Real files, real constraints, real outcomes.
Every case below is an engagement we handled: what the client needed, what stood in the way, and what it took to get the approval. Names and identifying details have been changed.
Read the cases
Client Case Studies
Approvals we have secured, alongside worked scenarios built from the current rules. Client identities are limited to surname and descriptor.
A Singapore entity to sell into South-East Asia, with himself on the pass.
He believed a one-man company was the weakest possible sponsor for its own pass.
To extend the bakery to Singapore and use it as the centre of a wider international trading strategy.
A three-year diploma sits below what most people assume an Employment Pass requires.
To base themselves in Singapore and run the business from here.
They were planning around EntrePass, which is built for venture-backed businesses, not profitable trading.
To move the business in as well, not just the children's schooling.
The application had to argue the move was genuine, not only for the children's schooling.
To open a single outlet in Singapore and hold the pass himself as owner-director.
A degree is not required, but COMPASS awards points for one, so those points had to come from somewhere else.
Permanent residence for the family, not simply a pass.
An Employment Pass ties the household to one employer, which is the wrong instrument for a PR route.
To move the business to Singapore and keep serving the same clients.
An entity that exists only to sponsor its own director is exactly what MOM scrutinises.
To start his own company rather than continue as an employee.
Starting a company means proving a credible plan and the capacity to create local employment.
Room for the business to develop, and an international education for his children.
The business and the family requirements had to be solved as one sequence, not two.
To move himself and the company's centre of gravity to Singapore, and stop living on tourist entries.
A brand-new company with no trading history starts thin on the employer criteria.
A Singapore entity inside a fortnight, to satisfy a customer contract.
The real timeline was banking, at four to eight weeks, and usually an in-person visit.
To build the import/export business out of Singapore's position, and broaden what it did.
The company was new here, so the case rested on his record and the MBA.
To move the operating centre to Singapore while keeping the UAE entity for Middle East contracts.
Dubai's tax and property advantages are real, and Singapore does not match them.
To hold the Singapore company in her own name and be resident here to run it.
Succession inside a family business is documented differently from a first-time setup.
To move for education, arriving in June and enrolling for the new school year.
The school year starts in January, and AEIS has no rolling admission and no appeal.
A diploma at that institution, then a transfer into NUS or NTU.
No Singapore authority recognises the diploma the family was about to pay for.
To move to Singapore without disrupting her schooling.
An August birthday can land a child in an entirely different cohort.
Permanent residence, having been told to just apply.
PR is not a form, it is an argument about the family's depth of attachment.
To move alone first and bring the family later.
The Dependant's Passes depend on a salary figure set at incorporation, not adjusted later.
To relocate together, with the company incorporated in Singapore.
They assumed the family would be awkward to sponsor, though the rules are neutral on which spouse does.
To take up the role sometime next year.
The threshold is assessed on fixed pay, so bonus and long-term incentives do not count.
These approvals date from 2018–2021. Singapore’s Employment Pass framework has changed since: COMPASS came into force in September 2023, and the salary thresholds rise again on 1 January 2027. A past approval is a record of what was achieved under the rules of the day, not a prediction of any future outcome. No case constitutes advice on your own circumstances.