Singapore Payroll

1. Employment Pass

The Employment Pass allows foreign professionals, managers and executives to work in Singapore. Candidates need to earn at least $3,600 a month and have acceptable qualifications. Employers must also demonstrate that they have fairly considered all jobseekers.

Key facts on Employment Pass

Eligibility

Only eligible candidates will be considered for an Employment Pass. Criteria include a minimum salary of $3,600 and acceptable qualifications.

Who is eligible?

The Employment Pass is for foreign professionals who:

• Have a job offer in Singapore.
• Work in a managerial, executive or specialised job.
• Earn a fixed monthly salary of at least $3,600 (older, more experienced candidates need higher salaries).
• Have acceptable qualifications, usually a good university degree, professional qualifications or specialised skills.

Application for an Employment Pass is open to all nationalities.

Use the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) to check if the candidate qualifies for the pass.

Salaries for younger or older candidates

Young graduates from good institutions can qualify if they earn at least $3,600.

Older, more experienced candidates need higher salaries to qualify.

From 1 May 2020, the minimum qualifying salary will be raised from $3,600 to $3,900 for new applications. The salary criteria for older, more experienced candidates will also be raised in tandem. The new salary criteria will apply to renewal applications from 1 May 2021.

Acceptable qualifications

We do not accept qualifications from unaccredited institutions.

To check if an institution is accredited, you can use:

• Global verification agencies such as Dataflow or Risk Management Intelligence (RMI)
• International accreditation bodies
• Awarding country’s educational authorities

We don’t have a list of approved institutions. Instead, we evaluate each application on its own merit, based on a wide range of factors such as the candidate’s salary, track records, work experience, skill sets and global and countries’ rankings of institutions.

Self­-Assessment Tool (SAT)

We encourage you to use the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) to get an indication of whether a candidate meets the Employment Pass requirements. Candidates can also use the tool to assess their eligibility.

If the SAT shows that the candidate is not eligible, you shouldn’t apply for the Employment Pass because it will be rejected.

If the SAT shows that the candidate is eligible, there is around a 90% chance that the candidate will get a pass.

Who can apply?

To promote fair employment practices and improve labour market transparency, employers making Employment Pass applications must first advertise on My Careers Future and fairly consider all candidates. Find out more about the advertising requirements.

An employer or authorised third party has to apply for a candidate’s Employment Pass.

If you are an overseas employer that does not have a registered office in Singapore:

You need to get a Singapore-registered company to act as a local sponsor and apply on your behalf.

The local sponsor must submit the application.

The candidate will still need to meet the Employment Pass criteria.

Passes for family of Employment Pass holders

As an Employment Pass holder, you can get certain family members to join you in Singapore if you meet the eligibility requirements.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible, you need to:

• Earn at least $6,000 a month.
• Hold an Employment Pass.

These are the family members you can bring in and the type of pass they need:

How to apply

To apply, your employer will need to submit a separate application for each family member. The application can be submitted together with the Employment Pass application or separately.

Find out more about the requirements and application process for Dependant’s Pass and Long-Term Visit Pass.

2. Entre Pass

The Entre Pass allows eligible foreigners to start and operate a new business in Singapore. Find out what businesses are eligible, how to apply and the requirements for renewing the pass.

Key facts for EntrePass

Get an overview and key facts about the EntrePass for foreign entrepreneurs to start a new business in Singapore.

Who is eligible?

Entre Pass is open to all nationalities.

You can apply for an Entre Pass if you:

• Have started, or intend to start, a private limited company registered with ACRA.
• If registered, the company must be less than 6 months old on the date you apply.
• If not registered, you can do so after you know the outcome of your application.
• Meet any of the following innovative criteria for application as an entrepreneur, innovator or investor.

You do not need to meet all of the criteria for each respective profile or type, but having more qualifications would help your application.

Entrepreneur

Your company raised funding of at least $100,000 from a government investment vehicle, venture capitalist (VC) or business angel that is recognised by a Singapore Government agency.

Examples include:

• Vertex Ventures
• SGInnovate (formerly Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd)
• Qualified investors on the StartupSG Equity scheme
• Venture partners on the Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF) scheme

Your company is an existing incubatee at an incubator or accelerator in Singapore that is recognised by the Government.

Examples include:

• Incubators or accelerators in Enterprise Singapore’s Startup SG Accelerator Programme
• Accredited Mentor Partners under Startup SG Founder
• Accreditation@SGD Programme
• SGInnovate-linked incubation or acceleration programmes.

You have significant business experience or network and promising entrepreneurial track record of starting highly-scalable businesses and want to establish, develop and manage a new or existing business in Singapore.

Requirements

You must fulfil any of the following:

• You have founded and sold a tech company.
• You have raised significant funding from investors for a current or past venture.
• You have been or are being incubated by an internationally renowned incubator or accelerator.
• You have strong industry networks and business contacts that are related to your proposed business.
• You have received recognition by a national body, recognised media publication or credible industry organisation for your professional, business or entrepreneurial achievements and track record.

Innovator

You or your company holds an intellectual property (IP), registered with an approved national IP institution, which delivers a significant competitive advantage to your proposed business that cannot be easily replicated.

Requirements

You must fulfil all of the following:

• Your IP must be registered with an approved national IP institution.
• Your IP delivers a competitive advantage to your proposed business and cannot be easily replicated.
• One of the shareholders or the company must be the owner of the IP.
• Expired IP can be considered as long as one of the shareholders is the inventor of the IP.

Your company has an ongoing research collaboration with a research institution under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), an Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) in Singapore.

Examples include:

• A*STAR Research Institutes
• Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) entities
• Institutes of Higher Learning (e.g. National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore Management University, the Polytechnics)
• Recognised non-profit and private sector research groups

Requirements

You must fulfil all of the following:

• The research collaboration must be related to your proposed business.
• The research institution needs to provide a contact person to verify details of the research collaboration.
• You must be involved with ongoing research collaboration.
• Contract of services is not considered to be research collaboration.

You have exceptional technical or domain expertise in an area related to your proposed business.

Requirements

You must fulfil all of the following:

• Your area of expertise must be related to your proposed business.
• You have outstanding achievements or received international recognition in your area of technical or domain expertise.

Investor

You have a good track record of investing in businesses and want to grow new or existing businesses in Singapore.

Requirements

You are willing to invest a substantial amount of money in a local company and have a track record in one of the following:

• Investing in and driving the growth of highly-scalable businesses.
• Substantial experience (minimum 8 years) as a senior management professional or executive in a large corporation.

Businesses that are not eligible

The following businesses are not eligible for an Entre Pass:

• Coffee shops, hawker centres, food courts.
• Bars, night clubs, karaoke lounges.
• Foot reflexology, massage parlours.
• Acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal dispensing businesses.
• Employment agencies.
• Geomancy business.

Passes for EntrePass holders’ families

As an EntrePass holder, you can get certain family members to join you in Singapore if you meet the requirements for minimum business spending and local jobs created.

As an EntrePass holder, you can only bring your family in if you meet the requirements for total annual business spending and local employment:

LQS (formerly known as FTE) refer to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who earn a monthly salary of at least $1,300 (from 1 July 2019), and receive CPF contributions for at least 3 months.

Local PMEs refer to professionals, managers and executives who are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents, earn a monthly salary of at least $3,600 and receive CPF contributions for at least 3 months.

1 local PME counts as 3 LQS. For example, to meet the requirements of 6 LQS, you can employ 3 LQS and 1 local PME.

Total business spending is calculated by deducting the following from the total operating expenses:

• Expenses due to purchase of royalties, franchise and technical know-how fees from overseas companies.
• Expenses due to outsourcing of work overseas.
• Total remuneration to company’s EntrePass holders.

To bring your family in, you need to apply for the respective pass types:

3. Personalised Employment Pass

The Personalised Employment Pass is for high-earning Employment Pass holders and overseas foreign professionals. It is not tied to an employer and offers greater flexibility than an Employment Pass.

Key facts on Personalised Employment Pass

Get a quick overview of the Personalised Employment Pass to decide if it is the right pass for you.

Eligibility and requirements for Personalised Employment Pass

Eligible high-earning foreign professionals can apply for a Personalised Employment Pass. Pass holders have greater job flexibility than with other work passes. However, they need to meet certain requirements to hold the pass.

Who is eligible

You can apply for a Personalised Employment Pass (PEP) if you are:

• An overseas foreign professional and your last drawn fixed monthly salary overseas was at least $18,000. Your last drawn salary should have been within 6 months before you apply.
• An Employment Pass holder earning a fixed monthly salary of at least $12,000.

Who is not eligible

You are not eligible for the PEP if you are:

• An Employment Pass holder under the sponsorship scheme.
• A freelancer or foreigner who intends to work on a freelance-basis.
• A sole proprietor, partner or where a director is also a shareholder in an ACRA-registered company.
• A journalist, editor, sub-editor or producer.

Requirements of the pass

To keep holding a PEP, you must:

• Not be unemployed in Singapore for more than 6 months at any time. Otherwise, you will need to cancel the pass.
• Earn a fixed salary of at least $144,000 per calendar year, regardless of the number of months you are in employment.
• Notify us of the following:
  • When you start or leave a job.
  • If you change your contact details, such as local contact person or address.
  • Your annual fixed salary. You need to declare it to us by 31 January of every year.

Benefits of the PEP

The PEP gives you greater job flexibility than other work passes:

• You can generally hold a job in any sector. However, the PEP does not exempt you from complying with registration requirements to practise in Singapore for professions such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, architecture, law, etc.
• You do not need to re-apply for a new pass if you change jobs; you only need to notify us.
• You can stay in Singapore for a continuous period of up to 6 months without a job to search for new employment.

Passes for family members

If you hold a PEP, you can bring in your family members on these passes:

Dependant’s Pass for your:

• spouse (legally married).
• children under 21 years of age.

Long Term Visit Pass for your:

• common-law spouse.
• unmarried handicapped children above 21 years old.
• unmarried stepchildren under 21 years old.
• parents.