EntrePass family passes in Singapore turn on the business, not salary

Singapore’s EntrePass is a work pass for founders, with no stipulated minimum salary. Whether a founder’s family can join depends on the record of the business and its founder: spending and local hiring, companies sold, money raised or deep-tech intellectual property. The Ministry of Manpower states that dependant privileges “are subject to business spending instead of pass holder’s salary”.

A work pass for founders

The EntrePass lets a foreign entrepreneur start and run a business in Singapore that is “venture-backed or possesses innovative technologies”. The candidate can apply directly, and the pass carries no foreign worker levy or quota.

It is open to all nationalities. The holder may engage only in work activities related to the company associated with the pass. A new pass and the first renewal last up to one year; later renewals last up to two.

The entry test

The applicant must have started, or intend to start, a private limited company registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), and must hold at least 30% of it. The company must be venture-backed or own innovative technologies. If it is more than 12 months old at the date of application, it is assessed on the renewal criteria instead.

The applicant must also meet at least one of five criteria:

• raising at least S$100,000 from investors in a single funding round, for a past or current business;
• support from a government-recognised or internationally renowned incubator or accelerator;
• having founded and sold a venture-backed or innovative business, with the sale made under the applicant’s management;
• intellectual property registered with an approved national institution, giving the business a significant competitive advantage;
• an ongoing research collaboration in Singapore with an institute of higher learning or a research institution; service contracts do not count.

Excluded businesses include coffee shops, hawker centres, bars, night clubs, employment agencies and geomancy businesses.

Four tests for a spouse and children, one for parents

A founder may bring a spouse and children by meeting at least one of four tests:

• annual total business spending of S$100,000 and a local workforce of 1;
• having founded and sold two or more venture-backed or innovative companies;
• having raised more than S$2 million for a past or current business;
• holding two or more deep-tech intellectual property rights that give the business a significant competitive advantage.

Parents have a single test: annual total business spending of S$200,000 and a local workforce of 2.

A legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21, including legally adopted children, receive a Dependant’s Pass. A common-law spouse, unmarried step-children under 21, unmarried handicapped children aged 21 or over and parents receive a Long-Term Visit Pass.

For comparison, Employment Pass and S Pass holders need a fixed monthly salary of S$6,000 to bring a spouse and children, and S$12,000 to bring parents.

The ministry advises applying for family passes after the EntrePass is approved. Applications filed at the same time lose the application fee for each family pass if the EntrePass application is rejected.

Renewal requirements by cycle

The renewal table, last updated on 1 January 2026, runs to eleven cycles. The first carries no spending or local-workforce test. The second requires annual total business spending of S$100,000 and a local workforce of 1, rising to S$1.15 million and 10 at the eleventh.

The first test for a spouse and children is the second cycle’s requirement: spending of S$100,000 and a local workforce of 1. The test for parents is the third cycle’s requirement.

The ministry calculates local workforce as the number of local professionals, managers and executives, plus one third of the number of other local employees on a qualifying salary, of whom at most 12 count. Both groups must be on the company’s direct payroll and have received Central Provident Fund contributions for at least three months.

A professional, manager or executive must also be a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, paid a basic monthly salary of at least S$3,900 in cycles one to five or S$4,700 from cycle six.

Annual total business spending is the company’s operating expenses less overseas royalties, franchise and technical know-how fees, work outsourced overseas and the pay of EntrePass holders. Cost of sales, personal expenses and residential rent do not count as operating expenses.

Every renewal also requires the holder to own at least 30% of the company and to have created an individual profile and claimed the company profile on the Startup SG Network. The company must show ongoing business activity and progress and submit its latest financial statements. The ministry says the criteria are “revised periodically”.

When the business closes

The holder must cancel the EntrePass within one week of closing the business. Tax clearance from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore must be sought at least one month before closing. Once the pass is cancelled, all passes issued to family members are cancelled too, and the ministry says the holder “will not be able to reinstate them”.

Fees and arrival

The EntrePass costs S$105 to apply for and S$225 to issue, and most applications are processed within six weeks.

Approval brings an in-principle approval letter, which is a single-entry visa giving six months to enter Singapore and have the pass issued. The holder must be in Singapore to have the pass issued, and the Singapore residential address provided must meet housing requirements.

Company set-up and tax

ACRA says foreigners must engage a corporate service provider to register a business, and that every business must have at least one local resident. The local residents it lists are Singapore citizens, permanent residents and holders of the Employment Pass, the Personalised Employment Pass and the Overseas Networks & Expertise Pass. It does not list the EntrePass.

ACRA also says an entrepreneur may apply for the EntrePass before incorporation or within six months of setting up.

A qualifying new company may claim the tax exemption scheme for new start-up companies in its first three consecutive years of assessment: 75% of the first S$100,000 of normal chargeable income and 50% of the next S$100,000 are exempt, up to S$125,000 a year.

The company must be incorporated and tax resident in Singapore and have no more than 20 shareholders, either all individuals or including at least one individual who holds 10% or more of the shares.

Under section 43 of the Income Tax Act, a company incorporated on or after 26 February 2013 does not qualify if its only activity is holding investments or if it undertakes property development. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore words the first exclusion as a company whose principal activity is investment holding.

The Vietnamese side

Setting up a company abroad, or contributing capital to or buying shares in one in order to take part in managing it, is outward investment under Vietnam’s Investment Law 143/2025/QH15, in force since 1 March 2026. Decree 103/2026/NĐ-CP lists individuals of Vietnamese nationality among outward investors, except those barred under Article 17(2) of the Enterprise Law.

Below VND 7 billion, and outside conditional sectors such as real estate, no investment registration certificate is needed. The investor declares the project on the national investment information system and registers the foreign-exchange transaction. From VND 7 billion, or in a conditional sector, the Ministry of Finance issues the certificate.

Under Circular 34/2026/TT-NHNN, the investor may open one capital account in dong, one in foreign currency, or both, at the same licensed bank for each project. Decree 103/2026/NĐ-CP requires profits to be transferred to Vietnam within 12 months of distribution.

The Apostille Convention entered into force for Vietnam on 11 September 2026, according to the Hague Conference’s status table. Its notifications record objections to Vietnam’s accession only from Czechia, Austria and Germany, not Singapore. This means the Convention applies between Vietnam and Singapore.

The ministry’s document page for the Dependant’s Pass asks for a copy of the marriage certificate and of the birth certificate stating the parents’ names, uploaded with an English translation. The page does not mention an apostille, and says the ministry may ask for other documents when it reviews an application.

Permanent residence

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority lists six groups of foreigners who may be eligible to apply for permanent residence. They include Employment Pass and S Pass holders and foreign investors, for whom the authority refers to the Global Investor Programme. The list does not name EntrePass holders.

No official page was found that names EntrePass holders as eligible. The ministry’s cancellation page says a holder who becomes a permanent resident need not cancel the pass, without saying by which route.

Larger capital routes are covered in an explainer on Singapore investor residence and one on family offices.

What this article has not established

Whether EntrePass holders may apply for permanent residence, and on what terms, was not established.

Whether a minimum presence in Singapore is required was not established.

How a founder meets ACRA’s local-resident requirement when applying before incorporation was not established.

Whether family members of EntrePass holders may work was not established.

How Vietnam’s outward-investment rules apply once the founder lives in Singapore was not established.

The founder’s personal tax position in Singapore and Vietnam was not established.