The quiet red lines of a self-sponsored EP: why business plans fail MOM scrutiny under the 2025 rules
From 2025 the EP salary floor and COMPASS scoring both tightened. Incorporating your own company and sponsoring your own Employment Pass looks like the most direct route — what usually stalls it is not paperwork, but a few things in the business plan that do not add up.
For a founder planning to move themselves and their family to Singapore, the self-sponsored Employment Pass (EP) is hard to avoid as an option: incorporate a company, then apply for your own work pass through it. The route is entirely legitimate. The approval rate is not as comfortable as some agents suggest — the less so since the bar rose in 2025.
The hard thresholds for 2025–2026
From 1 January 2025, the minimum monthly salary for a new EP rose from S$5,000 to S$5,600 in general sectors, and from S$5,500 to S$6,200 in financial services. That is only the entry line — the requirement scales with age, and the benchmark for experienced applicants is materially higher. Existing pass holders have a one-year grace period, with the new floor applying to renewals from 1 January 2026.
Clearing salary is only the first gate. An EP must also pass COMPASS, a points system scoring salary, qualifications, the diversity of the firm’s local workforce, support for local employment and more; at least 40 points are needed to qualify. MOM has confirmed that the salary benchmarks under COMPASS will adjust further from 1 January 2026 for new applications, and 1 July 2026 for renewals.
In other words, “paying yourself enough” is nowhere near sufficient. The real scrutiny is in the plan.
The company has no reason to exist
If the plan spends its length describing how large your business back home is, without explaining what the Singapore company will do, who it sells to and where its revenue comes from, it reads as a company incorporated for the sake of a pass. The Singapore entity needs commercial logic of its own — it can relate to your existing business, but it cannot be a shell.
Salary and role do not match
In a self-sponsored case you set your own salary, which is precisely why it draws attention. Set it too low and the company evidently cannot support the role; set it high without revenue behind it and the position is equally unconvincing. A title like “Managing Director” with no visible management substance will be questioned.
No intention to hire locally
COMPASS scores support for local employment explicitly. A plan that says nothing about future local hiring weakens itself considerably. This does not mean hiring immediately, but it does mean a credible timeline.
The applicant does not fit the new business
If your industry background has nothing to do with what the new company intends to do, the materials need to explain why that leap makes sense. The question being asked is whether this person, doing this thing, is plausible.
Worth knowing
A self-sponsored EP is not a one-off event. The pass has to be renewed, and renewal looks back at how the company actually traded in the interim — real revenue, filed taxes, and how much of what the original plan promised was delivered. First approval is the beginning.
If the self-sponsored EP is one part of a wider plan, it has to be weighed alongside how the company is structured, how capital enters compliantly, and how dependant passes are sequenced — not handled as a separate errand.
This article is general information and does not constitute immigration, legal or tax advice. Rely on written advice from a licensed professional firm for any specific application.