New Changes to Singapore Personalized Employment Pass
Effective December 1, 2012, the revisions require that foreign professionals working in Singapore earn a minimum annual salary of S$144,000 in order to keep their work personal employment pass active. This is a dramatic increase from the previous earnings requirement of only S$34,000 per year. Statements released by MOM indicate the new revisions have been put in place to ensure that the personal employment pass system will continue to serve in bringing only the best of the world’s workforce talent to the nation.
The new requirements, however, do not apply to current holders of Q1 and P2 type employment pass holders, who have historically always had a different set of qualification criteria to adhere to. They may continue to maintain their PEP with significantly smaller earnings requirements.
Highlights of the new Personalized Employment Pass Scheme
-The minimum fixed annual salary requirement has been raised to S$144,000. (The previous requirement was S$34,000.)
-The minimum fixed annual salary requirement for P1 type pass holders is S$12,000 per month, while foreign professionals from overseas must draw a monthly salary of no less than S$18,000.
-This personal employment pass continues to be a non-renewable pass, but it will continue to be valid for five years from that date of issue, rather than three.
-New recipients of personal employment pass now have the ability to sponsor immediate family members—spouses, parents and children—as dependents.
-The new framework took effect for new PEP issuances effective December 1, but individuals with PEP passes issued before December 1, 2012 have until December 2014 to meet the new increased minimum salary requirements.
Singapore’s PEP remains a highly-coveted and flexible kind of work visa because its validity is not hinged on the commitment to a specific employer. (In other words, PEP holders retain their passes if they change employers, without having to reapply, as long as the minimum salary requirements continue to be met.) It even allows a six-month grace period for PEP holders between jobs to stay in the city-state while looking for new gainful employment opportunities.
The updated PEP framework presents the opportunity to discern between ordinary laborers and premier professional talent. Foreigners working in Singapore who are not able to qualify for the revised PEP may continue working with Singapore’s standard employment pass, while the most-qualified workforce contributors may continue enjoying the privileges of the PEP.
Tighter PEP guidelines have not appeared to dissuade expatriates from coming to Singapore for work. There are a great number of high-caliber professionals from locations worldwide with continued interest in Singapore’s work and financial prospects. MOM indicates that raising the bar for the PEP conveys Singapore’s interest in high quality workers over a high quantity of people merely looking for work.
Category: workers compensation
