Employer on MOM Watch List

I just realised - I should clarify that although my employer is on the MOM watchlist, it has not been told that it cannot hire any more foreigners. There is no official restriction or quota, as such. I think the official line is that visa applications from my employer will be under increased scrutiny, whatever that means...

dxdy098 wrote:

I just realised - I should clarify that although my employer is on the MOM watchlist, it has not been told that it cannot hire any more foreigners. There is no official restriction or quota, as such. I think the official line is that visa applications from my employer will be under increased scrutiny, whatever that means...

Good set of questions, let me highlight a few things and let me know if these help-

1. A company on MoM’s ‘watchlist’ typically arises out of a situation or situations in the past when the specific company has been audited/ questioned by MoM on fair hiring practices, or other similar reasons which literally means, new EP/ S Pass applications are going to be really tough (not impossible though)

2. The only way your application gets approved is by very clearly articulating why you, including your relevant experience, skills, what’s the differentiator between you and other local talent pool (if I were the company HR, I would urge them to least pick 3-4 other applicants that applied and interviewed for the role, then do a write up on your application cover letter (calling out why you over them). I know it’s submitted and in the review stage but this is critical to get it approved. Are you aware if they have submitted a strong cover letter?

3. Higher salary gets you a rejection, well it’s not righteous to believe in that statement. All MoM wants to know is why are you being offered amount X, how does it compare to the previous job, the market, the experience and skills. Great logic and justification with facts are honoured in the application, to put it faintly

4. You also need to define the job scope well, rare skills and smaller or insignificant talent pool locally

Hope this helps.

Impediment or not, it’s how you look at it, how you respond after knowing the company is on the watchlist- submitter has to do a great job mate.

Thank you very much @Shekhz for your response. It's very helpful. Just to reply to your statements with more clarification in case it helps someone in the future -

1) To the best of my understanding, no cover letter was submitted - just the bare-bones application. We also did not interview/advertise for the job. it's quite a senior role and, as a result, the salary exceeds the advertising threshold (>20k). There was also no jump in salary between my current role (I'm working in the US) and the prospective role in Singapore.

Given your advice, I will ask my firm to draft a cover letter. I will keep the forum appraised of any developments - I imagine I'm not the only one in this pickle

Over the past few months, companies have been encouraged to advertise all jobs, including the one you called out (above 20K threshold). Bare bones submission with a company on the watchlist may just be picked up and assessed with additional questions.

They should have done an excellent job instead with the application in my view, helps.