Singapore: New Educational Qualification Verification Requirement for Employment Pass Applicants Forthcoming

March 3, 2023

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Country / Territory

At a Glance

  • Starting September 1, 2023, employers of new Employment Pass (EP) applicants will be required to submit a verification for their foreign nationals’ educational qualifications when filing EP applications.
  • Furthermore, starting September 1, 2024, employers of renewal EP applicants will be required to submit this verification as well.
  • Employers must submit verification in the form of confirmation from a government-certified background screening company.
  • Applicants may experience delays in the processing of EP applications due to the additional step, which can take up to four weeks or more to obtain.  

The situation

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of Singapore announced a stricter rule for employers to verify their Employment Pass (EP) applicants’ educational qualifications.  

Change Details Impact
Expansion of verification requirement
    • Starting September 1, 2023, employers will be required to submit third-party verification for all new EP applicants with diploma-level qualifications and above, where currently verification is only required for certain applications (for both EP and S Pass applications) with qualifications from certain countries that are not in the Singapore government’s list, or upon ad hoc requests from the MOM.
    • Starting September 1, 2024, employers will also be required to submit third-party verification proof for all EP renewal applications.
  • Affected employers will be subject to an additional step of obtaining verification from a third-party background screening company for their EP applicants, which may delay the application process by an additional four weeks or more.
Expansion of list of background screening companies
    • Employers benefit from the flexibility of working with more third-party providers to obtain the verification.

The change coincides with the MOM’s implementation of the new Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) for new EP applications, where applications are assessed through a points-based system which includes criteria such as the salary level and educational qualifications of the applicant to ensure that companies are selecting highly qualified foreign professionals as well as improving workforce diversity in Singapore.

The MOM may expand the verification requirement to S Pass applications in the future in line with the government’s policy to ensure that there are no fraudulent qualifications that serve as basis for approving work passes in Singapore. Furthermore, the MOM is expected to release further details on the implementing rules for the new COMPASS framework closer to the launch date.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].

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