Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC) is a temporary certificate issued by Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) that basically indicates that you are eligible to look for a suitable job in Singapore and will likely be issued an employment pass upon getting a job offer from a prospective employer. However, before we dwell into the nitty-gritty of EPEC application process, it's important to understand why MOM introduced this Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate and what problem does it try to solve.
The Rationale for EPEC
In order to work in Singapore, you need a suitable work permit visa. For skilled professionals, the appropriate work permit is called Employment Pass. Skilled professionals are the one that have tertiary level education from a recognized and reputable university and relevant work experience. There is no quota system for hiring workers under the employment pass category. This is important as it means as long you have the required skills, there is no restriction on Singapore employers to hire you.
Once you have secured a job offer, the employer will need to apply for employment pass on your behalf. The decision on approval/rejection of the EP application is based on the applicant's educational qualifications (a degree from a recognised university is highly recommended), relevant work experience, and proposed salary (minimum of S$2500/month). If you are an accomplished professional with good educational background and a proposed salary of at least S$8000, it's very unlikely that your EP will be rejected. More importantly your potential employer is likely to be less concerned as well.
If however you don't fit the above high profile, and since the employment pass application is subject to approval by the relevant government authorities (Ministry of Manpower), the employer always runs the risk of incurring costs in interviewing overseas candidates and applying for their employment pass only to get the application rejected by Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Therefore often Singapore employers prefer to avoid this hassle and instead prefer to hire local employees.
Enter Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC)
To address the above issue of approval uncertainty, MOM introduced so called Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC). EPEC is meant primarily for borderline cases where the applicant is not sure whether the EP will be approved if he/she secures a job in Singapore. There are two key benefits to getting the EPEC:
- You and your potential employer have the assurance that upon getting a qualified job offer, you are likely to get your EP approved by authorities.
- You will be granted permission to stay in Singapore for up to one year to facilitate your job search in Singapore.
The primary criteria for EPEC (and EP) approvals is good education. Singapore has its own list of educational institutes for each country that it considers as reputable institutes. However, even if your school is not listed in the list, it doesn't mean your EPEC or EP will get automatically rejected. You can still try.
How to apply for EPEC
Applying for EPEC is easy and free. There is no need to hire a consultant or agency to apply for your EPEC. You can do it yourself by applying EPEC online. It will hardly take 15-20 minutes to complete the online application. As part of applying online, you will need to upload scanned copies of your educational certificates, particular pages of your passport, and recent passport size photo, so make sure you have them ready before applying. There are no documents to be mailed via post.
Once you have applied for EPEC online, sit back and relax. If MOM requires any additional documents, you will be contact via email. Otherwise, you should expect to hear the outcome from them via email within 7-10 working days.
What if EPEC is rejected
Assuming you have submitted accurate information when applying for EPEC, your application could still be rejected by authorities for a number of reasons including:
- Your educational background is weak.
- You don't have enough work experience. If you have top of the line education, number of years of work experience is less important. Otherwise, your work experience is taken into account.
- You haven't worked for any reputed and well-known companies. Again, with an average education, this could also become an important issue in the EPEC approval/rejection decision.
- Your work experience does not match with the field of your study. This is also considered a negative factor.
In case the EPEC application is rejected, you need to think about the possible reasons based on the information listed above. Your next course of action will depend on your conclusion of the reason for rejection. Unfortunately it's guess work only for you as the authorities will not disclose the reason for EPC rejection to you.
What to do after EPEC approval
Once you have received the notification of EPEC approval, you are ready to explore the world of job opportunities in Singapore.
It's very important for your potential Singapore employers to know that you already hold a valid Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate. EPEC will relax their concerns about EP approval in case they decide to make you a job offer. You can do so by indicating about your EPEC in your Curriculum Vitae (CV).
If you can afford to be in Singapore while you are searching for a job, there is nothing like it. It helps your potential employers to conduct face-to-face interviews with you and make quick decisions. Luckily one of the benefits of EPEC is that it allows you to remain in Singapore for 6-12 months during your job search process. You will be given an extended social visit visa for this purpose.
It's important to note that employment pass eligibility certificate is issued only once and is not renewable. You should apply for it only when you are ready to explore job opportunities in Singapore. Good Luck!
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