Employment Pass (EP) is the type of Singapore work visa issued to  foreign professional employees, managers, and owners/directors of  Singapore companies. Foreigners who wish to apply for EP should also  have the acceptable degrees, professional qualifications or special  skills; and will earn a fixed monthly salary of S$2,500 per month.  There is no quota system limiting the number of Employment Passes that  can be issued to a company. Employment Pass is also known as EP or work  Visa.

You can apply for Employment Pass work visa under the following scenarios:

 
• You are one of the director of a Singapore company and need to  relocate to Singapore to run your company operations. In this case, you  will apply for Employment Pass and the sponsor will be your Singapore  company
 
• a Singapore company hiring foreign employees. In this case, your  company will need to file an EP application for each foreign employee  you are hiring
 
• You are hired by an employer in Singapore. In this case, your employer will normally take care of filing your EP application.

Documents Required for Employment Pass

The following documents are required for submission of Employment Pass visa application in Singapore:

 
• EP Application Form 8. The application form must be endorsed by the Singapore employing company. To be submitted manually.
   
 
• Copies of educational certificates and past employment testimonials.
 
• A passport-size photograph taken within the past three months.
 
• A copy of the personal particulars page of the applicant's passport.

Any documents that are not in English must be translated into English by an official translation service.

Employment Pass Application Procedure and Timeline

Completed applications along with the required documents must be submitted to Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The application can be filed via post or online. The online application  is slightly quicker and consists of the following steps:

 
1. Obtain authorization to file the application online for the newly  incorporated company. Upon filing the request, it takes about 7-10 days  for authorities to send the authorization code. 
 
2. File the application online. Upon filing the online application,  authorities take about 2-15 working days to process the application.
 
3. Upon receiving the in-principle-approval notification, make on appointment to visit MOM office and collect the pass.
 
4. Submit the application manually will take a minimum period of 4  weeks. All documents such as passport copy, education certificate,  testimonials, Curriculum Vitae and Business profile must be submitted  together with the application form.

Approval and Collection of Employment Pass

When your Employment Pass visa application is approved, MOM will  mail In-Principle-Approval (IPA) letter to the employing company's  address as specified in the completed application form. The letter has  a six-month validity and you should collect your employment pass before  this time expires.

In order to issue the EP work pass, MOM requires a copy of the IPA  letter, passport, medical exam report, and any other documents that  were requested in the approval letter. Typically, you will have to go  through a medical test and produce the report when collecting your  employment pass. Whether or not you need to go through a medical test  will be mentioned in the approval letter (along with the list of  tests). You can get the medical tests done in your own country through  an established clinic/hospital or you can get it done when you arrive  in Singapore. With the new EP card, all approved applicants have to get  their fingerprints done before the card will be issued. Upon completion  of the Fingerprinting, the EP card is ready for collection after 4 days.