Singapore Visa Types - Which is more suitable for you?

Overview of Singapore Visa Types

As a leading financial and business hub in Southeast Asia, Singapore adopts an open immigration policies by offering different types of Singapore visas mainly to attract foreign professionals, business owners, high net-worth individuals and investors. Additionally, there are also Singapore family visa schemes catered to their family members as well as Singaporean’s spouse.

In this section, we are going to look into various Singapore visa schemes available and how can foreigners work and live in Singapore legally.

Firstly, there are a few things to consider before you proceed with applying your Singapore Work Pass / Visa:

1. Do you have a company sponsor?
2. Does the particular Singapore Work Visa requires quota?
3. Any levy required to be paid for the work visa?
4. Do you have the Right background (e.g. Education, Experience )?
5. Whether the visa you are applying for temporary or permanent residency?
6. Validity period of the visa that is going to be issued?
7. How can you extend the visa and any additional requirements for renewals?
8. Whether the work pass can lead to a Singapore Permanent Residency?

Let’s look further into all categories of Singapore Visa schemes below.

Employment Pass Scheme

The EP or the Singapore Employment Pass is a kind of work pass issued by MOM for foreign professionals, directors and corporate executive to work legally in Singapore. This work pass is targeted at mid to senior level executives who wish to work in Singapore. No quota required but company sponsor must show genuine reason for hiring the foreign employees instead of a local.

The Entrepass or Entrepreneur Pass Scheme

The Singapore Entrepass scheme is granted to entrepreneurs or business owners who would like to operate or start their new business in Singapore. The entrepreneur pass scheme is targeting those highly innovative individual who has a creative (highly technology driven idea) business idea and the required business track records to setup their business in Singapore. There are also a various type of requirements within the entrepass scheme to look out for before you apply, especially the business milestone that the applicant must meet within 2 years of acquiring the visa.

ONE PASS Singapore - Overseas Network & Expertise Pass

The ONE Pass (a.k.a. Overseas Network and Expertise Pass) is a newly launched visa scheme to attract global talents from all sectors, such as business, sports, science arts to relocate to Singapore.

The ONE Pass provides flexibility for applicant as it allows the pass holders to work as an employee or consultant with multiple companies, and run their own business.

Personalised Employment Pass (PEP) Scheme

The PEP work pass is for high income earners who would like to explore work opportunities in Singapore with the flexibility of securing the visa without a company sponsorship in Singapore. There are also other conditions in this work visa which you must note before you apply.

S-Pass Scheme

The S-Pass is a Singapore work visa for mid-level skilled foreign technical staff or junior executive. The minimum monthly salary for this work pass is 2,400 SGD per month and the sponsor company is subject to the foreign quota requirements depending on the industry sector.

Singapore Work Permit

This type of work permit is for unskilled to semi-skilled type of foreign employees. The main advantage is that there is no minimum salary set for the worker but quota is required for this type of work pass. Additionally, there are also other requirements for employer to handles like to accommodation of the employees etc.

	Tech.Pass	Entrepass	Employment Pass (EP)	Personalised Employment Pass (PEP)
Main Criteria	Main Criteria: Criterion 1: Your last drawn fixed monthly salary (in the previous 12 months) should be at least S$20,000 or if you are a business owner with an annual income of over S$ 240,000; and Criterion 2: You have more than 5 years of experience in a leading role in a tech company with a market value of at least US$500 million or have at least US$30 million funds raised; or Criterion 3: You have a minimum of five cumulative years of experience in a tech company working in a leading role in the development of a technology with at least 100,000 active users or the product has earned at least an annual revenue of US$100 million. Check out our full list of Tech.Pass Criteria.	- Business must be venture backed; - Type of business: Innovative tech. business See full list of Entrepass Criteria.	- Show concrete business activities - Applicant: i. Meet minimum salary criteria ii. Relevant work experience; and/or iii. Relevant education qualification See full list of Employment Pass Criteria.	- Meet minimum monthly salary of 12,000 - 18,000 SGD. See our full list of Employment Pass Criteria.
Processing Time	Processing Time: 10 -12 weeks	8 - 12 weeks	3 - 10 weeks	8 - 12 weeks
Visa Option for family	Visa Option for family: Family members are Eligible for Dependant's Pass.	Must meet certain milestones. See entrepass criteria for DP.	Dependant's Pass is possible but needs to meet the minimum salary criterion. See DP criteria.	Dependant's Pass is possible.
Renewal criteria	Renewal criteria: See our full list of Tech.Pass renewal criteria.	yearly basis. But need to meet criteria business milestones.	Visa issued for 1 - 2 years. Possible to renew for additional 2 - 3 years.	Only issued for one time. Non-renewable.
Pathway to Permanent Residence	Pathway to Permanent Residence: Possible after 1 year of working in Singapore.	Eligible to apply for PR after 1 year. See our full list of Singapore PR criteria.	Eligible to apply for PR after 1 year. See our full list of Singapore PR criteria.	Eligible to apply for PR after 1 year.
Advantages	Advantages: Flexibility in Employment and permitted to work and operate your own business.	Significantly lower investment as compared to GIP.	Low entry level to meet the eligibility criteria.	Significantly lower investment as compared to GIP.
Disdvantages	Disdvantages: High Entry Level to qualify.	Significantly lower investment as compared to GIP.	Tied to one company. So you are required to re-apply a new Employment Pass whenever you change job.	Significantly lower investment as compared to GIP.

Aside from the above work pass, there can be other work pass available catered to your situation. Especially for those consultants sent from an overseas company without local company to sponsor their work pass. Do not hesitate to discuss your case with our consultant so that they can do a detail analysis of your case and provide a visa solution catered to your situation.

Singapore Visa Types - Which is more suitable for you?