Work Permit - Before you apply
Work Pass Conditions & Requirements for Service sector
Types of Business Activities
The following types of businesses are considered to be in the Service sector:
- Financial, insurance, real estate and business services;
- Transport, storage and communications services;
- Commerce (retail and wholesale trade);
- Community, social and personal services (excluding domestic workers);
- Hotels;
- Restaurants, coffee shops, food courts and other approved food establishments*;
- Dispatch and delivery services; or
- Hairdressing and beauty shops.
*About food & beverage establishments
Foreign Workers are not allowed to work at food stalls or hawker stalls. These stalls are small establishments and can be operated by the licensees alone or with family assistance. Food stalls refer to those where there is retail sale of food and/or beverage, in a coffeeshop, eating house, food court or canteen and need to be licensed under the Environmental Public Health Act. Hawker stalls refer to stalls that are rented from the Government, i.e. Housing Development Board, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources or JTC corporation. Foodshop, foodstall and hawker licence stalls are administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA).
Other food and beverage establishments that wish to employ Foreign Workers have to produce NEA licences issued in the name of the body corporate, sole proprietor or partner for the purpose of Work Permit applications. NEA licences issued in the name of an individual (e.g. a Director) will not be acceptable.
For more information, please refer to NEA's website.
About Work Permits for artistes
MOM will indicate the quota for foreign artistes after it is informed by the entertainment outlets of seating capacity and operating hours.
Approved Source Countries/Territories
Service sector companies can recruit workers from the following Countries/Territories:
- Malaysia
- People's Republic of China (PRC)
- North Asian Sources (NAS): Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Dependency Ceiling/Quota
Service sector employers can employ Work Permit holders up to 50% of the company’s/firm’s total workforce. PRC Work Permit holders can make up to 10% within the 50% Dependency Ceiling.
Refer to 
Guidelines on Computation of Company's Quota Balance for details.
Foreign Worker Levy
The levy rate for foreign workers varies across different sectors. Find out more about the levy rates for foreign workers in the service sector.
Skip to content
