COMPASS framework explained for EP candidates

COMPASS is MOM’s points-based Stage 2 for most Employment Pass applications. Before any of it matters, you have to clear Stage 1, which is still the EP qualifying salary. Fail Stage 1 and your COMPASS points are irrelevant, because nobody ever gets to add them up.

The same four questions come round on r/askSingapore every few weeks. Is my offer realistic? Does my university campus count for 20 points? How long does pending actually last after COMPASS? And “HR said there’s no EP quota”, which is a confused way of putting something real: EP genuinely has no quota (see EP vs S Pass).

The pass mark

You generally need 40 points, totalled across individual attributes, firm attributes and optional bonuses. Here is what feeds in.

Notice how much of that is about your employer rather than about you. Firms with fewer than 25 PMETs often score a default 10 on C3 and C4, which is useful context when you're weighing an offer from a tiny startup against one from a large bank.

C1 is not the qualifying salary

This is the mix-up that costs people the most time, so it's worth slowing down on. There are two salary concepts and they do completely different jobs.

The EP qualifying salary is the absolute floor. It's age-banded — non-financial-services runs from S$5,600 at the youngest band up to S$10,700 at 45 and above, with financial services higher (Employment Pass). Miss it and there's nothing left to discuss.

C1 asks a different question: where your fixed pay sits against sector percentile benchmarks. Those tables are updated annually, with C1 tables released for new applications in a calendar year and renewals on a staggered window.

So clearing the floor and scoring 0 on C1 isn't a contradiction. It's common, and all it means is that you now need your points from qualifications, from the firm’s diversity and local mix, or from the SOL and SEP bonuses. There's one clean way out of the whole exercise: candidates on at least S$22,500 fixed monthly salary are generally exempt from COMPASS. Check that on the live eligibility page before you build a plan on it.

New applications and renewals run on different clocks

MOM tends to announce floor and C1 updates months ahead, then apply them to new applications first and to renewals later. That's why “my friend renewed at last year’s number” can be entirely true and entirely useless to you as a new hire waiting on an IPA. You aren't being told a lie, you're being told about a different clock. Ask HR which table their SAT actually used.

C2 and the university myths

MOM’s top-tier list is institution-based: QS top 100, selected Asian institutions, Singapore’s Autonomous Universities, and agency-endorsed specialist schools. The forum argument to be careful with is “same brand, different campus”, because what MOM reads is the awarding body wording on your certificate, not the name over the door. If there's any doubt at all, HR should confirm against MOM’s published list and the SAT outcome rather than Reddit lore.

What you can actually control

Not much of the firm side, but the parts that are yours are worth doing properly. Get your degree attestation right and your document pack together early. Make sure the job scope and the fixed monthly salary are aligned with the market, and press HR on that word “fixed”, because variable bonuses may not count the way you're hoping and MOM’s definitions are the only ones that matter here.

Be honest with yourself about nationality concentration too. If the firm already employs a lot of people from your country, that turns up in C3 and can cut your C5 bonus.

What you can't do is fix an employer’s C4 score overnight. That one is on them, which is exactly why employers should be running Workforce Insights and the SAT before anyone makes a verbal offer.

How employers should prepare

Run the COMPASS self-assessment before the candidate resigns. Handshake IPAs are where relocation horror stories begin: someone quits a job on the strength of a conversation, and then the score turns out not to work. Fair Consideration Framework advertising still applies to many new EP applications, and that's a separate set of steps again — see FCF & MyCareersFuture.

If you want the C1 packaging traps in detail, meaning fixed monthly pay versus “total package” folklore, we wrote those up in COMPASS C1 fixed-salary packaging. The awarding-body and campus edges have their own guide as well: COMPASS C2 degree verification edges.

From here: decoding the job offer, EP renewal, and career pivots if you end up changing employers mid-pass.