EntrePass Singapore: eligibility, renewals and the EP switch

EntrePass is MOM’s route for foreign founders building venture-backed or innovative-technology businesses here. What it isn’t is a “register a company, collect a pass” product. If an incorporation mill is selling you a guaranteed EntrePass alongside your ACRA package, they’re selling hope against published eligibility criteria that MOM and Enterprise Singapore both assess. If you only need the ACRA, corporate secretary and resident-director mechanics, we cover those separately in incorporating as a foreigner.

Short answer: you need a Pte Ltd you own at least 30% of, a business that’s venture-backed or owns innovative technologies, and one of five innovator tests. The first pass and the first renewal run up to a year each, later renewals up to 2 years. From the second renewal you have to show rising business spending and local hires on CPF payroll, and when you outgrow the pass, moving to an EP means a fresh application rather than a conversion.

Who this actually fits

It fits serial entrepreneurs, innovators and investors who will be running the business from Singapore rather than holding shares from somewhere else, and who can point to something concrete: money raised, an incubator behind you, registered IP, a live research collaboration, or a technology business you founded and sold. It’s open to every nationality, you apply yourself rather than through an employer, and there’s no foreign worker levy or quota attached. And it only works if your business isn’t on MOM’s ineligible list, which rules out coffee shops, bars, massage, employment agencies, TCM and geomancy, among others.

If you already have a Singapore employer lined up to sponsor an ordinary role, an Employment Pass is usually the cleaner path and you should take it. If what you’re really chasing is a top-talent profile and spouse work rights, compare ONE Pass before you commit to the founder story. It usually needs a fixed monthly salary of at least S$30,000, though outstanding achievements in certain sectors can qualify instead. It also lets you start and run several companies at once, and your spouse can apply to work on a Letter of Consent.

The two gates: company test, then one innovator test

You need a private limited company registered with ACRA in which you hold at least 30%, and that company has to be venture-backed or own innovative technologies. MOM counts a company as one of those if it has raised money from capital providers (government investment vehicles, VCs, corporates, family offices or angels), developed or commercialised tech products, services or platforms, registered patents with an approved national IP institution, or has an ongoing research collaboration with a research institution. That’s the company gate.

On top of it you need to clear at least one innovator test, and MOM wants documents rather than narrative:

One trap worth naming: if your company is more than 12 months old when you apply, it gets assessed against the renewal criteria rather than the new-application ones. So the quiet shelf company someone suggested you park for a year doesn’t smooth the path. It moves you straight to the harder test.

Businesses MOM rules out

MOM explicitly excludes coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts, bars, night clubs and karaoke lounges, foot reflexology and massage parlours, acupuncture, TCM and herbal dispensing, employment agencies, and geomancy. Founders do try to reframe these, and “innovative kopi” narratives rarely survive that list. It’s an exclusion list, not a scoring rubric.

Applying: documents, fees and timing

You apply online yourself. The core pack is your passport’s particulars page, a business plan in English of 10 pages or less (product or service, market analysis, operation plan, profile of the management team), your CV, documents on any earlier ventures, the company’s Bizfile profile if it already exists, and its latest financial statement if it’s been registered for more than 12 months. Then add the evidence for your innovator test: investment agreements or share certificates, an incubation agreement, the IP registration, or the research collaboration agreement. Non-English documents go in as one file together with an English translation.

What it costs and how long it takes:

• $105 application fee per pass, paid by Visa, Mastercard or Amex when you submit
• $225 to get the pass issued, plus $30 for each Multiple Journey Visa if you need one
• Within 6 weeks for most applications, longer if MOM emails you for more documents. You can check the status after 2 weeks
• An approval comes as an in-principle approval (IPA) letter, which doubles as a single-entry visa and gives you 6 months to enter Singapore and get the pass issued. You have to be in Singapore for issuance

One timing trap: if you’re waiting in Singapore on a Short-Term Visit Pass, MOM says you won’t be able to extend it if it runs out before your application is approved. If you’re rejected, you can appeal with documents that answer the reason in the rejection notice, and most appeals are reviewed within 8 weeks.

The pass doesn’t clear ACRA or licensing for you. Business registration and any licences you need are separate approvals. Before the company exists, MOM lets you do the setup work on the pass: registering the company, market research, fundraising, signing contracts, finding an office and hiring. After that, you can only work for the company tied to your EntrePass.

Bringing your family

Family passes on an EntrePass aren’t salary-based the way the EP’s are. They hang on what the business has achieved or on your track record. To bring a spouse (legally married or common-law) and children, you need at least one of these:

• Annual Total Business Spending of S$100,000 and 1 local workforce
• You’ve founded and sold 2 or more companies that were venture-backed or owned innovative technologies
• You’ve raised more than S$2 million for a past or current business
• You hold 2 or more deep tech IPs, meaning IP from research or scholarly work in fields like physics, chemistry, biology or engineering, that give the business a significant competitive advantage

Parents need annual TBS of S$200,000 and 2 local workforce.

A legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21, adopted children included, go on a Dependant’s Pass. A common-law spouse, unmarried stepchildren under 21, unmarried handicapped children aged 21 and above, and parents go on a Long-Term Visit Pass.

The practical consequence for a first-time founder: a brand-new company rarely has a year of S$100,000 spending and a local hire behind it, so unless one of the other three tests fits you, the family may not qualify on day one. You can ask MOM to assess your eligibility for a DP or LTVP before you plan around it. And apply for family passes after the EntrePass is approved. You can file them at the same time, but you lose each family pass’s application fee if the EntrePass is rejected.

The renewal ladder, and why you model it first

EntrePass renews, but the Total Business Spending and Local Workforce bars ramp with each cycle. In other words the pass gets harder to hold, not easier, and the year you’re least able to spend is the year the bar first appears. You can start the renewal 3 months before the pass expires, and you have to meet all of these:

• You still own at least 30% of the company
• You’ve created an individual profile and claimed your company profile on the Startup SG Network
• The company is an ACRA-registered Pte Ltd that is still venture-backed or owns innovative technologies
• It shows ongoing business activity and progress, and you’ve submitted the latest financial statements
• It hits the TBS and local workforce figures for your cycle

MOM revises these periodically, so check the live table before each renewal.

How your cycle is counted. From the date your EntrePass was issued, or from the company’s incorporation date if your original pass expired. If you’re not sure which rung you’re on, contact Enterprise Singapore.

What counts as TBS. The company’s total operating expenses, minus royalties, franchise and technical know-how fees paid to overseas companies, work outsourced overseas, and the total remuneration of the company’s EntrePass holders. Cost of goods sold, personal expenses and rent on residential property aren’t operating expenses at all. So your own salary does nothing for the number, and neither does the flat you live in.

What counts as local workforce. It’s the number of PMEs plus the number of Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) employees divided by 3. PMEs are Singaporeans or PRs on at least the basic monthly salary for your cycle in the table. LQS employees are locals paid at least the Local Qualifying Salary, which is $1,800 gross a month for full-time work. Both kinds need at least 3 months of CPF contributions and must be on the registered company’s direct payroll, and you can count at most 12 LQS employees. So 3 PMEs and 6 LQS staff give you 5. You have to meet the figure on the day you submit the renewal.

Contractors and freelancers don’t count, and neither does a nominee director or a friend added on paper. MOM asks for your employees’ CPF statements with the renewal, so the payroll has to be real.

Renewal paperwork, fees and timing

You download MOM’s renewal application form, fill it in as a soft copy, and submit it with these through MOM’s online form:

• ACRA company information from the last 3 months
• Audited financial statements for the latest financial year. MOM may ask for adjusted 12-month statements if they aren’t ready, and no audit is needed if the company qualifies as a small company under ACRA’s audit exemption
• Corporate bank statements for the last 3 months
• Your employees’ CPF statements (optional at the first renewal if you don’t have them)
• At least one proof of business activity: customer referral letters, recent invoices, contracts awarded, partnership agreements or tenancy agreements
• A revised business plan, if the business has changed since your last application or renewal
• Records of what you’ve contributed to the local startup ecosystem, if any
• Your passport particulars page and a screenshot of the company profile on the Startup SG Network

Most renewals are decided within 8 weeks. If you’re approved you get an IPA valid for 3 months, and you must get the pass issued before the IPA or your current pass expires, whichever comes first, or you’ll be fined for overstaying. Issuance is $225, plus $30 for each Multiple Journey Visa. The renewed pass starts when the current one expires and runs up to 1 year at the first renewal, then up to 2 years after that.

Planning the cycle

Diary the renewal from 3 months before expiry, not the week the card dies. Almost every fix available to you, hiring included, takes longer than a week to show up as evidence, and a new local hire needs 3 months of CPF contributions before they count at all.

Then map this cycle’s TBS and local workforce bar against your real CPF payroll rather than the headcount slide you show investors. Those two numbers drift apart quietly, and only one of them is what MOM sees.

Keep the shareholding, the Startup SG Network profiles and your evidence of business activity current as you go along. Assembling it retrospectively inside the renewal window is how founders find out what they can’t actually prove.

Your family’s passes hang off yours. When an EntrePass is cancelled, MOM cancels the family passes attached to it, so a failed renewal is a household problem and the family’s dates belong in the same calendar as yours.

If you can’t clear the next rung with real payroll and real financials, treat the EntrePass as a bridge rather than a home, and start the Employment Pass route below while it’s still valid. And if household work rights were the real reason you incorporated in the first place, be honest about that. Compare ONE Pass or the trailing partner routes properly instead of maintaining a startup story the renewal is going to test.

Moving from EntrePass to an Employment Pass

Plenty of founders eventually step across to an EP, either because the company is now substantial enough to employ them on ordinary terms or because the next renewal rung is out of reach. There’s no conversion, and a raise or a self-hire doesn’t change the pass automatically. Your company applies for a new EP as your employer, and it has to clear the same two stages as any other EP:

• Stage 1, salary. Your fixed monthly salary has to reach the EP qualifying salary. Outside financial services that’s $5,600 now at the youngest age band, rising with age to $10,700 at 45 and above. For new applications from 1 Jan 2027 it goes up to $6,000, and $11,500 at 45 and above. Financial services needs more. The full age table is in the Employment Pass guide.
• Stage 2, COMPASS. The application needs 40 points unless it’s exempt, for example with a fixed monthly salary of at least $22,500. A firm with fewer than 25 PMETs scores 10 points by default on both the diversity and the local-employment criteria, so a small founder company starts on 20. The other 20 have to come from your salary against your sector’s benchmarks and your qualifications, or from MOM’s bonus criteria. More in COMPASS explained.
• Advertising. A company with fewer than 10 employees doesn’t have to advertise the job on MyCareersFuture first, and neither does a role paying $22,500 or more a month. Otherwise, unless another exemption applies, the advert has to run for at least 14 consecutive days before the EP goes in (FCF and MyCareersFuture).

Your 30% shareholding does nothing on the EP side. It’s an EntrePass requirement, not an EP exemption. MOM does let EP holders own shares in a Singapore company, so being the founder doesn’t rule you out, but the salary has to be real and actually paid.

Your family needs new passes too. On an EP you need to earn at least $6,000 a month to bring a spouse and children on Dependant’s Passes, and at least $12,000 to bring parents on an LTVP. The company files a separate application for each family member, either alongside the EP application or after it.

Timing is where people get hurt. Keep the EntrePass alive until the EP has actually been issued, not just approved in principle. Cancelling an EntrePass cancels every family pass attached to it, and MOM says those can’t be reinstated, so have the family’s new passes lined up under the EP before the old pass goes.

Closing the business instead

If the venture is winding down rather than hiring you, the EntrePass has to be cancelled within 1 week of the date you close the business. Sort out tax first: MOM expects you to get tax clearance from IRAS at least 1 month before you close (the mechanics are in tax clearance when leaving). You, a company representative or an employment agent can cancel in the EP eService on the myMOM Portal, and it takes effect immediately.

If you’re staying in Singapore for a while, request a Short-Term Visit Pass in the same eService. It covers you for up to 90 days from the date you apply, arrives by email, and you show it with your passport when you leave. Your family’s passes are cancelled along with yours. You don’t need to cancel if you become a PR, or if the pass has simply expired, but an expired pass still means getting an STVP if you’re in the country, or you’ll be fined for overstaying.

After approval: banking and CPF

Banking KYC is heavier for a founder than it is for an employee arriving on an EP, so give account opening more runway than you think it needs. We walk through what banks ask for in opening a bank account.

CPF comes with every local hire. Employers have to pay contributions for Singaporean and PR employees earning more than $50 a month, and since those hires are what the renewal ladder demands, that cost isn’t really optional. It’s part of keeping the pass.

The ecosystem, not just the immigration file

Startup SG and the chamber and founder networks are worth your time for fundraising reality checks rather than for form-filling. MOM also encourages EntrePass holders to give something back, through workshops, deal-making or networking sessions and mentoring other startups, and you can submit records of that with your renewal. Browse Startup SG and the chambers once your pass thesis is credible enough to survive being questioned.

Next, if a spouse’s work rights are part of the move economics, trailing partner career. If the real goal was a top-talent salary and a spouse LOC rather than founding something, ONE Pass.