Singapore Employment Agency License - Step-By-Step Guide

An employment or recruitment agency in Singapore is a company that helps other companies with their recruitment and staffing needs, normally acting as the middle party between employer and potential employee. An employment agency could be engaged in placement of local as well as foreign candidates starting from junior level positions to top-level executives. The term in Singapore even applies to companies that run online job portals.

Before starting any business activity, an employment agency must obtain an Employment Agency License (EAL). This is the basic license required for all categories of recruitment agencies and  is governed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of Singapore. Employment agency licence in other countries is often also referred to as:

• recruitment agency licence
• staffing agency licence
• placement agency licence
• manpower agency licence

With Singapore encouraging foreigners from executive and middle-management levels to manual labourers to work in the country, there are numerous small and big placement agencies and head hunting firms to help Singapore companies meet their staffing needs.

Note: An employment agency licence is not required if you are hiring staff under your company's direct employment.

This guide sheds light on the requirements, application procedure, timeline, and costs involved with  obtaining an Employment Agency Licence (EAL) expect for maid agencies. For maid agencies there are additional requirements that are not covered here.

Step 1: Review Pre-Requisites

The following pre-requisites apply before you can proceed with the employment agency licence application filing in Singapore:

• You business (company, sole proprietorship, or LLP) must be registered with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore and your business activity code listed must be one of the: 78115 (executive search), 78114 (employment agency excluding maid agencies), or 78113 (maid agencies).
• Although the employment agency licence is for a business, the licence application is filed by a natural person (usually the owner of the business) who must be a Singapore Citizen, Permanent Resident, or Employment Pass holder at the point of filing the application. If you are a foreign person who is setting up the recruitment agency in Singapore, you will need to obtain your employment pass before you can apply for the license unless the application is filed by another executive of your company who is a Singapore Citizen, Permanent Resident, or Employment Pass holder. The applicants as well as all shareholders and directors of the company must not have prior bankruptcy or any court convictions records.
• You must have an operating business office. If you plan to use a home office, you will need an approval from HDB or URA authorities depending on the type of house (public or private) you live in.
• If your employment agency will be involved with placement of labour workers, you will need a Certificate of Employment Agency. This is a MOM-accredited course conducted by the Singapore Polytechnic and comprises 54 hours of lectures, 12 hours of tutorials and two three-hour exams over a period of three months. The course is available online and exams are conducted every month. For more details, refer to www.cec.sg.
• You must be prepared to furnish a Security Deposit of $20,000 in the form of Banker's Guarantee once your employment agency license is approved-in-principle. 

Step 2: File Application

Once you satisfy the pre-requisites, you are ready to file the application for employment agency licence. You can file it yourself or a professional services firm specializing in these matters to do it for you. Either way, the steps are as follows:

• The application is to be filed online through https://licences.business.gov.sg.
• The person filing the application must have a valid user id and password called SingPass. SingPass stands for Singapore Personal Access and is used to interact with government agencies online. You must be a Singapore citizen, permanent resident, employment pass or dependent pass holder in order to get a SingPass. You can obtain SingPass on the spot by visiting one of these locations.
• No payment is required at the time of filing the application.

Step 3: Wait for In-Principle-Approval Letter

Once you have successfully filed the online placement agency licence application, it will take approximately 7 days to process your application and inform you of the outcome. You will be notified via email and if your application is approved, an in-principle-approval (IPA) letter will be attached.

Step 4: Submit Necesary Documents

After receiving the IPA letter, you will need to submit certain documents and signed forms (MOM download link) so the license can be issued to you. Specifically, you will need to submit the following:

• All new employment agency licence applicants needs to obtain a $20,000 Security Bond in the form of Banker's Guarantee from a bank in Singapore. In order for the bank to issue you a Banker's Guarantee, you need to open a fixed deposit (FD) account for the said amount with bank. Banker's Guarantee must cover 15 months from the start date.
• Once you have opened the FD, complete and sign the Security Bond form and ask the bank to complete the Banker's Guarantee form. Copies of both of these forms are included in the download link mentioned above.
• In addition to the Security Bond and Banker's Guarantee, prepare the following documents for submission to MOM:
  • A clear copy (both sides) of your Singapore ID  (for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents) or your Employment Pass.
  • Latest copy of your company's business profile from ACRA
  • A recent passport size photograph
  • Copy of your In-Principle-Approval letter
  • Copy of approval letter from the relevant authority if you will be operating under the HomeOffice scheme (as mentioned in the prerequisites above).
  • A copy of the Certificate for Employment Agencies (CEA) Course, if your company will be involved with the staffing of labour workers.
  • Completed CheckList form (included in the download link mentioned above).
  • Any other documents requested in your In-Principle-Approval letter.

Once you all have all of the above documents ready, you should submit them Mon-Fri 8:30am-5:30pm at the following address :

Employment Agency Licensing Branch
Foreign Manpower Management Division
120 Kim Seng Road
Singapore 239436

It will take approximately another 7 days for the processing of submitted documents.  

Step 5: Make Payment and Receive License

Assuming you have submitted the necessary documents, you should receive an email notification approximately within 7 days of submission of the documents stating  that your application is approved and asking you to make the payment of S$350 for the issuance of the licence.

If you make the payment by credit card or internet banking, your employment agency license will be issued to you within 3 days of the payment. The license will be mailed to the applicant's residential address as indicated in the original application.

What to do if application is rejected?

Under normal circumstances if you have accurately submitted your employment agency licence application, there shouldn't be any reason for rejection of your application. If however for some reason your application is rejected, not all is lost. You can submit an appeal letter to the same address as listed above.

Your appeal will be reviewed by a senior officer and the processing could take 1-2 weeks. You may be asked to furnish additional documents in support of your application on a case-by-case basis.

FAQs

Q. How long does it take to process the employment agency licence from start to finish?

A. A practical timeline considering all the steps involved would be about 3-4 weeks as follows:

Q. Do I need to renew the employment agency license? If so, what is the process?

A. Employment agency licence is issued for 1 year at a time and must be renewed on an annual basis. About two months before the expiration date of your license, you will receive a renewal notice from authorities. The renewal notice will be sent to you via email on record. If your email id has changed, you should update it in your licence by using the same online license management portal that you used to submit your original application.

The eligibility criteria for renewal of your Singapore employment agency licence is simple and consists of:

• Your agency must have a good track record i.e. you should not have too many complaints against you and you should not have brokern any laws
• The officers of the company continue to be 'clean' i.e. free of bankruptcy and court convictions