year.
Who is eligible?
That would be up to the Ministry of Manpower but we have it on good authority that it is dependent on the university of your undergraduate degree course. For example, in the Philippines the six almost certain alumni that would be approved for the EPEC are the following:
University of the Philippines- Diliman (yaaaay! cheers schoolmates!!! :D)
University of Santo Tomas - (the tigers...raaaar!!)
Ateneo de Manila University- (well of course!)
De La Salle University- (ummm...the rich)
Mapua Institue of Technology - (lots of openings here for engineers guys!!!!)
Asian Insitute of Management - (and for management too!!)
Six is very few, I know, but there's always your degree level. I mean if you're taking your Master's already or your PhD, that should make profile information more professional and hireable. Those should be the ministry's deciding factors. After all, their concern as with every other country is that the people coming in will not be a liability to them or will not drain them of their resources. Everyone likes a self-sustaining, self-supporting contributor.
And another thing, let's always hope for lady luck can sprinkle us a few drops of her Felix Felicis. :)
What are the documents needed?
Once you've decided to apply which you can do for free via https://epec.mom.gov.sg/epec/index.do, by just filling in the fields in that page. After filling that up, you will receive a submission acknowledgment email. On my case, I submitted it on a Sunday and then the next day I received the e-mail requesting for supporting documents. These are the following:
passport sized photo taken within the last three months
diploma
passport particulars page
In my case, what I submitted under diploma was my diploma translated in english already. (By the way, if you are a UP Diliman graduate, you can just request for a translation of your diploma via e-mail.) So anyway, I submitted my documents though afterwards I was asked to resubmit my diploma on May 16. Yes, it was only after a month that I was notified to re-submit as per their requirement,take note the first request was on April 18. Therefore, I proceeded to upload the Tagalog original scanned diploma. On May 20, I got the e-mail with subject field "EPEC Application Approved". Yaaay!
Congratulations!! One worry down!!! But like I said, the EPEC is only the key to getting a LTSVP which is the main goal for getting the EPEC in the first place, for the end goal of obtaining permission to stay for a longer time than the initial 30 day social visit pass in order to facilitate for the job hunting.
This email of EPEC approval will contain the next step for the ultimate LTSVP. It will basically tell you that although you need the document hard copy which is sent via snail mail or post mail, you may apply for the long term pass via the ICA E-Services which I shall discuss at length on the next article, (coz my connection is getting slow too). Besides let this remain a free page, know what I mean? :)
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