The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced on 29 August a series of initiatives to attract top talent to Singapore. Here are the four notable enhancements to its work pass framework:

1. Overseas Networks & Expertise (ONE) Pass

 

Introduce ONE Pass to attract top talent across all sectors from 1 Jan 2023. Applicants will need to earn a monthly fixed salary of S$30,000 per month, which is pegged to top 5% of Employment Pass (EP) holders in Singapore.

 

Eligibility:

• Current EP holder must earn a monthly fixed salary of S$30,000
• Overseas candidates with no recent employment history in Singapore also need to show they have worked for established company with market cap of US$500M and annual revenue of US$200M
• Individuals with outstanding achievements in arts, sports, science and academia can qualify even if they may not meet the salary criterion

Major Benefits:

• Can concurrently start, operate, and work for multiple companies at any one time
• Exempted from FCF’s job advertising requirement and the upcoming point-based Complementary Assessment Framework (COMPASS)
• Initial pass validity of 5 years, which is renewable
• Spouse can work on Letter of Consent

2. Pegging the salary exemption from Fair Consideration Framework job advertising requirement (or the upcoming COMPASS) and PEP eligibility to top 10% of EP holders.

Starting from 1 Sep 2023, the salary benchmark for exemption of job advertising will be adjusted from S$20,000 to S$22,500 a month. The current salary eligibility for PEP (current EP holder at S$12,000 and overseas candidates at S$18,000) will also be realigned to S$22,500.

 

3. Shorter Processing Time for EP

Starting from 1 Sep 2022, the FCF job advertising duration will be reverted to the original 14 days. The current duration of 28 days was implemented in Oct 2020 during the pandemic to give locals a longer time to seek for jobs advertised.

The processing time for EP will also be shortened from the current 3 weeks to 2 weeks.

 

4. Longer work pass validity for pass holders working in specific technological occupations that face a shortage of workers

EP holders who earn a minimum fixed monthly salary of S$10,500 and work in specific tech occupations on the COMPASS Shortage Occupation List (SOL) is eligible for a 5-year EP. The SOL is currently being compiled with inputs from industry, trade associations and other partners. It is expected to be released in Mar 2023.

 

This alert was prepared by our partner Voon Lee and his team from Voon & Associates Consultancy Pte Ltd, and published with their permission.