Visa restriction keeps Osang from being professional singer in Israel

Published January 16, 2014 11:03pm

She can win but she can't work... as a singer. Not in Israel anyway, where she's probably now the most famous amateur singer after her dramatic victory in "The X Factor Israel."

Since Rose "Osang" Fostanes is a foreign worker (and the only non-Israeli finalist in the competition), she has to stick to the occupation—caregiver—indicated in her visa.

The Israeli Interior Ministry may grant the 47-year-old caregiver an exemption to be able to work as a professional singer, but she has to apply for it.

Fostanes, the Filipina caregiver who rose from anonymity to instant fame after winning the first season of the reality show “The X Factor Israel,” bagged a recording contract as a prize.

Fostanes has been working for about 20 years in the Middle East and arrived in Israel four years ago to work as a caregiver for an ailing woman in her 50s.

Fostanes and the producers of “The X Factor Israel” have not issued any statement about this development.

In a recent interview, Fostanes told the Associated Press that she has to live in a crowded apartment in south Tel Aviv, a downtrodden area inhabited by foreign laborers, with seven others in order to save money.

According to data from the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv, most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who arrive in Israel in search of work end up being employed as caregivers. Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show that Filipino caregivers in Israel earn an average of $1,234 a month, equivalent to P55,665. — XA/ELR/KG/HS, GMA News

Tags: osangfostanes, rosefostanes, thexfactorisrael, caregiver