Foreign professionals, managers, and executives who intend to work in Singapore are required to have the employment pass.

Eligibility criterion for employment pass

The employment pass is granted to foreign professionals who meet the following requirements:

  • A job offer in Singapore
  • A managerial, executive and specialised jobs
  • Fixed monthly salary
    • Key Facts
      • It comprises of two things:
        • Basic monthly salary : Regardless of employee and company performance and medical and personal leave taken by the employee, this payment does not vary from month to month.
        • Fixed monthly allowances : Allowances such as fixed food and housing allowances which do not vary from month to month
      • It does not include :
        • Variable allowances
        • In-kind payments
        • Productivity incentive payments
        • Overtime payment, bonus, commission and annual wage supplements
        • Any form of reimbursements including for expenses incurred by an employer in the course of his employment
        • Gratuity payable on discharge, retrenchment and retirement of the foreign employee
        • Contributions payable by the employer to any pension and provident fund, including any contributions made on the employee’s behalf
      • Criterion for eligibility
        • Young graduates from good institutions need to earn at least $3,300 to qualify
        • Older and more experienced candidates need to have higher salaries to qualify
      • Acceptable qualifications
        • A good university degree
          • Ministry of Manpower does not have a list of approved institutions and hence it evaluates each application on its own merit based on a wide range of criteria such as global and country rankings and enrollment standards
        • Professional qualifications and specialist skills
          • Ministry of Manpower look at other factors such as proven track records and exceptional skill sets on a case-by-case basis.

Note : Acceptable qualifications do not guarantee approval. Moreover, candidates without acceptable qualifications may not necessarily be rejected.

  • Application for an Employment Pass is open to all nationalities.
  • An employer and authorised third party has to apply for a candidate’s employment pass.
  • An overseas employer, with no registered office in Singapore, need to fulfill additional requirements :
    • A Singapore-registered company needs to act as a local sponsor and apply on your behalf.
    • The local sponsor must apply manually.
  • Under the Fair Consideration Framework, an advertisement of the job opening open to Singaporeans and on run for at least 14 days on the Jobs Bank before the application for an Employment Pass is submitted.

Self-Assessment Tool (SAT)

Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) can be used to check if the candidate qualifies for the pass. Ministry of Manpower advises to not apply for the Employment pass if the SAT shows that the candidate is not eligible because it will be rejected. Moreover, there is a 90% chance that the candidate will get a pass if the SAT shows that the candidate is eligible.

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