S Pass → EP upgrade while staying in Singapore

Short answer: Going from an S Pass to an EP means a fresh MOM application, not a switch HR flips after your raise comes through. Your employer files it while you keep working on the S Pass, and for an in-house upgrade there's no need to advertise your job on MyCareersFuture first. Keep the S Pass valid until the EP is actually issued. If your salary is close to the line, get the application in before the EP qualifying salary rises on 1 Jan 2027.

The side-by-side of the two passes is in EP vs S Pass, and life on the S Pass itself is in S Pass. This one is the in-country upgrade, the bit Reddit collapses into "HR will convert me after the raise."

A raise is not a conversion

An S Pass doesn't quietly become an Employment Pass the moment payroll clears the EP floor. MOM's answer to employers asking how to upgrade an S Pass holder is that they have to submit a new EP application. It's assessed like any other: Stage 1 salary, then COMPASS unless you're exempt. S Pass to EP is a new MOM file, not a payroll toggle.

Two things make the in-house route easier than a fresh hire. MOM says there's no need to cancel the S Pass while the EP application is in, and the employer doesn't need to advertise on the MyCareersFuture job portal. Its one instruction is to run the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) first to check you qualify.

So you can stay in Singapore and keep working while the file is with MOM, as long as your S Pass itself stays valid. That's continuity of stay. It isn't a guaranteed EP, and the difference between those two things is where people get hurt.

Here's what you'll hear that isn't true.

The salary you need to clear

Stage 1 is the EP qualifying salary, a hard floor that rises with age. Miss it and you're not eligible, whatever you'd have scored on COMPASS. MOM publishes two tables: the current one, and a higher one for new applications from 1 Jan 2027 and for renewals of passes expiring from 1 Jan 2028.

MOM's eligibility page lists every age in between. An upgrade is a new application, so the date it goes in decides which table applies.

Fixed monthly salary, not the package

MOM defines fixed monthly salary as basic monthly salary plus fixed monthly allowances, such as a fixed food or housing allowance. It leaves out variable allowances, overtime, bonuses, commission, annual wage supplements, stock options, in-kind payments, reimbursements and employer pension or provident fund contributions. So the "total package" or OTE figure is the wrong number to work from.

Ask HR for a one-page confirmation of the fixed monthly figure that matches what goes on the EP form, and keep payslips ready. MOM's documents page says it may ask for proof that the declared salary will be paid. More on structuring the number in COMPASS C1 salary packaging.

COMPASS: the 40-point test

Unless you're exempt, the application needs 40 points on COMPASS. Four foundational criteria score 0, 10 or 20 each: C1 salary, C2 qualifications, C3 diversity (your nationality's share of the firm's PMETs) and C4 support for local employment (the firm's local PMET share against its sector). Firms with fewer than 25 PMETs get 10 points by default on C3 and C4, and two bonus criteria can add more. A fixed monthly salary of at least $22,500 exempts you from COMPASS altogether. The full scoring is in COMPASS explained.

C1 is not the same test as Stage 1. It scores your fixed monthly salary against local PMET salaries in your sector, by age: 20 points at the 90th percentile and above, 10 from the 65th to below the 90th, nothing below that. MOM says plainly that the qualifying salary is only the minimum bar, so a salary can clear it and still score nothing on C1. The benchmarks are updated once a year, and new applications from 1 Jan 2027 use the set released in August 2026 rather than August 2025. That's a second reason a December filing and a January filing can come out differently.

Qualifications for C2

You only submit qualifications if you need the C2 points. If you do, the employer uploads verification proof, and the certificate itself doesn't count. MOM only accepts proof from three kinds of source: selected background screening companies, a government or awarding institution's own verification portal, or OpenCerts. A LinkedIn entry proves nothing.

The details keyed into the form have to match that proof, or MOM rejects the application. Watch the awarding body, which isn't always the campus brand you studied under: COMPASS C2 degree verification. MOM also says qualifications only need verifying once, so if yours were verified for your S Pass, EP eService may not ask for proof again.

Run a fresh SAT

Your S Pass never had a COMPASS score, so there's nothing to carry over, and a SAT result from someone else's hire says nothing about yours. The SAT needs an EP eService account, so HR runs it, using your real fixed monthly salary, your job title and the firm's current workforce data.

MOM's reading of the result is blunt. "Not eligible" means don't apply, because it will be rejected. "Eligible" means around a 90% chance, since the SAT doesn't check things like the candidate's history. MOM doesn't store the inputs, so ask HR to save the PDF and send you a copy.

Why your employer might say yes

The business case is usually the easy part. The EP carries no foreign worker levy and no quota. On an S Pass, your employer pays a levy of $650 a month, the harmonised rate across all sectors and tiers since 1 September 2025, until your pass is cancelled or expires. You also count against the company's S Pass quota, which caps S Pass holders at 10% of the total workforce in services and 15% in construction, manufacturing, marine shipyard and process.

Once the EP is issued and the S Pass cancelled, the levy stops and an S Pass place frees up for someone else.

How the upgrade is filed

Your employer, or an employment agent it appoints, does all of this in EP eService on the myMOM Portal. You can't file it yourself.

1. Your written consent. MOM requires it before the employer applies.
2. A SAT check at the salary going on the form.
3. The application, with the documents and the $105 fee. The company's turnover information for the past 3 years has to be up to date first. Online applications are processed or given an update within 10 business days, longer if MOM asks for more documents.
4. In-principle approval (IPA). It gives you 6 months to get the pass issued and says whether you need a medical examination.
5. Issuance. You must be in Singapore when the employer gets the pass issued, so don't book a trip for that week. It costs $225, plus $30 if you need a Multiple Journey Visa.
6. Notification letter. Emailed to you and the employer, valid for 1 month. It lets you work and travel while you wait for the card, and it says whether you need to register fingerprints and a photo at the Employment Pass Services Centre (EPSC). If you do, that's within 2 weeks of issue.
7. Card delivery, within 5 working days of registration or document checks.

A first EP runs for up to 2 years. The candidate-side detail of steps 5 to 7 is in work pass issuance and EPSC.

What happens to the S Pass

MOM's upgrade FAQ doesn't spell out the issuance step. For the reverse switch, EP down to S Pass, MOM tells employers to cancel the old pass before getting the new one issued, and to apply for new Dependant's Passes under the new pass. Ask HR to confirm, before issuance day, exactly when your S Pass ends, because that date drives both the levy and your family's passes.

Keep the S Pass alive until the EP is issued

MOM says there's no need to cancel the S Pass while applying, so don't. An IPA isn't a pass, and cancelling early to keep the file tidy is how someone ends up with nothing at all. Once an S Pass is cancelled, the Short-Term Visit Pass the employer can request gives you up to 30 days of stay, and you can't work on it.

Watch the expiry date as well. S Pass renewal opens 6 months before expiry and has to be done before the expiry date, or it becomes a new application. Renewing early doesn't cost you any days, because the renewed pass starts when the current one ends, and issuing it costs $100. A renewal still needs S Pass quota and has to meet the S Pass criteria in force. If your S Pass has only a few months left, ask HR to put the renewal in on schedule too, rather than gambling that the EP lands first.

Passes for your family

The salary gate for a Dependant's Pass is the same on both passes: a fixed monthly salary of at least $6,000, your own and not the household's. What changes is the paperwork. MOM's S Pass cancellation page says that once the S Pass is cancelled, every family pass issued under it is cancelled too and can't be reinstated. Any Letter of Consent or Work Permit your spouse holds on the back of their DP goes with it.

So the employer applies for new DPs under the EP, one application per family member. MOM lets them go in with the EP application or separately, but recommends waiting until the main pass is approved: if the EP is rejected, the DPs are rejected too and the $105 fee per pass isn't refunded. Most DP applications for EP and S Pass holders' families are decided within 3 weeks, and issuance costs $225 per pass.

The practical order is EP IPA, then the DP applications straight away, then EP issuance and DP issuance lined up so nobody is left without a valid pass in between. Dependant's Pass has the documents, and DP re-sponsor when the principal's pass changes covers the gap risks.

If you're hoping to bring parents over, the bar is higher. A Long-Term Visit Pass for parents needs a fixed monthly salary of at least $12,000: see LTVP for partners and parents.

If MOM refuses the EP

Your S Pass is untouched, so you keep working while you decide what to do. Only the employer, or the agent that filed, can appeal. MOM won't deal with enquiries or appeals from you.

The appeal goes in through EP eService within 3 months of the rejection, and it's only worth filing if it answers the reasons in the rejection advisory with something new, such as a higher fixed salary or corrected qualification details. 85% of appeals are processed within 6 weeks. Miss the 3 months and it's a new application, which from 1 Jan 2027 means the higher salary table.

The other routes are staying on the S Pass, retitling the role, or moving to another sponsor. Staying put only works while you keep clearing the S Pass qualifying salary: $3,300 at the youngest ages outside financial services now, and $3,600 for new applications from 1 Jan 2027 and renewals of passes expiring from 1 Jan 2028. The appeal detail is in EP rejected or appealed.

Changing employer at the same time

Then it isn't an upgrade. A different employer is making a fresh EP hire, and the advertising rule comes back: the job has to stay open on MyCareersFuture for at least 14 consecutive days before the application, unless an exemption applies. The exemptions include a company with fewer than 10 employees, a fixed monthly salary of $22,500 or more, a role of 1 month or less, and an existing employee transferring to a related branch, subsidiary or affiliate in Singapore. The detail is in Fair Consideration Framework.

MOM doesn't cancel your old S Pass automatically when the new pass is approved, which leaves room to serve notice. Don't resign before the IPA is in your hands, though: IPA before you resign has the calendar.

What to check with your employer before you celebrate

Work through these with HR while the mood is still good, because the answers are much harder to get once a file has been submitted badly.

1. Your fixed monthly salary against the qualifying salary for your age, on the table that applies on the day the application goes in. Not "total package", and not last year's number.
2. A one-page fixed monthly salary confirmation that matches the EP form.
3. A fresh SAT result at that salary, saved as a PDF and sent to you.
4. If you need the C2 points, verification proof from a source MOM accepts, with every detail on the form matching it.
5. Your S Pass expiry date against the likely EP timeline, with a renewal on schedule if it's tight.
6. The DP and LTVP applications for your family, timed against the EP.
7. A written plan for a refusal: stay on the S Pass, retitle the role, or find another sponsor.

Once you're on the EP, renewals, job changes and the rest of the rules are in the Employment Pass guide.