On 6 March, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced the New Employment Pass (EP) applications from September 1, 2023 and EP renewals from September 1, 2024 must be supported by education verification proof from authorized background screening companies for all post-secondary diplomas and aforementioned qualifications.
Who will be affected?
The new updates will affect Singapore employers and eligible foreign applicants applying for new EP or renewing their EP applicaitons.
Background
In order to ensure that qualifications declared on work pass applications are authentic, education verification proof will only be required if an educational qualification declared in the application is from an institution not found on the MOM's drop-down list.
Impact
In conjunction with Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) implementation, the MOM has made changes to the education verification requirements. Verification is mandatory so long as the qualification is declared in the EP application. Employers who wish to score points under Criterion 2 on 'qualifications' will be required to submit the verification proof for qualifications declared on the EP application.
All post-secondary diplomas and above qualifications declared on the EP application must be supported with education verification proof from one of the authorized background screening companies listed below.
- Risk Management Intelligence (RMI)
- Avvanz International Background Checks
- Cisive
- Dataflow
- eeCheck
- HireRight
- Sterling RISQ
- Veremark
Education verification proof — Processing time
The processing time of the education verification proof varies for each background screening company. The average processing time is 15 to 30 working days, subject to the respective institutions' response time to the education verification agency.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.