Work Pass Applications

Understanding COMPASS

Employment Pass applications are assessed through COMPASS, the Complementarity Assessment Framework. It is points based, and an application needs at least 40 points to pass.

Points come from four foundational criteria, each scoring 0, 10 or 20: salary, qualifications, the diversity of the employer's workforce, and the employer's support for local employment. Two bonus criteria can add further points, covering occupations on the Shortage Occupation List and roles that support strategic economic priorities.

In our experience this is where applications most often come unstuck, and it is rarely because the candidate is weak. It is because the framework is not properly understood before the application is made. Salary is benchmarked against local PMET salaries in the same sector and age band rather than measured against a single national figure, so an offer that scores well in one sector may score nothing in another. Two of the four foundational criteria describe the employer rather than the candidate, which means the same person can be submitted by two different companies and receive two different outcomes.

MOM publishes a Self Assessment Tool that indicates a likely COMPASS score before anything is submitted. Anyone applying for or sponsoring an Employment Pass should run it first.

The criteria are also revised periodically. Salary benchmarks, the recognised qualification and institution lists, and the Shortage Occupation List have all been updated in recent cycles, and changes apply to renewals as well as to new applications.

Types of Work Passes

Singapore does not have a single work pass. The Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit, OnePass and PEP each carry their own published criteria and their own consequences for what the holder can do afterwards.

Most employers already know which pass they intend to apply for. The question worth asking is whether that pass is still the right one once the numbers are checked. Where a candidate cannot reach 40 points under COMPASS, or where the qualifying salary is out of reach, another category may be the more sensible route rather than a marginal application submitted in hope.

Application submission

For most work passes the application is submitted by the employer or an appointed employment agent.

In practice this means the quality of an application depends on how well the employer's side is prepared, which is why we work with HR teams directly as well as with individual candidates. A candidate can meet every requirement and still be let down by an incomplete submission.

The timeline

MOM's published guidance is that most work pass applications are processed within around three to eight weeks, depending on the pass type and the completeness of the submission.

Applications that trigger a request for further documents take longer, which is the practical case for getting the submission right the first time rather than treating it as something that can be corrected in stages.

How a work pass is renewed

Work passes are issued for a fixed period and renewed against the criteria in force at the time of renewal, not the criteria that applied when the pass was first granted. Requirements change, salary benchmarks move, and a renewal is a fresh assessment rather than a formality.

The renewal windows are worth marking in advance:

• Employment Pass: you can apply to renew up to six months before the pass expires, and the application must be made before the expiry date.
• Employment Pass under sponsorship: you can begin applying to renew from three months before the pass expires.

Leaving a renewal to the final weeks removes any room to respond if further documents are requested, which is the situation families and employers most want to avoid.