\n<\/p>\n
Webley noted that with the change, spouses would likely not have to go through the arduous process of finding employers who are willing to cancel their dependant pass before sponsoring a separate employment pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t necessarily mean that every single spouse is now going to be employed \u2026 but it is going to move a lot of barriers,\u201d he said, calling for HR departments to be trained on handling the new policy.<\/p>\n
For instance, a recruiter who has helped companies hire executives across Southeast Asia recounted how an expat had previously turned down a role in Malaysia because of employment restrictions on the trailing spouse.<\/p>\n
With the latest change, the expat – who works for a German firm with regional operations in Kuala Lumpur – is considering Malaysia again, said Alex Berghofen, a managing partner at HR consultancy contagi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have children and see Malaysia as offering more flexibility at this stage of their lives,\u201d he told CNA.<\/p>\n
Berghofen feels the move could make Malaysia \u201cone of the most attractive destinations\u201d in the region for dual-career expat couples.<\/p>\n
Singapore already allows spouses of expats holding the Overseas Networks & Expertise Pass to work, he pointed out.<\/p>\n
But to qualify for this pass through the employment category, expats must earn at least S$30,000 a month, \u201cmuch higher\u201d than Malaysia’s minimum salary requirement for its Category 1 employment pass, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Malaysia makes its process simpler, that would give Singapore a run for its money,\u201d Berghofen wrote about the move in a separate post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with more jobs moving to Malaysia, this could be a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Webley noted that with the change, spouses would likely not have to go through the arduous process of finding employers who are willing to cancel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}