Employment Pass COMPASS framework

What COMPASS is, and why it exists

COMPASS, the Complementarity Assessment Framework, is a points-based test introduced to make Employment Pass decisions more transparent and to push employers toward a workforce that complements local professionals rather than displacing them. It has applied to all new EP applications since 1 September 2023 and to renewals since 1 September 2024.

The word complementarity is the key to the whole design. COMPASS does not just ask whether a candidate is good; it asks whether hiring this candidate, at this firm, adds something the local workforce does not already supply. That is why half of the foundational criteria look at the employer’s workforce rather than the individual. Understanding this intent makes the individual rules far easier to follow.

The 40-point pass mark

An application needs at least 40 points to pass COMPASS. Points come from six criteria: four foundational criteria, each awarding 0, 10 or 20 points, and two bonus criteria worth up to 20 and 10. The four foundational criteria alone can therefore reach 80 points, so the 40-point bar is met by scoring well on any solid combination, not by maxing out everything.

The most important structural fact is that the four foundational criteria split evenly: two are about the candidate (salary and qualifications) and two are about the firm (diversity and support for local employment). A candidate who scores full marks on the two individual criteria already reaches 40 and passes regardless of the firm. A candidate who scores low on both individual criteria depends heavily on the firm, or on a bonus, to get over the line.

C1: Salary

C1 rewards the candidate’s fixed monthly salary relative to local PMET salaries in the same sector. It is scored in three bands: fall at the bottom of the local range and you score 0, clear it solidly and you score 10, and sit at the top of the local range and you score the full 20.

Because the comparison is against local professionals in the same sector, the same salary can score differently in finance than in, say, retail, and the same figure scores lower for an older candidate whose local peers earn more. The practical takeaway matches the salary guide: a salary set well above the qualifying floor is worth real points here, while one that merely scrapes the floor contributes almost nothing.

C2: Qualifications

C2 rewards the candidate’s qualifications. A degree from a top-tier institution earns the full 20 points, a degree from a recognised institution earns 10, and a candidate without a qualifying degree earns 0. For certain qualifications MOM may require an independent verification report to confirm the award.

C2 is the criterion a candidate can do least about at the point of application, since the degree is already earned, but it is worth understanding because it shapes how much the rest of the application has to carry. A candidate with a top-tier degree needs only a strong salary to reach 40 on the individual criteria alone; a candidate scoring 0 on C2 has to make up the ground through salary, the firm criteria, or a bonus.

C3: Diversity

C3 is the first of the two firm criteria, and one of the two that most often surprises candidates. It looks at how concentrated the employer’s professional workforce is by nationality. If the candidate’s nationality already makes up a large share of the firm’s PMETs, C3 scores 0, on the logic that another hire of that nationality adds little diversity. If the nationality is a small share, C3 scores 20; in between, 10.

The important and sometimes uncomfortable implication is that an excellent candidate can score 0 on C3 through no fault of their own, simply because they share a nationality with much of the firm’s existing team. This is deliberate: the framework is nudging firms to diversify. For a candidate, it means the same application can score differently at two firms, and it is fair to ask a prospective employer about their workforce mix before relying on the pass.

C4: Support for local employment

C4 is the second firm criterion. It compares the employer’s share of local PMETs against other firms in the same industry. A firm with a strong local professional base relative to its peers scores 20, a middling one 10, and a firm that is thin on local PMETs 0.

Like C3, C4 has nothing to do with the individual candidate and everything to do with the employer, and the two together mean that up to 40 of the available foundational points are determined by the firm. This is why a strong candidate at a weak firm can fail, and a modest candidate at a strong firm can pass. It is also why, for employers who hire foreign professionals regularly, steadily building a healthy local core is the single most valuable thing they can do to keep future applications succeeding.

C5: The skills bonus (Shortage Occupation List)

C5 is a bonus worth a full 20 points, awarded when the job is on the Shortage Occupation List, a published list of roles Singapore does not have enough locals to fill. Because it is worth as much as a full foundational criterion, C5 can single-handedly turn a failing application into a passing one.

If your role plausibly involves a scarce skill, it is well worth checking whether it appears on the list before anything else, because a shortage role changes the arithmetic completely. A candidate who would otherwise score 20 on the foundational criteria reaches 40 with the shortage bonus alone, which is why specialists in genuinely scarce fields have the most resilient applications.

C6: Strategic economic priorities

C6 is a smaller bonus, worth 10 points, awarded where the employer participates in an eligible programme supporting innovation or internationalisation, reflecting a contribution to Singapore’s strategic economic goals. It is firm-level and applies to the company’s applications generally rather than to a particular candidate.

Most ordinary applications do not rely on C6 and treat it as a bonus cushion where it happens to apply. For firms in the relevant programmes, though, it is a standing 10 points on every application, which can matter at the margin.

The exemptions

Some applications skip COMPASS altogether. The exemptions are worth knowing precisely, because if one applies, none of the six criteria matters:

The salary exemption is the one candidates and employers plan around most, because it converts a points problem into a pay decision: at S$22,500 fixed a month, the application no longer needs 40 points at all. For senior hires near that mark, closing the gap to the exemption can be simpler than engineering the COMPASS score.

Worked scoring profiles

Seeing the criteria add up across different profiles makes the framework concrete. Each row below reaches a total; 40 is the pass mark.

The pattern is clear. Two strong individual scores (rows one and four) pass regardless of the firm. Two weak individual scores (row two) fail unless the firm is strong (row five) or a bonus applies (row three). Once you can place a candidate in one of these patterns, you can usually predict the outcome before running the tool.

How to move a borderline score

When a self-assessment lands just short of 40, the useful question is which lever is cheapest to pull. Each criterion responds to different actions.

• C1 salary. The most direct lever a candidate controls. Raising the fixed salary lifts C1 and, near the top of the range, can add 10 points.
• C5 shortage bonus. If the role genuinely fits a Shortage Occupation List entry, this is the largest single swing available, worth 20 points.
• C3 and C4, the firm criteria. A candidate cannot change these, but choosing a different, better-scoring employer can, and employers can improve them over time by diversifying and strengthening their local base.
• The exemption. Where a senior salary is close to S$22,500, pushing over that mark removes COMPASS from the picture entirely.

Notice that three of these four are salary or firm choices made before the application, not adjustments made during it. COMPASS rewards decisions taken early, which is why running the assessment before an offer is finalised is so valuable.

COMPASS at renewal

Since 1 September 2024, renewals are assessed under COMPASS as well as new applications. This changes the character of a renewal from a formality to a re-test, and it catches holders who assume that once granted, a pass simply continues.

Two forces can erode a score between issue and renewal. The salary benchmark rises each year and with the holder’s age, weakening C1 if pay has not kept pace, and the firm’s diversity and local-employment scores can drift as its workforce changes. A pass that scored 60 at issue can be closer to the line three years later without anyone doing anything wrong. The remedy is to check the score well before renewal is due, while there is still time to raise a salary or address a firm-level weakness.

Common misconceptions

A few beliefs about COMPASS are widespread and wrong, and each leads people to prepare badly.

• “A high salary guarantees a pass.” Only if it reaches the S$22,500 exemption. Below that, salary is one criterion among several, and a well-paid candidate at a poorly scoring firm can still fail.
• “COMPASS is about how good I am.” Half of the foundational score is about the employer’s workforce, not the candidate. Complementarity, not merit alone, is the test.
• “If I passed before, I will pass again.” Renewals are re-assessed, and rising benchmarks and a changing firm can lower a previously comfortable score.
• “The bonus criteria are minor.” The shortage bonus is worth a full 20 points and often decides borderline cases.

Reading your Self-Assessment Tool result

MOM’s free Self-Assessment Tool returns a COMPASS estimate before you apply, and knowing how to read it turns a number into a plan. The tool breaks the score down by criterion, which is the part worth studying, because the total alone does not tell you what to do about it.

Look first at where the points are coming from. If a passing score rests entirely on the firm criteria (C3 and C4), it is more fragile than a score built on the candidate criteria (C1 and C2), because the firm’s workforce can change between now and a renewal. If the score leans on the shortage bonus, confirm that the role genuinely fits the list, since that single block of 20 points is doing a lot of work. And if the score is just over 40, treat it as a borderline pass to strengthen rather than a comfortable one to rely on.

A failing or marginal result is more useful than it feels, because the breakdown points straight at the cheapest fix. A low C1 says raise the salary; a zero on C3 says the firm is concentrated in the candidate’s nationality; a low C4 says the firm is thin on local professionals. Reading the result this way converts a rejection risk into a short list of concrete actions to take before applying.

COMPASS for startups and small firms

Smaller and younger companies often worry that COMPASS is stacked against them, because the firm criteria reward an established, diverse, locally rooted workforce that a startup may not yet have. There is something to this, but the picture is more workable than it first appears.

A very small firm with only a handful of employees can find the diversity and local-employment criteria volatile, since each hire moves the ratios sharply. The practical route through this is to lean on the candidate criteria and the bonuses rather than the firm criteria: hire for genuinely scarce skills that attract the shortage bonus, pay well enough to score strongly on salary, and bring in candidates with strong qualifications. A startup hiring a well-paid specialist in a shortage field can comfortably clear 40 on C1, C2 and the bonus alone, without depending on a firm profile it has not had time to build.

It is also worth remembering the exemptions and the wider pass landscape. A founder is usually better served by the EntrePass or ONE Pass than by trying to force an EP through a thin firm profile, and a genuinely senior hire near S$22,500 a month sidesteps COMPASS altogether. Matching the situation to the right pass is often a better move than optimising a difficult COMPASS score.

A scoring walkthrough, start to finish

To tie the criteria together, here is how you would actually score a real candidate rather than read the rules in the abstract. Take a 32-year-old data engineer offered S$7,200 a month at a mid-sized technology firm.

Start with the candidate criteria. At S$7,200 the salary sits well above the general floor for a 32-year-old, comfortably into the middle-to-upper part of the local range, so C1 scores 20. The candidate holds a computer science degree from a well-regarded university, so C2 also scores 20. That is already 40 points, a pass, from the candidate alone, before the firm is even considered.

Now the firm criteria, which in this case are a cushion rather than a necessity. The employer has a mixed-nationality engineering team in which the candidate’s nationality is a minority, so C3 scores 20; its share of local professionals is around the middle for its industry, so C4 scores 10. Add the bonus: data engineering roles have at times featured on the Shortage Occupation List, and if this role qualifies, C5 adds 20. The total lands far above 40, and the pass is secure even if any one element were weaker.

Now change one fact. Make the candidate’s nationality the dominant one at the firm, and drop the local-professional share below the industry norm: C3 falls to 0 and C4 to 0. The total is still 40 on the candidate criteria alone, so the candidate still passes, which is exactly why a well-paid, well-qualified specialist has such a resilient application. Weaken the candidate side instead, a salary just over the floor and a lesser-known degree, and now the firm criteria and the shortage bonus become the difference between a pass and a fail. Running the numbers this way, criterion by criterion, is how you turn COMPASS from a black box into a predictable calculation.

How the Employment Pass fits into your plans

This guide explains the Employment Pass in plain terms, so you can see how the pieces fit together before you commit time or money to an application. The right path often depends less on where you are from and more on your work, study, family ties and future intentions in Singapore. Eligibility for the Employment Pass is assessed against published criteria, and meeting the baseline is necessary but rarely the whole story.

Prepare originals and clear copies, and make sure names, dates and details are consistent across every document you submit. Build in time for gathering documents, obtaining translations where needed, and reviewing everything before you commit. Leaving questions blank or answering vaguely invites follow-up and delay; clear, complete answers move things along. Getting the fundamentals right early tends to matter far more than any last-minute optimisation near submission.

If your circumstances are unusual or span more than one category, it is worth mapping them out carefully before assuming which route fits. Different profiles are weighed differently, so a factor that matters greatly in one case may be secondary in another. Organise your documents in the order the application asks for them; a tidy, complete submission is easier to assess. Aligning your application with other life events, a job change, a lease, a school term, avoids awkward gaps or overlaps.

Relying on outdated figures or informal advice leads people to plan around the wrong requirements. Nothing here is a shortcut; it is a structured way to approach the Employment Pass with fewer surprises. Employers, sponsors and family members frequently play a part, so it helps to know early who else needs to be involved.

Where a criterion is expressed as a range or a guideline, treat the stronger end as the safer target rather than the bare minimum. Because document requirements are periodically revised, review your full checklist carefully before you finalise your pack. Fees apply at various points and are revised periodically, so budget with a little room rather than an exact figure.

A handful of mistakes account for a large share of avoidable problems, and most are entirely preventable with a little care. Because requirements are refined over time, this guide focuses on the durable principles you can rely on while you plan. The Employment Pass is most relevant to people in a few recognisable situations, and seeing yourself in one of them is a useful starting point. Because thresholds and qualifying conditions are updated from time to time, treat any specific figure as a guide and check that it is current when you apply.

Where a document is in another language, an official translation is usually expected, so factor that into your preparation. For current fees, timelines and payment methods, work from up-to-date information rather than second-hand figures. Ignoring correspondence, or missing a request for further information, can stall an otherwise sound application.

The information here is organised the way a careful applicant would actually work through it: eligibility first, then documents, then the process itself. If you are supporting someone else’s application, the same principles apply, clarity about roles prevents avoidable delays. Singapore’s agencies look at the overall strength and coherence of a profile, not merely whether individual boxes are ticked.

Keep a personal copy of everything you submit, along with a note of when and how you submitted it. Timing shapes an immigration plan as much as eligibility does, and small scheduling choices can have outsized effects.

For more detail, see our guide to Employment Pass eligibility.

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