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Eligibility for Employment Pass

Only eligible candidates will be considered for an Employment Pass. Criteria include a minimum salary of $3,600 and acceptable qualifications. Use the Self-Assessment Tool to check a candidate’s eligibility before you apply.

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 (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.

Acceptable qualifications

We do not accept qualifications from unaccredited institutions.

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

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

As part of the Fair Consideration Framework, you may be required to advertise your job opening on the Jobs Bank before you can submit an Employment Pass application.

The advertisement must be open to Singaporeans and run for at least 14 days. If you make changes to your advertisement during this time, you must extend it for another 14 days.

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 apply manually.

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

What's next

Passes for family