EP rejected, appealed or stuck on IPA: what you can do

r/askSingapore is full of two posts: "HR said MOM rejected my EP, what are my chances if we appeal?" and "offer retracted after a non-rectifiable rejection." Before you spend a weekend drafting something to send MOM yourself, understand the structural problem. You are not a party of record. The application was filed by your employer or their authorised agent, and only they can enquire or appeal. MOM's appeal page says outright that it won't entertain enquiries or appeals from the candidate, which is why candidates' emails seem to vanish.

You can feed HR evidence, early and in writing, and you can make it easy for them to act. What you can't do is open a case of your own, and nobody at MOM is going to become your personal caseworker.

The rejection usually tells you why

MOM's appeal page points employers at the rejection advisory in EP eService, or at the rejection letter if the filing was done manually. The instruction there is blunt: appeal only if you can address those issues, because there will be no change in the outcome without new information. Resubmitting the same facts with a warmer cover note gets you the same answer, a few weeks later.

Most fixable rejections fall into a handful of buckets. The first four are the ones MOM's appeal page says need no extra supporting documents once they've actually been corrected.

Data-entry slips are the most forgivable of these. MOM's FAQ on inconsistencies says that if the errors were made unintentionally, the employer can appeal after fixing them, and that the application may be rejected again if errors remain. So check every field against the proof before anything goes back.

Then there are rejections no salary bump fixes. MOM runs checks SAT doesn't model, including the candidate's history, and if the advisory points at your record or at the honesty of what was declared, an appeal has nothing new to say. Treat that as a closed door for this application, and not as a prompt to try again under a slightly different spelling of your name.

Appeal or refile

The decision rule is short. No advisory text and no new facts means there's no appeal worth filing. Either fix the file so an appeal has something to say, or leave your current job and stay plans exactly where they are.

If there is something new, the appeal goes in through EP eService within 3 months of the rejection. Miss that window and MOM's answer is a new application. 85% of appeals are processed within 6 weeks, and the employer can check the status and print the outcome letter in EP eService. If MOM emails asking for more documents, they go in through the online form it points to.

Sometimes a clean refile beats an appeal, especially when the fix is a higher fixed salary plus advertising that has now been done properly. A refile is a new application, so it means another $105 fee, and an online application is processed or given an update within 10 business days. Two things trip people up here.

• The ad has to cover the new salary. The advertised salary range must contain the salary offered to the candidate. Change the salary, occupation or number of vacancies on the MyCareersFuture ad and the employer has to post a new one, which must stay open for at least another 14 consecutive days before the application can go in. An ad that expired or closed more than 3 months ago can't be used at all.
• The qualifying salary goes up on 1 Jan 2027. For new applications it's $5,600 now ($6,200 in financial services), rising with age to $10,700 at 45 and above ($11,800). For new applications from 1 Jan 2027 those become $6,000 ($6,600), rising to $11,500 ($12,700). A refile on or after that date, including one forced on you by a missed appeal window, has to clear the new figure.

Passing COMPASS doesn't rescue a salary under the qualifying figure. MOM's eligibility page is explicit that a candidate who misses that first stage isn't eligible, whatever the COMPASS points.

What to push HR to do

Three things, and none of them are unreasonable asks.

• Run or re-run the Self-Assessment Tool before refiling, at the salary that's actually going on the form. MOM's own advice is not to apply if SAT says the candidate doesn't qualify, because the application will be rejected.
• File the appeal inside the 3-month window, with supporting documents and remarks only where the advisory asks for them. Extra material doesn't demonstrate keenness, and MOM warns it can mean a longer processing time.
• Get written proof the appeal was really submitted, such as a screenshot of its status in EP eService. "HR said they uploaded it" is a feeling, not a status.

Before you resign on the promise of an appeal

The temptation, once HR sounds confident, is to hand in your notice so you're free for the new start date. Don't. Four things are worth doing first.

1. Ask HR for the SAT result at the salary you were actually offered, and for the rejection advisory text itself. Not a summary of it, not "they said it was a COMPASS thing." The enhanced SAT needs an EP eService account, so in practice HR runs it, but the result downloads as a PDF they can send you.
2. Confirm the advertising was run properly rather than assumed. Our Fair Consideration Framework guide covers what "properly" means.
3. Re-read COMPASS with the exact job code and the firm's real factors in front of you. LinkedIn optimism scores nothing.
4. Keep housing and school deposits refundable until the IPA is genuinely in hand. Decoding your offer has the clauses to look for.

A company that won't show you the advisory is not a company that's ready to sponsor an appeal, because the appeal has to answer that document line by line. If they can't share it with you, ask yourself whether anyone there has actually read it.

The folklore that gets people into trouble usually sounds like one of these.

If you're already in Singapore on an EP with your current employer, resigning ends with that pass cancelled. The employer can request a Short-Term Visit Pass of up to 90 days so you remain here lawfully, but that's stay only, with no work, while an appeal you don't control runs its course. Between jobs on an EP has the detail. If you're overseas, the same logic holds: keep a lawful stay and a way back intact until something is actually approved.

IPA is not the plastic card

When the approval lands, what arrives is an in-principle approval letter. The IPA works as a pre-approved single-entry visa and gives you 6 months to enter Singapore and get the pass issued. It also tells you whether a medical examination is required once you're here. Clinic forms, the persistent myth that the WP medical PDF applies to you, and STVP extensions while the lab is still working all live on EP medical for issuance.

The thing people get wrong is flying on "application submitted." MOM's apply page says it plainly: bring candidates in only when the pass is approved, because MOM won't be able to extend their visit pass. Someone who arrived early with a family and a lease can't count on that being stretched to rescue them.

IPA reassessment and "postpone your arrival"

Every few weeks a thread appears describing the same email: the employer writes to say MOM has asked the candidate to postpone arrival because the work-pass application needs reassessment. Read it for what it says and no more. It isn't a rejection, and it isn't a green light either, because an approval under review hasn't become a pass.

What you can usefully do is narrow. Ask HR for MOM's exact wording, forwarded or screenshotted, rather than their reading of it. Don't fly, and freeze whatever housing and school money you can still freeze. Chasing MOM is the employer's job here too, not yours. And if the company has gone quiet on start dates at the same time as it's blaming a delay at MOM, those two facts may be related, so insist on written status either way.

Until the reassessment clears in writing, the IPA is frozen, not travel-ready.

Issue the pass, then notification letter, then EPSC, then card

Missed biometrics slots and letter extensions have their own guide: EPSC missed slot and Notification Letter extension.

If card registration needs more time than the letter allows, the employer can ask MOM to extend the Notification Letter's validity.

The issuance upload may need your passport page showing your arrival date, the medical examination form or medical declaration, and the declaration form attached to the IPA, signed for the employer by authorised HR or an employee holding at least a managerial position. Your Singapore address has to meet MOM's housing requirements, which is where unhelpful landlords bite. Short stays versus proper leases are covered in short-term vs long-term rental. The candidate-facing clocks for the Notification Letter, what to bring to EPSC, and card delivery are in work pass issuance and EPSC.

When the lab is slow and your STVP is running out

If issuance is stuck waiting on medical results, the employer can request an STVP extension 7 to 14 days before it expires, uploading a doctor's memo with the date the results can be collected. MOM's own example: if the STVP expires on 17 February, the request can only go in from 4 to 10 February. A late request risks overstaying fines, which is an unpleasant way to start a posting.

This is a request the employer makes to MOM, through the form linked on MOM's apply page. ICA's visit-pass extension e-Service is a separate route, and people mix the two up constantly. See visit-pass extension and between jobs STVP.

Losing the card after issuance is a completely different playbook: replace work pass card.

If this employer is done

Sometimes the honest read is that this sponsor has run out of road. Your options from there are an S Pass route, the founder path via EntrePass, or a clean new sponsor under ordinary Employment Pass rules. If the refusal is complicated, particularly anything touching disclosure or a prior ban, that's the point to pay for proper advice: immigration counsel.