ONE Pass Singapore: salary, AI and Tech tracks, spouse LOC

The Overseas Networks & Expertise Pass, ONE Pass to anyone who actually uses it, is MOM's personalised pass for top talent in business, arts and culture, sports, academia and research, and from 28 January 2027, AI and tech. Two things get muddled on forums. It isn't a fancier PEP, and it doesn't hand your spouse work rights automatically. What it does do, and this is the part that genuinely changes household plans, is give a married spouse a proper Letter of Consent route into a Singapore job. Ordinary EP Dependant's Pass holders lost that route in May 2021.

Pick one track and meet all of it

MOM assesses every application case by case, and you apply under one category. Its eligibility page says you "must meet all the criteria within your chosen category", so the tracks are alternatives, not ingredients. A S$27,000 salary plus a strong CV isn't a salary case topped up with achievements. It's two incomplete applications.

On the salary tracks, "established" means a market capitalisation of at least US$500 million or annual revenue of at least US$200 million. MOM can also consider combined figures from the company's entire global office, case by case.

The salary track

A few details decide this track, and they're the ones people skim past.

• Fixed monthly salary means basic pay plus fixed monthly allowances. MOM leaves out bonuses, commission, overtime, board fees, stock options, dividends and reimbursements. A S$22,000 base with a big bonus is not a S$30,000 fixed salary.
• One employer. If you drew salaries from more than one employer in the 12-month window, the qualifying S$30,000 must come from one of them. MOM's own example: S$20,000 from one company plus S$10,000 from another is a no, while S$30,000 from one plus S$5,000 from a second is a yes.
• Under a year in Singapore. If you're already on a work pass here but have worked in Singapore for less than 12 months, MOM says you can apply on the overseas route, using your employment records for the 12 consecutive months before the application.
• Prospective job. Submit only when the job will start within 6 months, and the Singapore employer has to meet the established-company test itself.

Beyond the passport page every application needs, the paperwork depends on your route. For a Singapore job, it's 12 months of payslips and your latest IRAS Notice of Assessment (or your latest filed Form B1 if the NOA hasn't arrived). For an overseas job, it's 12 months of payslips, employment verification from a background screening company, and your employer's latest financials obtained within the last 3 months, showing market cap or revenue. MOM lists sources such as Pitchbook, Crunchbase, Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance. If those figures don't exist, it accepts the latest audited Profit & Loss statement, but only from a third-party auditor, never one signed by management. A prospective job needs the signed contract or offer letter plus the employer's financials on the same rules.

Outstanding achievements

You may apply without meeting the salary test if you have outstanding achievements in sports, arts and culture, or academia and research. Those three fields only. Business isn't one of them, so a funded exit or a start-up award doesn't fit here. MOM reviews these applications holistically with agencies such as MCCY, MOE, NRF and A*STAR, based on each applicant's work and key achievements, and they may take longer than the usual 4 weeks if the agencies need to assess further.

The document list is short: your latest month's payslip, papers for any other income, and a CV highlighting key achievements. Academia and research applicants also need a CV listing significant publications, patents and technology disclosures from the past 5 years, plus a recommendation or endorsement letter, or a document for a potential position, from a local host institution such as an autonomous university or A*STAR.

Because MOM asks for so little paper, the CV carries the whole case, and the partner agencies review it alongside MOM. Lean on things other people made about you rather than things you wrote about yourself: results, publications, awards from bodies your field recognises, independent reviews, each dated and checkable. A shelf of LinkedIn awards proves only that you have a LinkedIn profile, and company-scale proof of the kind Tech.Pass asks for has no place on this track. MOM's academia list looks back 5 years, which is a fair hint about how recent the record should be.

The AI and Tech track, from 28 January 2027

This track opens on 28 January 2027, and you can't apply on it before then. MOM has published the criteria in full:

• You earned at least S$30,000 a month, or the foreign-currency equivalent, for the 12 consecutive months before applying.
• At least S$22,500 of that is fixed monthly salary. The remainder may include vested non-cash components such as Employee Stock Options (ESOP) or Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOW), subject to assessment.
• You have at least 5 cumulative years, within the past 10, as a founder or C-suite in a tech firm, in a technical role (MOM's example is a senior software engineer), or across both.
• Your current or last employer is a tech company, a tech division within a company, or a tech venture capital firm, and it meets one of these: valuation or market cap of at least US$500 million, annual revenue of at least US$200 million, at least US$500 million in assets under management, or, for tech start-ups only, at least US$30 million raised.

The track rests on what you've already earned and where you work now or last worked. Unlike the salary track, MOM publishes no prospective-employment version of it.

Adding up to S$30,000. Start with fixed monthly salary, defined as above, which has to reach S$22,500 on its own. The rest is other pay you actually earned in those 12 months, and MOM says it may include vested non-cash components. Its wording covers vested components only, so RSUs or options that haven't vested yet don't fit, however close the vesting date. Everything above the fixed floor is subject to assessment, meaning MOM decides how much of it to accept. Build the worksheet conservatively. One that quietly counts something MOM won't accept is worse than no worksheet, because it tells you you're clear when you aren't.

Documents. You'll need 12 months of payslips, papers for income beyond fixed salary (vesting statements go here), a CV or employment letters proving the founder, C-suite or technical role within the past 10 years, and your current or most recent employer's latest financials, obtained within the last 3 months. Those must show at least one of market cap, valuation, revenue, AUM or funds raised, from sources such as Pitchbook, Crunchbase, Bloomberg or Yahoo Finance.

Coming from Tech.Pass

EDB stops accepting new and renewal Tech.Pass applications from 28 January 2027, the same day the AI and Tech track opens. Existing holders keep their pass until it expires. Nothing converts by itself. EDB says eligible holders can consider applying for the AI and Tech track or other passes after that, so it's a fresh application on MOM's criteria.

The two S$22,500 figures look like the same test. They aren't.

Three things follow from that table.

• On S$22,500 fixed with no other pay, you clear Tech.Pass's pay test and miss this one by S$7,500 a month. The gap has to come from pay you've actually received, such as equity that has vested.
• The company MOM looks at is your current or last employer. If your current work is your own start-up, that start-up is the one that has to clear a threshold, and short of the valuation or revenue bars, that means at least US$30 million raised.
• If you can renew your Tech.Pass before 28 January 2027 and meet EDB's renewal tests, that buys time. Otherwise plan on the standard ONE Pass salary track, a PEP or an employer-sponsored Employment Pass. The renewal tests are in our Tech.Pass guide.

What you keep is the flexibility. ONE Pass lets you start, operate and work for several companies at the same time (subject to your employment contract), and you don't reapply when you change jobs.

It renews, which is the real gap with PEP

ONE Pass is issued for up to 5 years, and each renewal is for up to 5 years. That's what separates it from PEP, which MOM issues only once, for up to 3 years. To renew, you need one of these:

• A fixed monthly salary of at least S$30,000 on average over your past 5 years in Singapore
• A Singapore-based company you started and still operate that employs at least 5 locals, each on a gross monthly salary of at least the prevailing EP minimum qualifying salary

You can apply to renew up to 6 months before the pass expires. Neither path is a formality, so keep the evidence building from year one rather than reconstructing it in year five.

What the pass lets you do, and what it asks back

The freedoms are real:

• No COMPASS and no FCF job advertising. ONE Pass is exempt from both, and there's no levy or quota.
• Several companies at once. You can hold a secondary directorship without a Letter of Consent.
• Job changes without paperwork. You don't cancel or reapply when you switch employers.
• A gap between jobs. You don't have to leave Singapore straight away if you become unemployed, but MOM says long periods of unemployment without a valid reason can affect your pass.

The obligations are lighter than an EP's, but they exist:

• Annual notification. MOM may ask for your employers, occupations, total income for the past calendar year and other professional activities. Its key facts page puts the deadline at 31 January of the following year, and holders who need to submit get an email. This record is what MOM leans on at renewal.
• Address or mobile number changes go into EP eService within 2 weeks.
• Restricted and regulated work. Restricted occupations, such as media or religion-related roles, need MOM's approval before you start. Regulated professions such as healthcare, law and football coaching still need registration with the professional body.
• Leaving. Cancel the pass within 1 week before your departure. Your employer must seek IRAS tax clearance at least 1 month before you leave the job, or, if you're self-employed, you settle your own tax at least 1 month before departure. Cancelling also cancels every family pass, and none of them can be reinstated. If you're staying on briefly, the cancellation eService can grant a Short-Term Visit Pass for up to 90 days.

ONE Pass holders can also apply for PR through ICA. How that application gets judged is a separate question, covered in PR application strategy.

Applying: fees, timing and one application at a time

You can apply yourself, or an employer or appointed employment agent can apply for you, and you can apply from overseas.

Only one work pass application can be open per candidate at a time. An employer can't file a ONE Pass and an EP for you in parallel as insurance. If the ONE Pass is refused, MOM doesn't automatically assess you for an EP either, and the employer has to submit a separate EP application. So pick the order deliberately: ONE Pass first if you clearly meet a track, EP first if you're borderline and the job start date can't move.

Moving across from an EP

Don't cancel your EP in order to apply. MOM's FAQ is direct about it: keep the EP until the ONE Pass is approved and you're ready to issue. The reason is that you can't work in the gap between EP cancellation and ONE Pass issuance, so cancelling early out of tidiness hands you a window in which you're legally unable to do your job.

Three more things catch people mid-switch:

• An EP expiring while you wait. If you're still with the same employer, it can request an extension of your EP and your family's passes.
• Family passes don't carry over. Cancelling the EP cancels the family passes issued under it. Your spouse and children need new applications under the ONE Pass, which take 4 weeks, so MOM recommends filing them once your pass is approved. File them alongside your own and they're rejected if yours is, with the fees lost.
• A spouse on a Work Permit tied to their DP. That Work Permit goes when the DP does. Cancel the EP only after the ONE Pass is approved, and give your spouse's employer warning.

The family part people actually care about

The spouse LOC is free, takes within 4 weeks in most cases, and lasts up to the expiry of the Dependant's Pass. For a job, the employer applies. For the spouse's own business, the spouse or an employment agent applies. The DP itself needs at least 3 months of validity left before an LOC filing, which catches people who leave it until the card is nearly done. Renew the DP first, file the LOC after. LOC renewals are free too, mostly take within 3 weeks, and can go in up to 6 months before the LOC expires.

A spouse can hold one LOC at a time: one employer, or their own company acting as the employer. So an employed spouse who then wants to run something of their own is making a swap, not adding a second permission.

A common-law spouse only counts if the relationship is recognised under the laws of your country or region. They hold an LTVP, and the prospective employer files a separate LOC (Common-Law Spouse) application form for them.

And the line worth repeating, because it gets copied wrongly more than anything else on this page: since 1 May 2021, ordinary EP and S Pass DP holders who want a job need their own EP, S Pass or Work Permit, applied for by the employer. Their LOC now only covers business owners who meet MOM's criteria. Advice written for a ONE Pass household doesn't transfer to yours (Dependant's Pass, trailing partner).

What the dual-career threads are really asking

When r/askSingapore dual-career threads start nominating ONE Pass, it's rarely because the poster is confident of clearing S$30k. It's because the trailing partner's work rights are the thing blocking the whole move, and ONE Pass is the one product that answers that cleanly. Understandable. Just stress-test the salary, AI and Tech, and outstanding-achievements tracks honestly before you build a relocation plan on the back of spouse LOC. The sequencing and the one-LOC trade-offs are in ONE Pass spouse LOC.

ONE Pass vs PEP vs Tech.Pass vs EntrePass

The three personalised passes side by side, with the decision shortcuts: PEP vs ONE Pass vs Tech.Pass.

Where to go next depends on why you're really here. If household work rights are the actual reason you're shopping passes, read trailing partner career. If the spouse plan is overseas remote work rather than a Singapore LOC, that's a different rulebook: side income and freelancing.