Singapore · Business & founder
EntrePass
Open. Jointly administered by MOM and Enterprise Singapore. Narrower than most advisers present it: it is an innovation-and-VC pass, not a general founder visa.
EntrePass is frequently mis-sold as a cheap way into Singapore. It is not a lifestyle route: MOM expects venture-backed, innovation-led, job-creating companies, and renewal is conditional on hitting escalating spend and local-hire targets. A consultancy or trading company will not qualify.
Qualifying routes
Raised at least SGD 100,000 from a government-recognised VC or angel investor, or is an incubatee at a recognised incubator/accelerator
Holds intellectual property, or has a research collaboration with an A*STAR or Singapore IHL, or holds recognised expertise in the field
Track record of investing in businesses and intent to grow new or existing Singapore businesses
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 100k SGD
- Total landed cost
- SGD 105 application fee plus SGD 225 issuance fee; the real cost is the qualifying funding or IP and the annual renewal hurdles
- Timeline
- 2–4 months — MOM plus Enterprise Singapore assessment
- Physical presence
- You must actively run the business in Singapore
- Family
- spouse and children under 21 — but only once the business hits spending and hiring thresholds at renewal
- Permanent residency
- no automatic route; PR application through the ordinary channel
- Citizenship
- via PR only; discretionary
- Language test
- none
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- At least 30% shareholding in a Singapore private limited companyCompany must be venture-backed, own innovative technology, or the applicant must qualify as an investor/innovatorBusiness must not fall in the excluded categories
- Ineligible business types are explicitly excluded — coffee shops, food courts, bars, nightclubs, massage parlours, karaoke lounges, foot reflexology, TCM, employment agencies and geomancy among them.
- Renewal requires escalating total business spending and local hires; failing them ends the pass and your family's dependant passes.
- You must hold at least 30% of a Singapore private limited company registered with ACRA (or register within 6 months of approval).
- For most UHNW families the ONE Pass or an Employment Pass through their own company is a cleaner instrument.