Tech.Pass Singapore: eligibility, renewal and alternatives

Tech.Pass is EDB's personalised visa for tech talent, and the thing that makes it unusual is that you apply without a Singapore employer at all. Once it's issued you can operate as an employee, a founder, a director, a consultant and a mentor, in whatever mix your year happens to take. The Reddit threads comparing it with PEP tend to miss two things. The first is the company-scale experience test, which is the real gate. The second is that MOM and EDB stop accepting new and renewal applications from 28 January 2027, as MOM's ONE Pass (AI and Tech) track takes over. The last filings go in by 27 January 2027 at 23:59.

Eligibility

You have to clear both halves of this, not one.

1. A last-drawn fixed monthly salary of at least S$22,500, or the foreign-currency equivalent, within the last year. Other income and non-cash components can be assessed case by case. The figure is pegged to the top 10% of Employment Pass holders, and it's the same bar PEP uses.
2. At least 5 cumulative years, within the 10 years before you apply, in a leading role at either a tech company with a valuation or market cap of at least US$500 million or at least US$30 million in funding raised, or a tech VC with at least US$500 million in assets under management.

No Singapore job offer is needed to apply, which is the genuinely liberating part. EDB assesses you on your track record and your experience leading teams or building a tech product. If you already hold an EP, PEP or EntrePass and meet the Tech.Pass criteria, you can apply, provided you also still meet the eligibility or renewal criteria of the pass you hold. EDB's own advice is that if your current pass already covers what you do, there's no need to convert.

What it lets you do

The pass is personal, so you can hold several roles at once:

• Start and operate one or more tech companies
• Work as an employee of one or more Singapore-based companies
• Work as a consultant or mentor, or lecture at local institutions of higher learning
• Sit as a director of one or more Singapore-based companies

You don't apply for a different pass as you move between these. The pass is valid for 2 years, and it can be renewed once, for another 2 years, if you meet the renewal criteria. Your legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21, including legally adopted children, can join you on a Dependant's Pass. A common-law spouse, unmarried stepchildren under 21, unmarried handicapped children aged 21 and over, and parents are eligible for a Long-Term Visit Pass.

The salary number is the part everyone quotes, and it's the part that misleads. Clearing S$22,500 gets you halfway. The company-scale and leading-role evidence is what actually decides it, and no amount of salary substitutes for it.

Applying: forms, fees and timing

You apply by downloading EDB's application form, plus the dependant form for any family member coming with you, filling it in as a soft copy, signing it, and uploading it through the online submission form (FormSG) linked from EDB's page.

1. Pay the application fee. S$105 per application, paid separately for you and for each dependant, by PayNow, Visa, Mastercard or Amex. It isn't refunded if you're turned down.
2. Upload the signed form, your travel document page and a screenshot showing the payment went through, then the evidence for each criterion. For salary: payslips for the past 3 months or your latest tax statements, plus audited financial statements or share purchase agreements if you're relying on other income. For company scale: a valuation report, annual report or financial statements with the valuation highlighted, funding data, or public sources such as Pitchbook or Crunchbase showing valuation, market cap or AUM.
3. Family members need documents proving the relationship, such as a marriage certificate, and the Verification of Vaccination Requirements document issued by CDA, if they need one.
4. Wait about 8 weeks from the point all your documents are in order. Approval arrives by email from MOM with an in-principle approval (IPA) letter.
5. Get the pass issued within 6 months of the IPA. You do this in person at MOM's Employment Pass Services Centre, by appointment, and you have to be in Singapore. Issuance costs S$225 per pass, plus S$30 for each Multiple Journey Visa if you need one. The IPA can't be extended.

Non-English documents need an English translation. You need the issued pass before you start any work or business activity here.

Is it still worth applying in late 2026

Applications submitted by 27 January 2027 at 23:59 are processed under the existing rules, so the door is open for a few more months. Just be clear about what you'd be buying. A pass issued now runs for 2 years, and its renewal window opens 6 months before expiry, which is after the cut-off. In practice a new Tech.Pass is a 2-year pass with no renewal.

That can still be the right call. From 28 January 2027 the ONE Pass AI and Tech track needs at least S$30,000 a month over the 12 consecutive months before you apply, with at least S$22,500 of it fixed salary. The rest can include vested equity such as ESOPs, subject to MOM's assessment. Your current or last employer also has to clear MOM's company thresholds. If you're on S$22,500 fixed with nothing vesting and you meet the experience test, Tech.Pass is the pass you can actually get, and its 2 years give you time to line up the next one. The full AI and Tech criteria are in our ONE Pass guide.

Renewal, while applications are still open

You need to meet one of three tests:

1. Income. At least S$270,000 of assessable income on your latest IRAS Notice of Assessment, from salary, business income or both.
2. Business spending and hires. Total annual business spending of at least S$100,000, and at least 1 local PME or 3 LQS on the payroll. A local PME is a Singaporean or PR on a fixed monthly salary of at least S$3,900 with at least 3 months of CPF contributions. LQS are Singaporeans or PRs on a monthly salary of at least S$1,600, also with at least 3 months of CPF. On this route you count as the business owner only if your company is an ACRA-registered private limited company, you hold at least 30% of it, and you can show proof of ongoing business activity.
3. Funding. A Singapore-incorporated company with a digital or tech core product that has raised more than US$10 million in total over the past 36 months, including money (no minimum) from investment firms recognised under the Tech@SG programme.

The 30% shareholding is the detail that's easy to leave until renewal year and painful to fix then. If you've diluted below it, don't count on the business-spending route, whatever the spend and headcount look like.

The paperwork follows the route. For income, it's your latest Notice of Assessment. For business spending, it's an ACRA business profile from the last 3 months, audited financial statements, company bank statements from the last 3 months, CPF statements for your employees, and proof of ongoing business such as recent invoices, contracts, customer referral letters, partnership agreements or a tenancy agreement. For funding, it's bank statements and investment agreements covering the past 36 months, and the funded parent must have a direct relationship with the Singapore entity.

Renewal applications go in between 6 months and 12 weeks before the pass expires. Processing takes about 8 weeks once your documents are in order, and the renewed pass has to be issued within 3 months of the IPA, again at S$225 plus S$30 for a Multiple Journey Visa if you need one. You get one renewal only. After 4 years in total, you move to another pass.

The 2027 sunset, and planning the handoff

From 28 January 2027, MOM and EDB stop accepting new and renewal Tech.Pass applications. If you already hold one, you keep it, along with its flexibility, until it expires. Nobody is cutting it short. But there is no automatic conversion switch waiting for you at the end, and no courtesy letter telling you it's time. EDB points eligible holders to the ONE Pass AI and Tech track or other work passes, such as an Employment Pass, PEP or EntrePass.

Here's why it bites harder than a date usually does. The failure mode isn't missing a deadline by a week. It's reaching your final quarter and finding that every alternative needs lead time you no longer have. ONE Pass AI and Tech looks at your pay over the 12 consecutive months before you apply. PEP needs S$22,500 fixed and a year-by-year income record to keep. A sponsored EP needs an employer willing to file, and below S$22,500 fixed that employer usually also has COMPASS and job advertising to get through. Start your next pass while the Tech.Pass is still valid, because a lapsed pass turns a planning exercise into an emergency.

What not to assume

The handoff checklist

1. Put two dates in your calendar: your Tech.Pass expiry, and 27 January 2027 at 23:59. Work out whether your renewal window opens before the cut-off, using the dates on your own card rather than someone else's forum post.
2. Score yourself honestly against the ONE Pass AI and Tech track, the ONE Pass salary track (S$30,000 fixed a month), PEP and a sponsored EP. The PEP vs ONE Pass vs Tech.Pass chooser lays them side by side.
3. Pick an order. MOM takes only one application at a time from you or your employer, so you can't file a ONE Pass and an EP in parallel as insurance.
4. If a sponsored EP is Plan B, start with the employer early. At S$22,500 fixed or more they skip COMPASS and advertising. Below that, they generally need to pass COMPASS and advertise the job under the Fair Consideration Framework before they can file.
5. Keep the Tech.Pass valid until the next pass is approved and ready to issue. Changing jobs doesn't need a new pass, since Tech.Pass isn't tied to an employer. MOM tells EP holders moving to ONE Pass to cancel the old pass only once the new one is approved and they're ready to have it issued, since they can't work in between. Plan the same way.
6. Put the family in the same calendar. A Dependant's Pass lasts only as long as your own pass, so expect new family applications under the next one. For EP holders moving to ONE Pass, MOM requires them, says they take 4 weeks, and recommends filing them once your own pass is approved. If yours is rejected, theirs are too, and the fees aren't refunded. More on the passes themselves in our Dependant's Pass guide.

The alternatives people mix this up with

Founders should cross PEP off early. MOM bars directors who are also shareholders in an ACRA-registered company from applying, and you can't start a business or do any entrepreneurial work on a PEP. MOM points people who want to do that to EntrePass or ONE Pass.

One last thing. If what you're really asking is whether you can freelance on your EP while you wait for any of this, read side income and work-pass rules before you invoice anyone in Singapore.