Work Pass Administrative Fee Changes

Changes aimed at recovering costs for work pass operations and services. New fees to take effect from 1 April 2013.

1. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has reviewed the administrative fees for all work passes. The administrative fees for most work passes will increase on 1 April 2013.
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 were first revised in 2011. This helped increase the proportion of costs borne by employers who use work pass services, but it still fell short of full cost recovery.
4. The new administrative fees, to be implemented on 1 Apr 2013, will bring the fees closer to the full costs of providing work pass services. These include new service initiatives which lead to better customer convenience and experience (for example, a new card courier service that will save employers one additional trip to MOM, and remove the need for those with renewal cases to visit MOM at all, as well as additional electronic services for the reinstatement of work permits). Customers can also look forward to the opening of the new Work Pass Card Registration Centre at the MOM Services Centre in early 2013.
   
   Key Features of the Changes
5. 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 increase from the current $20 for all passes to $70, $60 and $30 respectively, to reflect the greater complexity involved in processing the higher-end work passes.
   
   ii. Issuance/Renewal fees for Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit will increase from the current $120, $70 and $20 to $150, $80 and $30 respectively.
   
   Other passes¹
   
   i. Application fees will be introduced for passes for dependants of work pass holders, to recover the cost of processing them. The application fees for the Dependant’s Pass and Long Term Visit Pass will be $60 and $30 respectively.
   
   ii. Application and issuance/renewal fees for other passes will generally be adjusted in line with the Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit fees.
   
   Card Replacement
   
   i. Card Replacement fee for all pass types will increase from a flat rate of $60 to $100 (for first-time losses) and $300 (for subsequent losses). Work pass cards are important identity documents for foreigners working in Singapore. The increase is meant to encourage work pass holders to exercise greater care in safekeeping their work pass cards.
6. Please refer to Annex A and the FAQs for more details on the changes.