EP renewal: Employment Pass, Work Permit and Dependant’s Pass

An Employment Pass can be renewed up to 6 months (180 days) before expiry, and the application must be made before the expiry date. Employment Pass (Sponsorship) has a shorter window of 3 months before expiry. A Dependant’s Pass can be renewed up to 6 months before expiry, and the window is 3 months before expiry for dependants of Employment Pass (Sponsorship) and EntrePass holders.

The employer or the appointed employment agency applies, through myMOM Portal. The organisation’s turnover information for the past three years must be updated before submitting.

Renewal criteria are re-checked rather than carried over. The candidate must earn at least the Employment Pass qualifying salary, must work for the same employer in a managerial, executive or specialised job, and must pass COMPASS unless exempt. A candidate earning S$22,500 fixed monthly is exempt from COMPASS.

MOM states plainly that renewals are not guaranteed. Where the pass expires from 1 September 2024, the COMPASS requirements apply.

There is one documented easement, and it is worth knowing about. Once a candidate’s qualification has been verified, it does not need to be verified again at renewal or on a change of employer.

A renewal is not issued for the same length as a first pass. MOM publishes a first-time Employment Pass at up to 2 years and a renewal at up to 3 years, and states that experienced tech professionals with skills in shortage may be eligible for a longer pass of 5 years.

The renewed period is added to any remaining validity on the current pass, up to six months, which is why renewing early does not shorten it. The length is not automatic either: MOM states plainly that renewals are not guaranteed, so what is granted depends on the criteria being met again.

Renewing early costs nothing. The new work pass validity is not reduced, and any remaining validity from the current pass, up to six months, is added on. MOM states that a renewal application is processed or given an update within 10 business days, and that a Dependant’s Pass renewal is processed within 3 weeks for most cases. For a Dependant’s Pass, the renewed pass duration starts when the current pass expires.

Renewing late is a different situation. If the deadline is missed, a new pass must be applied for rather than a renewal. The pass must be issued before the In-Principle Approval or the current pass expires, whichever occurs first.

A Short-Term Visit Pass can be requested to give the pass holder valid stay in Singapore while matters are resolved. It can be requested on cancellation, or within a day after the EP expiry date, and it grants valid stay of up to 90 days.

Salary does not have to stay as it was for the life of the pass. As an employer, you must notify MOM if you lower or raise a pass holder’s salary. Where the salary is rising, MOM states that the change can instead be indicated in the renewal itself: you can indicate the change in salary when you renew the Employment Pass. One exception applies to that shortcut: MOM notes that the change does not need to be reported immediately “unless you are applying for dependant privileges”, so a raise still has to be reported before any Dependant’s Pass or Long-Term Visit Pass is applied for.

A change to the employing entity is a different process from a renewal altogether. Where two companies undergo a full merger, acquisition or amalgamation, the employer notifies MOM that it is changing its business entity, and MOM’s name for the request is a Change of Business Entity (COBE), which MOM states is processed within 2 months for most cases.

Moving the pass holder to a related company — a branch, subsidiary or affiliated company — is a different route again, and it is not a renewal: get the related company to apply for a new Employment Pass for the pass holder, then cancel the existing Employment Pass when the employment ends. The cancellation has to be done before the related company can get the new Employment Pass issued.

A Work Permit follows a different playbook from an Employment Pass, and it is the pass most employers renew. A Work Permit can be renewed online 7 to 12 weeks before it expires, and WP Online lists the workers who are eligible for renewal. The employer or the appointed employment agent files it, and MOM states that the outcome is immediate.

Three things have to be in place before the application can be filed, which is why a Work Permit renewal is not a single click. The security bond for a non-Malaysian worker has to be taken out again, and the bank or insurer must send MOM the new bond details before the renewal; the bond’s effective date can be post-dated up to 1 day after the expiry date. Medical insurance has to be extended, or a new policy bought. And where the worker is eligible for the Primary Care Plan — someone who stays in a dormitory that can accommodate 7 or more workers or works in the construction, marine shipyard or process sectors — the plan has to be bought after the renewal notice arrives and declared on WP Online before the permit can be renewed.

The paperwork is checked at the same time. A scanned copy of the passport personal particulars page is required, including any pages that carry amendments, and the passport has to be valid for at least 25 months for the full pass duration to be granted. The renewal notice and application form are printed from WP Online, and the notice states whether the worker needs a full medical examination this time. Where a new card is being issued, the notice also asks for a delivery address and the details of up to 3 authorised recipients.

One step sits outside the renewal itself and is easy to miss: the worker’s residential address and mobile number must be registered in the Online Foreign Workers Address Service at least an hour before the pass is renewed. Renewing late carries a cost that is easy to underestimate, because the levy stays payable after the permit expires. Where the renewal cannot be made in time, MOM publishes a route to request an extension, and where the worker is not eligible at all, a route to appeal — with MOM stating that an appeal is unlikely to succeed unless it brings new information.

An Employment Pass must be cancelled if the pass holder no longer works for the employer: within 1 week after the last day of notice, and the request can be submitted up to 14 days in advance. If the pass holder has left Singapore permanently, the pass must be cancelled within one week of the departure date unless it has already expired.

Cancellation reaches further than the pass itself. Cancelling an Employment Pass also cancels all related passes issued to family members, and those passes cannot be reinstated. That is the answer to a question families ask at the wrong moment: a change of employment that cancels the main pass ends the dependants’ passes with it, and the family passes then have to be applied for again.