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Work Pass Administrative Fee Changes

Changes aimed at recovering costs for work pass operations and services. New fees to take effect from 1 December 2011.

Foreign manpower

03 October 2011

  1. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has reviewed the administrative fees for all work passes, and will be making changes as it moves towards full cost recovery for the Ministry's work pass operations and services. The administrative fees for most work passes will be increased from 1 December 2011.
  2. This is in line with the Government’s financial principle that the full cost of providing a public service should be borne by users of the service rather than taxpayers in general.

    Background
  3. Employers have been paying administrative fees for the application and issuance of work passes since 2005. When the fees were first introduced, they were set at a level that was substantially below cost recovery. The fees have not been revised since they were first introduced in 2005.

    Key Features of the Changes
  4. The key features of the changes are:

    Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit

    i. Application fees for Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit will be increased from $10 to $20.

    ii. Issuance fees for Employment Pass and S Pass will be increased to $120 and $70 respectively. These fees will also be charged per transaction instead of per year.

    iii. The existing subsidy of $20 for employers who request for issuance or renewal of Work Permits via Work Permit Online1 (WPOL) will be withdrawn from 1 December 2011. MOM had previously introduced the subsidy to encourage more employers to transact online.

    Other passes2

    i. Application and issuance fees for other passes will generally be adjusted in line with the Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit.
  5. Please refer to Annex A for details of the new fees.

1 Work Permit Online (WPOL) is an online portal for business employers and employment agencies to perform Work Permit transactions (e.g. application, issuance, renewal or cancellation).

2 Other passes refer to Personalised Employment Pass, EntrePass, Training Employment Pass, Dependant's Pass, Work Holiday Pass, Training Work Permit and Miscellaneous Work Pass.