7th January 2026
Date
Interviewee
Regina Tung
Twenty years ago, Singapore extended an unusual invitation to skilled professionals around the world: apply for permanent residence before you even have a job. Once approved, you had six months to relocate, find employment, and begin building a life in the city-state.
Regina, now Senior Immigration Advisory at Envoy Global, was among those who answered that call. An Indonesian with a background in information technology, she saw the opportunity and seized it. Her landed permanent residence converted to full permanent resident status the moment she secured employment.
That program no longer exists. And Regina's journey from IT support to one of the region's most knowledgeable immigration advisors offers a window into how dramatically the Asia Pacific mobility landscape has transformed, and continues to transform, in the years since.
Regina's Career Journey: From Coding to Compliance at Envoy Global
Regina will tell you plainly that her first career path was a mismatch. "My background education is information technology. I'm like a computer science, but I don't really like coding and everything," she recalls. "So it was like just wrong."
After two years in IT support, a friend offered her an operations manager position in HR. That pivot proved pivotal. She eventually moved to a multinational oil and gas company as an HR specialist, where a shared service center project landed immigration responsibilities on her desk. Her manager assigned her to oversee the transition from one immigration vendor to another across Asia Pacific and the Caspian region.
Working closely with the outgoing and incoming vendors, something clicked. "When I handle this immigration project, I feel there are so many things that I don't know. There are so many things yet changes very quickly. Like the immigration rule, everything it changes very quickly. Very interesting."
More than the intellectual challenge, it was the human element that drew her in. "I also feel that there are fulfillment after that. When I help the assignee to move from one location to another location or manage to get the work permit or work pass in certain location, there is a fulfillment that I can see instead of just a daily operation of HR."
When she decided to leave the oil and gas company, the immigration firm she had worked with during the vendor transition offered her a position. She joined, specializing initially in Indonesia and Malaysia. Then came another opportunity at a firm building its APAC capabilities from scratch.
"At that time they don't have APAC team. So I was the first APAC team joining them. So slowly from just Malaysia and Singapore my knowledge grow for Asia Pacific."
Regina on Singapore Immigration: Transparent Systems and Advisory Focus
Singapore's immigration system stands apart in the region for its transparency. "You can just read in the MOM website, you can find a lot of information, you can learn yourself," Regina explains. "The system of how to submit the application is also very clear."
That clarity, paradoxically, made the administrative work less appealing to someone who had grown to love the advisory side of immigration. "I found out that it's very administrative. I prefer giving a consultation instead of doing the administrative work."
She made the deliberate choice to focus on APAC-wide advisory work rather than Singapore application submissions. Singapore remains one of her areas of expertise, but her passion lies in helping clients understand regulations, processes, and strategies across the entire region.
Today, as Senior Immigration Advisory at Envoy Global, Regina works directly with corporate clients facing complex mobility challenges. "When the client have a project or new clients or when they have any difficulty they will come to me. And or I will come approach them and to tell them oh this is maybe not compliance."
Her work might involve advising a company looking to bring twenty engineers from China to Taiwan, or helping global mobility teams understand which visa categories apply to their workforce plans. "It's more on advisory I can say and building stronger relationship with our clients which is the global mobility people and HR."
The APAC Immigration Paradox: Talent Attraction Meets Tightening Requirements
Ask Regina about trends in Asia Pacific immigration and she describes what might be called a regional paradox. Countries across APAC are simultaneously rolling out programs to attract high-skilled talent while tightening requirements for everyone else.
"I believe everyone see that across the globe that I think getting more and more countries creating an immigration policy to attract high skilled professional," she observes. "Countries are fighting for talents or professionals."
The evidence is everywhere. China launched its K visa. South Korea introduced the K-Star visa targeting young talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Singapore created the ONE Pass for high earners making at least S$30,000 monthly. Indonesia unveiled a golden visa in 2024 aimed at investors and tech startups. Thailand has its own suite of business-friendly visa options.
"But at the same time they also tighten the immigration requirement," Regina continues. "So they make it. They increase the salary threshold. They also stricter local hiring mandates and also more on compliance audit."
Political dynamics amplify this tension. She points to Japan's recent government change, which brought immediate tightening of business manager visas and additional criteria for permanent residence applications. Australia keeps raising salary thresholds and increasing visa fees annually. Singapore adjusts policies in response to local sentiment, particularly around election cycles.
"So you see the balance very unpredictable," Regina says. "I can see the trends like they want to open up for professionals. But at the same time they also try to be more compliant to make sure that the locals doesn't feel hurt when there are more foreigners coming in."
Where High-Skilled Talent Wants to Go in Asia Pacific
For professionals seeking relocation within APAC, language and system transparency drive destination preferences. "The demand or the countries that people or the high talent professional looking are definitely English speaking country to make it easy," Regina explains. "I think Singapore and Australia in Asia Pacific."
Both countries offer English-language environments and transparent, points-based systems where applicants can assess their eligibility before committing to a move. "In terms of system, government system is also more stabilized, more transparent in a way. How to apply the permit. What is the category? What is the point calculation?"
The current U.S. immigration environment under the Trump administration has intensified this dynamic. "A lot of companies actually start looking to parking the employee who is not eligible to U.S. to other region. They start asking Regina, what are the countries that you think is possible."
But Singapore and Australia welcome primarily high earners with strong qualifications. "Not for those fresh graduate or just like maybe if you only have few years experience and your offer salary is not that high, it could be challenging for you to get the permit to that two countries."
For a third-choice destination, Regina points to Vietnam and Thailand as emerging options. China, despite its size, has seen companies relocating manufacturing to Vietnam due to political considerations. "We have a lot of clients that moving out from China, the manufacturing to Vietnam."
Malaysia benefits from its proximity to Singapore. Companies opening manufacturing facilities or data centers increasingly choose Johor, just across the border. "Instead of moving them to Singapore, which is more expensive and also the regulation the compass point is more difficult to get, they move it to Malaysia."
Digital Transformation Reshaping Immigration Across APAC
Regina has watched immigration processes across the region shift from paper-based systems to digital platforms. The transformation touches everything from arrival cards to work permit applications.
"More and more countries in the region itself having a E arrival card from paper. Last time when you come to Singapore, maybe you have to fill in the small slip," she recalls. "The same thing for Malaysia. Recently they also announced this E arrival. China just also announced. Korea also. So even India."
Thailand recently launched an online system for companies to submit work permit applications. More countries are building digital infrastructure and, in some cases, incorporating AI to streamline processing.
The physical experience of crossing borders has changed dramatically in leading markets. "If you are traveling even around the region, you can see more and more also auto gate like Singapore. Totally your passport will not be stamped anymore. You can just pass through the gate in and out exit and entry."
Malaysia has followed Singapore's lead with remarkable speed. "I was surprised that Malaysia also copying Singapore very fast. So I just came back from Malaysia very smoothly. You just scan your passport, scan your face maybe using the eyes or whatever the technology that they have. You can pass through the immigration very fast. There's no more officer have to check your passport."
Yet Regina notes significant variation in digital maturity. "In Southeast Asia, probably only Singapore that really the system of the Minister of Manpower is very solid. And also there's a real time data." When companies cancel an employment pass, the data updates immediately. Pass holders can scan a QR code to see their current status.
"But other than Singapore, I think a lot of countries the system, yes, they are trying to have an online digital system, but there are still a lot of things that they need to continue upgrade or update. To make it more real time. To make it more transparent."
How Envoy Global Uses Technology for Immigration Compliance
At Envoy Global, technology serves both productivity and compliance objectives. Regina describes systems that auto-populate questionnaires from uploaded data, eliminating repetitive manual form completion. "If you have a data like we have a data that we can upload here and then it's all come out into the questionnaires which is very helpful instead of still have to manually completing the form and everything."
She personally uses Microsoft Copilot to refine client communications and presentations. "To help me to create a presentation or find out an idea to explain in a clearer way to my clients like in a written email or something like that."
But the most critical technology applications address compliance risk. Regina describes a specific automation built for clients managing business visas for travel between China and Taiwan.
"A lot of type of like business visa or they call it China Taiwan EEP that the visa tracking only can be started when the employee arrive in Taiwan. So it's very hard. So instead of manually we have to follow up with the employee, when are you coming to Taiwan, what is your entry date."
The automated system sends arrival reminders, captures entry dates, calculates permitted stay durations, and issues departure warnings at three, five, and seven days before the exit deadline.
The stakes are real. "Previously they did have one employee, only one employee overstay in Taiwan for Chinese national, overstay in Taiwan and directly the company being banned to submit the application for six months."
A single compliance failure can shut down a company's ability to move talent for half a year. "So you can imagine the risk of compliance is really high."
What Corporates Get Wrong About APAC Immigration
The biggest pain point Regina hears from corporate clients involves the pace of regulatory change. "They feel like sometimes they can't catch up. They just learn a little bit about Vietnam processing of type of work permit and then suddenly there is a changes again with the regulation."
Processing times add another layer of frustration. Some countries require extensive document legalization and authentication. Singapore now requires education verification reports. "It taking up a longer time for processing."
Official timelines often diverge from reality. "Sometimes they can say oh yes in paper they say maybe 10 working days. But in fact in real it can take two weeks or three weeks just to process or to decide whether it's approved or not."
The good news: fewer countries now require original documents with ink signatures. "Last time China everything must be signed with the ink original but now less and less." Digital acceptance has dramatically reduced delays for companies moving employees across borders.
Regina's core advice to corporates is deceptively simple but frequently ignored: consider immigration first, not last. "When they are going to move the employee, immigration is the important part that they have to really consider as first before they really decide or even hire a foreigner."
She counsels clients to engage with immigration advisors before extending offer letters or committing to relocations. "Work with us closely, work with whoever your immigration vendors, your advisor to make sure before you even offer a letter or even relocate anyone to make sure that the immigration is compliant and the person is eligible for whatever country that they selected to move in."
The Essential Role of Foreign Talent in APAC Growth
Beneath the regulatory complexity and compliance challenges, Regina returns to a fundamental principle that she believes both governments and corporates sometimes lose sight of.
"The most important also that the corporates have to remember is the foreign talents is not to compete with the locals but to complement with the needs of the countries itself for the foreign talents."
It is a perspective shaped by her own journey. She arrived in Singapore when the doors were wide open, built expertise that grew with each new challenge, and now helps organizations navigate systems far more complex than the one that welcomed her two decades ago.
The landscape will continue to evolve. Policies will tighten and relax with political winds. Technology will reshape what is possible. But the core work remains: helping people move across borders to where their skills are needed, while keeping everyone on the right side of compliance.
For Regina, that work still delivers the fulfillment she discovered years ago when immigration first landed on her desk. Some things, at least, have not changed.
Regina is Senior Immigration Advisory at Envoy Global, where she provides strategic guidance on APAC immigration to multinational corporations and their global mobility teams.
Connect with Regina Tung
