Singapore Start-up Visa

The eligibility page sets no capital threshold at all, replacing a money figure with a two-tier structure in which both tiers must be met.

The first tier concerns the company: the applicant must have started, or intend to start, a private limited company registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, in which the pass holder holds at least 30% of the registered company, and which is venture-backed or owns innovative technologies.

The second tier is to meet at least one of five criteria. First, having raised at least SGD 100,000 in a single funding round from investors, for a current or a past business.

Second, being supported by an incubator or accelerator that is government-recognised or internationally renowned.

Third, having founded and sold a business that was venture-backed or owned innovative technologies.

Fourth, holding intellectual property registered with an approved national IP institution, provided that IP gives a significant competitive advantage which cannot easily be replicated.

Fifth, having an ongoing research collaboration in Singapore with an eligible institute of higher learning or research institution, with the applicant personally involved and the collaboration verified by a contact at that institution.

One date cuts across both tiers: if the registered company is more than twelve months old as at the date of application, the first application is assessed against the renewal criteria rather than the criteria for a new pass.

And one layer of exclusion stands above both tiers: certain businesses cannot obtain an EntrePass even where every other condition is met - coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts.

Bars, night clubs and karaoke lounges; foot reflexology and massage parlours; acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine and herbal dispensing; employment agencies; and geomancy businesses.

This is a closed list by trade, so it is not measured in capital or in technology: a business in any of those trades is excluded even where it has raised funding and holds registered intellectual property.

What is granted is a work pass, issued under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and subject to the Conditions of Work Pass. It allows the holder to start and operate a business in Singapore, with no foreign worker levy and no quota, and it opens the way to passes for eligible family members.

Two features set it apart from Singapore other work passes, and both are absences rather than additions. First: there is no stipulated minimum salary.

For the other employment routes a salary floor is the first condition; here the test is applied to the company rather than to the individual pay packet. Second: the candidate can apply directly.

No employer sponsor is needed, so this pass does not tie its holder to any legal person other than their own company.

The term is short and tied to performance: the first pass and the first renewal run for up to twelve months, subsequent renewals for up to twenty-four, and the authority states that the pass is renewable only upon meeting the renewal criteria.

Alongside that, Enterprise Singapore - which works with the Ministry of Manpower to evaluate EntrePass applications - may contact pass holders periodically for engagement and for audit purposes. The relationship does not end at the grant.

One date about this source page itself: it records its last update as 19 November 2024, while the application page of the same programme records 7 July 2026 - twenty months apart. Two pages of one programme do not necessarily say the same thing, so each figure must be checked on the page that governs it.

A new pass and the first renewal run for up to one year; subsequent renewals for up to two years. A renewal application may be filed from three months before expiry, the pass issuance fee is SGD 225 plus SGD 30 for each Multiple Journey visa where applicable, and processing takes within eight weeks in most cases.

What governs is not the duration but a ladder rising with each renewal cycle, measured by annual Total Business Spending and Local Workforce. Spending is in SGD:

The renewal cycle is counted from the date the EntrePass was issued, or from the registered company date of incorporation where the original pass has expired. The authority states that these criteria are revised periodically.

The Ministry of Manpower's EntrePass pages, including the eligibility, renewal and cancellation pages, state no minimum number of days the holder must spend in Singapore. What those pages tie the continuity of residence to is the business: at each renewal the holder must demonstrate ongoing business activity and progress.

Closing the business means cancelling the pass, and the deadline is short: within one week of the date of closure. The authority gives an example so that nobody reads it otherwise - close on 3 February and the pass must be cancelled by 10 February.

But the first step falls before the closing date rather than after it: tax obligations must be fulfilled and tax clearance sought from the Inland Revenue Authority at least one month before the business closes.

Taken together the procedure spans some thirty-seven days around the closing date, most of it ahead of it.

The consequence for the family is automatic and cannot be reversed: once the principal pass is cancelled, every pass issued to family members is cancelled with it, and the authority states plainly that those passes cannot be reinstated. This is where a decision about a business becomes a decision about a household.

Two cases require no cancellation: becoming a Singapore permanent resident, and the pass having expired. The second carries a trap - once it has expired and the holder is still in Singapore, a short-term visit pass must be requested to give that stay a lawful basis, and failing to do so brings an overstaying fine.

That visit pass runs for up to ninety days from the date of application, and it must be shown with a valid passport to the immigration officer on leaving Singapore.

Bringing family is not a right attached to the pass but something tied to business performance.

To bring a spouse, common-law partners included, and children, the holder must meet at least one of four conditions.

The first is that the business has annual Total Business Spending of SGD 100,000 and one Local Workforce. The second is that the holder has founded and sold two or more companies that are venture-backed or own innovative technologies.

The third is having raised more than SGD 2 million for a past or current business. The fourth is possessing two or more deep tech Intellectual Properties providing significant competitive advantage to the business.

To bring parents the bar is twice as high: annual Total Business Spending of SGD 200,000 and two Local Workforce.

The pass types differ too: a legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21, legally adopted children included, apply for a Dependant Pass; while a common-law spouse, unmarried handicapped children aged 21 and above, unmarried step-children under 21, and parents apply for a Long-Term Visit Pass

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Singapore passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Singapore passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Singapore passport reaches 210 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The Ministry of Manpower eligibility page does not use the word tax once and states no tax benefit attached to the pass. The point on tax that the Ministry's EntrePass pages do make is the requirement to fulfil tax obligations and seek tax clearance from the Inland Revenue Authority at least one month before the business closes, as the residence cell of this page quotes. The rest of the tax position must be read at the Inland Revenue Authority, and for the company the most important thing there is an exclusion list.

The Tax Exemption Scheme for New Start-Up Companies is made under Section 43 of the Income Tax Act 1947, has applied since Year of Assessment 2005, and was amended with effect from YA 2020 following the Budget 2018 announcement.

The current relief, for the first three consecutive years of assessment, exempts 75% of the first SGD 100,000 of normal chargeable income and a further 50% of the next SGD 100,000 — a maximum of SGD 125,000 per year of assessment.

The older relief, applying to YA 2019 and earlier, was materially wider: 100% of the first SGD 100,000 and 50% of the next SGD 200,000, up to SGD 200,000 a year.

From the fourth year of assessment the company moves to partial tax exemption.

The corporate income tax rate is 17%. And here is the part a reader most needs, in the Authority own words: all new start-up companies are eligible for the tax exemption scheme except companies whose principal activity is that of investment holding, and companies that undertake Property Development for sale, for investment, or both.

Holding an EntrePass does not carry the exemption with it: a company falling in either group is excluded.

Three further conditions apply cumulatively: the company must be incorporated in Singapore.

It must be a tax resident of Singapore for that year of assessment; and its total share capital must be beneficially held directly by no more than 20 shareholders throughout the basis period, with either all shareholders being individuals or at least one individual holding 10% or more of the issued ordinary shares.

The relief is claimed by self-assessment rather than by any separate application: it is declared in the Estimated Chargeable Income and in Form C-S, Form C-S (Lite) or Form C.

The Authority states that it will act against abuse, including splitting the income of a profitable business across several shell companies so each stays under the exemption threshold, and shell companies charging fees to a profitable business without genuine commercial rationale.

As to the pass itself, the core condition is that the applicant has incorporated or will incorporate a private limited company and holds at least 30% of its share capital, as set out in the capital threshold cell of this page.

Read this cell within its scope: the source covers corporate income tax and the two exemption schemes; it says nothing about the personal income tax position of an EntrePass holder, nothing about the individual tax-residence threshold, and nothing about whether holding an EntrePass bears on the company's own tax residence. The individual threshold sits on the Inland Revenue Authority page Working out my tax residency, which makes no special provision for EntrePass holders: a foreigner is a tax resident for a Year of Assessment after staying or working in Singapore for at least 183 days in the previous calendar year, or continuously for three consecutive years, and is regarded as a non-resident if the stay is shorter than 183 days.

The fees fall at two points, not one, and are charged per pass in Singapore dollars:

One pass that reaches its destination therefore costs SGD 330, making 360 with a Multiple Journey Visa added.

The irrecoverable loss sits where few would look for it, and the authority warns of it directly: filing family pass applications at the same time as the main one means that a rejection of the main application forfeits the application fee on each family pass.

The authority advises filing family applications after the main pass has been approved. Filing together trades time against the risk of losing money, and that is a choice for the applicant to make deliberately.

Three further items carry an obligation the document does not price. First, a medical examination after arrival in Singapore where the in-principle approval letter requires it, together with a medical declaration form to be completed at issuance.

Second, accommodation: the Singapore residential address must meet the housing requirements before the pass can be issued, so housing is a condition of issuance rather than something arranged afterwards.

Third and heaviest: holding the pass does not guarantee that the business will be registered.

Approval must still be obtained from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for registering the business, and each licence needed to operate it must be applied for separately - two further layers with costs of their own, outside every figure above.

Three deadlines cost money if missed. The in-principle approval letter is a pre-approved single-entry visa good for six months - about twenty-six weeks - in which to enter Singapore and have the pass issued.

The notification letter that follows issuance is valid for one month only, and an extension must be requested if more time is needed. Fingerprint and photo registration, where required, must be done within two weeks of issuance.

And while the outcome is awaited, a Short-Term Visit Pass cannot be extended if it expires before the application is approved, with processing taking six weeks in most cases.