In Black and White – Employment Pass Application in Singapore Explained

Singapore has quite stringent immigration laws, and in the light of the close monitoring of foreign workers happening in the country, it is advisable to go through the guidelines enlisted for smooth application and receiving process of the Employment pass.

Application Process

There are 2 ways to submit applications: online and manually. We will focus on the procedures involved in the online process.

Online Application

• The application is to be made through EP Online, a portal regulated by the Ministry of Manpower that handles all employment pass and S pass applications.
• A fee of SGD$70 is charged per application.
• Online applications take lesser time for processing; approximately 7 days. The status of the application can be checked on EP online.
• If the application is approved, the employee can log in to EP Online and get the In-Principle Approval letter printed. 6 months is the validity period of this letter.

The final step of collecting the Employment Pass card involves requesting for issuance of the pass along with specified documents in the In-Principle Approval letter, getting the employee’s fingerprints and photo-image registered and the final handover of the Employment Pass card.

 Points to Remember

• It is generally not advisable for applicants to be already present in Singapore while their applications are being evaluated as the Ministry Of Manpower does not grant an extension of visit passes which might expire while waiting for the outcome of the application. Employers should ask the candidates to come over only when the submission has been accepted.
• If the employer is not a company registered in Singapore, a sponsor who is officially registered in Singapore would have to make the employment pass application on their behalf. Sponsorship applications have to be submitted manually at any Singapore post office.