1. I don't think so, most likely need to pay, try talk to ur boss about this and see he will tolerate or not. if not, talk to ur new company, if they aware of this one month notice thing then is either they pay the money or take u in one month later.

2. IMO, don't ever try to cheat. u might end up kena blacklist from MOM. If u go back malaysia for your case, u might need to pay the high income tax.

my suggestion is, talk to the new company that u cant start work now. then resign from current company asap.

you dont have to go back. i renewed my passport at Malaysia embassy near Red Hill. it only take few hours to get a new one . But remember to go there at the morning, they don't accept application after that, after lunch time is only for collection.

*remember to bring some membership card / lesen that have your name on it (IC and passport cannot), u need that to exchange for the visitor pass else they dont let u go in.

IMO, NEVER go through recruitment agency to get a job. In my Ex company i got a singaporean colleague who join in and work like hell. He want to leave but cannot because in the contract with recruitment agency if he leave within 3 months he need to compensate money. depends on what job u get, 2750 can have pretty enjoyable life if u no need to feed family and loan (cars, house etc).

my basic expenses in singapore:
income: sgd2000

room rental: sgd400 (including fees and internet)
transportation: sgd100-150 (i rarely take taxi, MRT to work and bus if i'm lazy to walk to MRT).
food: sgd500-700 (weekend usually have some better meal than usual)
random expenses: sgd200 (buy clothes, toys, and other daily stuff)
total: sgd1200 (min)/ sgd1450

leftover: sgd800(max) / sgd550(min)

if dont simply buy things...actually can save quite a lot. i dont go clubbing etc so most of my expenses are on food...which need to control...the amount there is pretty scary liao...

change money? compare to JB, i would love to change in SG instead. the price is usually RM10-20 higher than JB (change base on sgd100).

This post has been edited by B-Mecha: Dec 20 2008, 12:05 AM

company should pay for the medical checkup and work pass processing. it is stated in the work permit approval letter. if ur company stingy like that, i serious doubt the company background and the attitude from the boss.


stay far a bit, about 10-14 MRT stops away will be much cheaper. HDB Flat is nice to stay (depend on your house owner policies). i stay in a HDB Flat in yew tee (middle room, pretty big if u stay alone) with air con cost me sgd450 (including water and electric fee).

Food & overall human behaviour. singaporean kiasi and kiasuness really pissed me off (my singaporean friend admit the kiasi and kiasuness within most singaporean). And i really doubt the food stall's cooking skills, bloody sucks. but if u talk about hotel food and varieties, singapore win.

nope, it is NOT only driving. i lived in JB for 6+ years and their behaviour in JB (especially driving and shopping) is annoying. even within their country, i'll say they sux so bad too. lets talk about house rental policy, a lot of house owner limit water and air con usage but still charge u a lot ($100 for air con alone). then talk about work policy, customer pay u money then u diam diam and do the ass. singapore practice customer = god, worker = dog more than malaysia.

u see the MRT, when train arrive everyone go block the entrence, inside ppl have to push here push there to come out. ok la, this also happen in malaysia. but there are few time, i saw a father pushing his 3 or 4 years old kid into a LRT that full of ppl, without letting anyone inside to come out. i see the little girl so kesian kena squeeze n squeeze by the ppl coming otu and the father keep pushing and pushing. i also saw mother with baby pram (got baby inside) having her own good time "filling" and give us the "i got baby here okay, u SHOULD give me way" kind of look at the middle gap that suppose to let ppl come out since everyone is doing their best trying to squeeze into the train. i see all these thing i really get pissed of the parents, i would say they are A class educated ppl with failed mentality.

1k or above. if cheaper than 1k... u better check the conditions / other tenant / discuss the policy first before sign anything / give the deposit. one kind advise, do not give any money before signing the contract and if you go through agent, make sure ur agent is alert with the deal just in case something wrong happen in between the process.

i went to jurong point last sunday and i dont think i'm in singapore anymore. the park, mrt, bus, interchange is flooded with banggali/non malaysian or singaporean....

i wonder why ppl care about what kind of pass they holding. as long as it is s pass or EP and allow u to apply PR then it should be fine d. it doesn't guarantee you any thing, especially your income / benefits. some company dont even follow the rules written on the foreign worker booklet, if u raise ur complain, they can just hire another person and kick you out. the main different between the passes are the levy company gonna pay monthly (S pass = 50, EP = 0) and also the foreigner quota for each passes. but holding a WP is a big drawback since the levy is higher (100 or 150?) and hard to apply PR (my gf holding WP).

the services = phone line or something else? mind to share with us?

1) it depends on the company submit online or via post. assuming nothing goes wrong, via online submission u will get ur IPA (in principle approval) letter around 2 weeks ; via post it will take 3 weeks for them to start process your application, another 2 weeks to send u the IPA.

2) depends on ur position and what company u in. if u work as in house IT support you should able to earn more than working in agency. again, depends on the company that hire u.

3) if there are offers in jobstreet, jobsdb, and newspaper, means there should be a chance. but there might be more ppl competing for the job. do homework for interview so you can score high

btw, it is illegal to rent a room in singapore without work permit, dont even try it. if you need a singapore phone number, u can always buy a prepaid number with passport.

last time i forgot to remove the passport from my pants and end up tears by the washing machine. it took me 1 month for the new passport after the interview session with the immgration officer. the new passport cost me the same but it only valid for 1 year! then have to go to mom to update the work permit too.

yes, stuck in malaysia for 1 whole month...

yes. since i'm a web designer, some of the projects can be done through online. but i do experience hell to download and upload with tmnut dail up.

if u try to google some news about ppl buying gadgets from sls, u will find quite a lot of news about how they con tourist and even local ppl. always do your research on the thing u interested and only buy from shop with good reputation, dont try to save the $50 and end up lots of trouble.

even u manage to avoid accident, caught in the jam for hours with carbon monoxide (from few hundreds motors) will kill your health (unless your working hours is not the 9-6 type).

if u mean malaysia checkpoint, they dont stamp ur passport. they just check it is real passport and that will do. nowdays we use auto gate which is much faster. singapore will stamp ur passport unless u have the permits.

This post has been edited by B-Mecha: Mar 9 2009, 02:28 PM

yea, the western food here is great and affordable. but HK foods.... majority of them are rubbish. the better ones i ever tried are "central" & "kim gary" but not as good as KL's kim gary.

hawker food... i only like the chiken rice & occasionally mushroom pork meat noodle. Speechless about those retired uncle aunty thought they can make a living by serving some "cooked flour with hot water" & those "pepper soup" with the name bak kut teh. the worse thing is everytime i saw "ipoh hor fun" it pissed me off since i'm a ipohian and i never see the "ipoh hor fun" in ipoh. to me they are just insulting ipoh food.

there is another dim sum restaurant in ipoh IMO is better than foh san, it is call Ming Kok at the town area... i just went back to ipoh last weekend...the food make me feel like heaven

if u have specific location that u want to work there it is better to walk around that area and see is there any vacancy. not all shops will advertise on newspaper especially nowdays. salary range is very different depend on where u work and ur employer.

low pay designer like me no need to pay tax. but i'll report my annual income online too.

btw, my gf just work in singapore for 1 year+, for the 1st time we need to go to the e filling counter to get the epin right? any related document need to bring along? last time i only brought my passport, permit, all my IRA8 form...

it is much cheaper where u probably save a lot for food and house rental. but in exchange, the 3 hours travel time is pain in the ass. the condition would be better if the job have fix working hours. JB crime rate is much scarier than what u see on newspaper. the cases of bike snatching & robbery are much more than what the statistic shows. till some extent my friend will ask me "do u kena rob before?".

base on my personal experience, i commuted for 1.5 years and able to saved a bit of money, but i also gain a really tired body where i only sleep like 4 hours a day. my job require me to work from 10am to 10pm or later so sometimes i end up reaching home at 1am+ with a pack of cold nasi lemak as supper after the 1.5 years i choose to stay in singapore, although i couldn't save much but at least i have a healthier lifestyle. even i'm 25 but i start to show some health problem d... (thanks to my lazy ass dont want to move )

just my 2 cent.

This post has been edited by B-Mecha: Apr 8 2009, 10:03 AM