Singapore

Singapore admits foreigners to work, to build a company, or to invest, and to nothing else. Every long-stay instrument in the country is attached to an employer, a company you control, or a capital commitment. There is no route designed for someone who simply wants to live there.

Can you stay in Singapore long term?

Yes, but only through a job or a business, and only if you accept that permanent residence is a discretionary grant with no published clock.

The realistic ten-year route for a professional is an Employment Pass renewed two to four times, then a PR application that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority may approve, defer or reject without giving reasons. Nothing in the Employment Pass converts automatically. You can hold the pass for a decade, pay tax every year, and still be refused. The realistic route for a founder is EntrePass, or a Singapore company plus an Employment Pass for yourself. The only route that grants PR directly is the Global Investor Programme, and it starts at S$10 million deployed into a business you run.

A person who is not working for a Singapore employer, not running a Singapore company, and not investing at least S$10 million has no long-stay route at all. There is no retirement visa. There is no digital nomad visa. There is no parent visa except as a dependant of a citizen or PR, or a Long-Term Visit Pass for parents of an Employment Pass or ONE Pass holder earning at least S$12,000 a month. The wealth route below S$10 million does not exist.

Citizenship is two years as a PR before you are eligible, then discretionary again. The whole ladder is discretionary above the work pass level.

Ways to move to Singapore

Read the table by situation, not by prestige. The cheapest route in the list is the Employment Pass, and it is also the one most people actually use.

The programmes

Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass. A five-year personal pass for people earning S$30,000 fixed monthly, or for outstanding achievers in sport, arts, academia and research. It lets you hold several employers and directorships at once without reapplying, and it covers parents as well as spouse and children. The money must come from a single employer, and that employer must be large: market capitalisation of at least USD 500 million or annual revenue of at least USD 200 million.

ONE Pass (AI and Tech). A separate track opening on 28 January 2027 for AI and frontier tech founders, executives and senior technical staff, at S$30,000 a month of which at least S$22,500 must be fixed cash. It replaces Tech.Pass, which stops taking applications on 27 January 2027 and does not convert.

Employment Pass. The ordinary work route: a Singapore employer sponsors you, the salary floor runs from S$5,600 to S$10,700 by age in 2026, and the employer must score 40 points on the COMPASS framework. Two years on first issue, three on renewal. The pass dies with the job, and COMPASS is scored on your employer’s profile rather than on you.

EntrePass. A founder pass with no minimum salary and no minimum capital, but one of five qualifying tests, the cheapest being S$100,000 raised in a single round. You must hold at least 30 per cent of the company, and renewal depends on escalating business spending and local headcount rather than on your own pay.

Global Investor Programme. The only direct route to PR. S$10 million into a Singapore business you run, S$25 million into a GIP-select fund, or a S$200 million family office with S$50 million deployed locally. Approval in Principle is valid six months and every subsequent step has a deadline.

Two further passes exist and are not written up separately: the Personalised Employment Pass, issued once for three years at S$22,500 a month, and the S Pass for associate professionals, which is quota-bound and a weak PR profile.

What Singapore is bad at

Settlement. The country sells renewable temporary permission and calls the rest discretionary, which means an Employment Pass holder can plan a decade and still have no answer. It has no retirement visa and no digital nomad visa, so the two largest groups of affluent movers are simply excluded, and the investment route that would catch them starts at S$10 million with an operating business attached.

The thresholds also move under people mid-plan. The Employment Pass floor rises to S$6,000, and S$11,500 at 45 and over, for new applications from 1 January 2027 and renewals from 1 January 2028. A pass granted at S$5,600 in 2026 will not renew at that level. Financial services runs a higher table again.

And the family rules are narrow. Parents are excluded unless you hold an Employment Pass or ONE Pass at S$12,000 a month or more and they come in on a Long-Term Visit Pass. Male dependants who take permanent residence are liable for National Service.

Guides

• ONE Pass: the S$30,000 rule, the employer test, and why renewals fail
• Tech.Pass and the AI and Tech track: the 27 January 2027 closure and what replaces it
• Employment Pass: salary floors by age, COMPASS scoring, and the 2027 increase
• EntrePass: the five qualifying tests and the renewal spend ladder
• Global Investor Programme: three investment options, deadlines, and the National Service liability

Sources

• Ministry of Manpower, ONE Pass, Employment Pass, EntrePass and S Pass eligibility pages, checked 2026-10-22
• Economic Development Board, Tech.Pass and Global Investor Programme, checked 2026-10-22
• Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, permanent residence and citizenship, checked 2026-10-22

Last updated 2026-10-22.