Singapore offers a brilliant job market when it comes to seeking employment options. To add on to it, applicants with specialized skills, especially in the field of IT as well as the occupations linked with software engineering are in high demand in Singapore. But it is essential that the applicant should fulfill all the mandates and qualifications linked with acquiring an employment in respective field in Singapore. Here are some of the aspects which overseas citizens require to keep in mind while applying for a job in Singapore:

• It is essential for the overseas applicants to have a secured job offer prior to their filling forms to get work permit in the country.
• To enhance the chances of getting employment, applicants are advised to file their applications for an Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC). This will allow the applicant to get a Social Visit Pass (SVP) valid of one year when the job seekers can search for employment.
• Mandates linked with language requirement: English is the vital language for commerce and trade. Also, languages such as Chinese Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are widely spoken.
• Options to Work: The job market is attired with various industries like banking, commerce, biomedical, engineering, IT, media to name a few.
• Some of the highly reputed and major firms are CapitaLand, Singapore Press, Fraser & Neave, Golden Agri-Resources, OCBCBank, Kompass Singapore, SembCorp Industries, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Telecom, United Overseas etc.
• Normal working hours in Singapore are five days in a week, the timings would start from 9.00 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon and 2.00in the afternoon till to 5 in the evening Saturdays normally remain closed. The salary may range from S$2,453 to S$2,700 (it is applied for one working month) for freshers and may go higher, depending upon the qualification.

For more info, hire an Immigration and Visa expert (www.abhinav.com)

Canada welcomes thousands of immigrants every year. As far as the statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada is concerned, year 2008 saw the immigration of 250,000 applicants, which included 87,000 who chose Toronto as their immigration destination whereas 37,500 immigrated to the beautiful place Vancouver.

Canada has always welcomed people from all over the world with open hands. In addition, the country never leaves any stone unturned when it comes to providing assistance to these new comers and helping them settle down in life.

In another attempt to provide assistance to new Canadians, the federal government has come out with plenty of programs to offer assistance on vital aspects of life in the country. For instance, knowledge regarding aspects of banking and economic factors is provided by the Immigrant Settlement and Adaption program. It also provides valuable information on employment and education related queries which the new Canadians suffer on a regular basis.

In another instance, all the loan related queries are solved by the Immigration Loans Programs. Other documents linked with medical examination and travel related costs and papers required for the same are guided by the same body.

In addition, new comers would be granted financial help from the banks in Canada. For instance, necessary devices and products would be given to the new comers by the BMO Bank of Montreal under their newly implemented package.

For more information in immigrating to Canada, contact an Immigration and visa expert (www.abhinav.com).

According to some of the leading recruiters in the IT Sector of Australia, some form of flexibility should be maintained for the professionals to come to Australia. With this, the current skill shortages in this industry segment could easily catered to.

These skill shortages might turn out to be the cause of delay for many projects in the pipeline. Some such projects include the National Broadband Network etc. More so, the number of foreign trained IT professionals being permitted to work in Australia should be evaluated again.

Peoplebank which is the biggest recruiter for IT and technology in Australia has signed a contract with the government. According to this agreement, around 150 to 200 professionals from abroad would be permitted a visa on a yearly basis. However, in the last six months, this number has been increased by almost twenty to thirty percent. To this, Peoplebank feels there should be a further raise on this. This is because the firm forecasts skill shortages in the middle of this year, especially in the regions of New South Wales, Victoria and Canberra.

In the previous year, there was an increase in demand by around thirty percent in Sydney which were mostly catered towards projects in the banking, finance and the utility sectors. The main reason behind this is the constantly increasing opportunities and so, the need for the skilled professionals rises with it.

The visa program that is usually applied for by the employers to sponsor foreign trained professionals is the Skilled Temporary Business (Long Stay) that is the Subclass 457. More so, the recruiters have been asked by the Australian Department of Immigration to reconsider its numbers for the 457 visas to be sponsored and keep it to the available numbers.

The data for Australian Immigration projects one thousand and five hundred professionals in the computing sector who were given the 457 visa. This is a reduction from two thousand eight hundred and ten in the previous year. Also, the computing professionals were rated as the second of the top fifteen professions for the visas to be granted.

With SMS 2.0, web 2.0 and other second generation or rather third generation techies, here comes Death 2.0! You must either be astonished or rather aghast…either way, I have your attention now.

Digital Wills as it is said so are one of the most recent to enter the “Will” circuit. Also known as the Internet Will, it is much easier to be created and could be used by you as well. Such a will is a form of list containing all the usernames and passwords and other confidential information stored in these accounts. A list could be created and given to the person who you trust the most and would want to have that information after your demise. More so, if you have a poor memory, such a list can aid you as well.

They can even be kept safe in your account and you could ask someone to send these to all your contacts informing them about your demise. More so, incase you want your children to take care of your finances; you can provide them with all the details regarding your bank account.

In contrast to a will on paper, a digital will is safe in services like the “Last Messages Club” which is very prominent in the UK. Also, it could always be kept updated. More so, there are many such services available which cater to the deceased.

So next time you start thinking about what would happen to all your online secrets, think again! Or scared that your will on paper could easily be forged? Your days of worry can literally get over now.

Agreed that the current generation is net and tech savvy, but the older generation has slowly caught up. It is but obvious that our previous generation has comparatively less number of years to live. So, its time that they start thinking about forming a Will leaving behind what rightfully belongs to their loved ones.

Be it the previous generation or the current one – every second person in urban India has a secret life “Online”. Be it professional or social networking, emails, chats or the more serious work such as e – banking and so on. After all, the online frenzy bug has spread throughout making it as addictive as it could. Most of them make a living out of it.

So what happens to these accounts when the user dies? For instance, an individual caters to all his finances sitting at home using his net banking account. Let’s say he dies the very next day in an accident. What would happen to all his finances? Rather, it has to be ensured that no one misuses all his personal accounts which are full of highly confidential information.

In times of today, it would not be wrong to say that there are two faces of an individual in his entire life – one that he portrays in real life while the other exists on the Internet in the wee hours. Sometimes, the online one might turn out to be the more important of the two.

Most of the netizens are hardly aware of the laws that accompany such a situation. More so, there are many online conglomerates that do not have a ready made policy catering to the users who are deceased. There are others as well who do not publish their terms and conditions.

For instance, the deceased had a Google account and the relatives knew that the account has some information that would be of benefit to the family. Google can help in such a case. The family would be asked to present the full name and contact details of both the deceased as well as the family member seeking information. You would also be asked to submit an email address that could be verified, a copy of the email that you have received from the deceased person authorizing you to collect the relevant information, a copy of the death certificate and the power of attorney for the email account. After verifying the above information, Google would provide you with the necessary information.

Additionally, you might want to know that if Google notices inactivity for almost a year, there are high chances that the email is deleted. So, you can plan your strategies now itself for what is to happen to your secrets post your death!

Recently, the premier business magazine, Forbes has come up with a list of people with Indian origin who are making it big in the American corporate world! Forbes’ list of, ‘Eight Indian CEOs At Big US Companies’ has proved that how Indians are writing success stories in the Corporate America.

Madras-born PepsiCo’s Chief Executive, Indira Nooyi gains the top slot on the list. Nooyi is a prominent Indian immigrant in the US and has been an inevitable part of the country’s corporate world.

After the PepsiCo’s CEO, Forbes listed Vikram Pandit on the second position. The Nagpur-born CEO of Wall Street-based Citigroup is an eminent corporate figure in the US. Before joining the Citigroup, Pandit served the Morgan Stanley’s fixed income and capital markets businesses and investment banking as President. He also co-founded and was the chairperson of Old Lane Partners.

Cognizant Technology Solutions’ head Francisco D’Souza holds the third slot. D’Souza was born in Kenya, however his grandparents were the natives of Goa, India. He joined the corporation in the year 1994, the year when the latter was founded. Within the three years of serving, he became the director of North American operations in Cognizant.

Fourth on the list is Shantanu Narayen, who leads the computer software company, Adobe Systems. Surya Mohapatra, Dinesh Paliwal, Jai P. Nagarkatti and Abhijit Talwalkar in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eight slots follow Narayen respectively.

Surya Mohapatra is amongst those who have been vital in plotting growth strategy for their respective companies. The CEO of Quest Diagnostics was instrumental in raising $750 million from the capital markets through acquisitions.

The Chief of Harman International, Dinesh Paliwal is a native of famous Indian city, Agra. He joined the sound-systems company as the CEO in the year 2007.

Jai P. Nagarkatti has been serving Sigma-Aldrich Corporation as CEO since January 1, 2006. Prior to this, he served the company as President and COO till December 31, 2005. Nagarkatti is also a director in Sigma-Aldrich.

Abhijit Talwalkar is the Chief Executive Officer of California-based electronics company, LSI Corporation. Earlier, Talwalkar had served Intel’s digital enterprise group, as well as Bipolar Integrated Technology Inc., Sequent Computer Systems and Lattice Semiconductor Inc.

Forbes caught Richard Herman, co-author of a book on migrants to the US, saying that Indians immigrating to the US are far superior to the immigrants of other countries, thanks to their English language skills, as well as advanced education that they bring to the nation! However, Forbes maintains that regardless of the personal success stories, the number immigrants leading corporate America, including Indians and others is still very small. To this, Herman said that the number is growing and quite satisfying, as compared to the data ten years ago.

There are many aspects that must be considered and worked on before actually getting on to the flight and post landing in Australia. Some such activities include banking your money, car, telephone and internet, utilities and so on.

Ensuring that all your savings are safely transferred is the key of all aspects. For this, efficient banking is a must. Thus, opening a bank account is a must which would require you to present an ID such as that of a passport. Certain banks in Australia permit you to open an account prior to your landing in Australia. Once you land, you must to go the particular branch within the first 6 weeks with an identification proof. You must provide with a current residence address. This can also be a temporary address till you find a decent accommodation for yourself. After getting the bankcards, you can subscribe to phone as well as internet banking.

However, it has to be remembered that banking in Australia might turn out to be quite different from that in your native country. Here, it is followed on a points system based on which an individual is permitted to open a bank account. Ideally, a minimum of 100 points have to be acquired to open one. Additionally, a passport and a driving license are also mandatory to be produced.

Also, there are many different types of bank accounts that are available. The most common ones opted for are the deposit or the transaction accounts meant for daily purposes. The interest charged on these accounts is not more than 0 – 1%. A savings bank account is another option that could be considered. Credit cards are also available for immigrants but its takes time to build a good credit history.

Another important aspect is subscribing to a telephone and an interest connection. For this, a service provider could be contacted to fit a connection. You might have to pay some amount to get the connection active.

You must know that Telstra and Optus are the biggest telecom companies in Australia. Either of the above could be contacted for a connection. You would have to be pay monthly bills and there are a number of packages to for you to select from based on your needs.

You would need to buy a new mobile handset since the ones from your native country might not work here. All the major mobile handset companies are present in Australia. You can get a connection along with handset itself. Regarding the network coverage, be careful on the connection you opt for. To know more, contact the Australia Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy.

Next in line are the utilities. If you are living in a rented accommodation, your landlord would look into it for you and pay for you. To know more on the water supply, you can visit the Australian Government National Water Commission.

For gas and electricity, the Energy Australia is the largest service provider. To get a connection, a simple phone call to them would do. However, Utilityone is one single service provider for all your needs of water, gas and electricity, telephone and internet.

A driver’s license is another important document which would prove your identification. If you have an international driving license, you would be permitted to use it in Australia for the initial one year. Post one year, you would have to take a written test to convert your current license into an Australian one.

Last, but not the least, having an independent mode of transport is of utmost importance. You would not find any problems buying a car in this country. However, look around for the best possible deal available. Your vehicle must be registered for you to legally drive. The registration would involve a fee, a pink slip, proof of purchase and ownership, insurance and an ID proof.

All in all, there are many aspects that must be looked into. The above were some of the most important aspects to be considered. To know more on the same, you can get in touch with an Immigration and Visa expert. He can guide you more on the post landing issues.

The H-1B visa is a form of work permit for the non – immigrants in the United States. This visa permits an employer in the US to hire a foreign national on a temporary basis for a specialized job. The various occupations include those in Finance and Accounting, Medical and Health Care, IT, Hospitality, Computing, Banking, Business Management, Marketing, all the occupations in Engineering, Public Relations and Advertising, Sales, Lawyers and other Legal professions, Recruiting, Teaching, Telecom and Hospitality.

To ideally qualify for an H-1B visa, an applicant must have any one of the following:

• At least 12 years of work experience in the relevant field.
• A Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree (from the US or a foreign equivalent).
• A mixture of educational qualifications (such as a 2 years diploma course) along with at least six years of work experience.

In order to apply for an H-1B visa, an applicant must first find employment in the US. The employer would then file for the candidate’s visa. The process starts by paying for either the Prevailing Wage or the Actual Wage (whichever is higher). Here, the employer would be asked for the job responsibilities being given to the foreign national, the skills and qualifications required and the total duration of the work experience needed.

This is followed by filing for the Labor Certification Application (LCA). This is an application to be submitted by the employer agreeing to the terms and conditions and that he is ready to pay the higher wages.

However, an individual working on the H-1B visa decides to leave or change his job or has been terminated from his job, the candidate has the right to find a new employer and file for a status change, and otherwise, he should not reside in the US.

To know more, it is best recommended to contact an Immigration and Visa Consultancy firm. Such firms usually do a prior assessment of your skills and qualifications before actually filing your application. Most firms offer this service completely free of charge.

If you are one of those who are planning to immigrate to New Zealand but are worried about handling your financial transitions, there is no need to worry!

Bank of Baroda – India’s very own bank, along with having various branches in 70 countries has registered its branch in New Zealand. It is likely that Auckland would be the place to have the first ever branch of Bank of Baroda in the land of Kiwis.

The services would include student loans, trade finance, mortgage loans, and other banking products and the bank will change its name to Bank of Baroda (New Zealand) Ltd after its establishment.

Dr Anil Kumar Khandelwal, who visited Auckland as chairman and managing director in the year 2007, confirmed that Bank of Baroda is looking forward to establish its foundation in New Zealand and considers the same as an ideal destination for business.

M D Mallya, who succeeded Dr Khandelwal, elaborated that BOB in the land of Kiwis would mean an overseas expansion, and a chance to serve global customers in a better way.

An Indian bank in a foreign country gives you a feeling of a home away from home! The news is simply great for people of Indian origin who are planning to immigrate to New Zealand!