SPass Rejected after 2 weeks

Hello everyone. I'm Angelica. I was previously an Spass holder. My first Spass was approved last June, 1st week. I worked as a Customer Service Executive in the food and beverage industry with an offer of $2,300. However, I only stayed for like more than 4 months in the job as I had misunderstanding with our manager. Moreover, it was also not my line of expertise as I am a teacher. Recently, I was offered a Student Care Teacher job in a certain school/company and was applied for an Spass last Nov. 6, 2017. Earlier, upon checking at around 7:59pm, just before the MOM site closes, status is REJECTED. It was totally a downfall. What could have been the reason for this? My employer said that the offer would be t$2,200 or more depending on what is suited for my qualifications upon reprofiling. They do have agents to do the job but was never able to meet the agent personally. I was not contacted by my employer yet as I think they haven't been able to check it yet. I need help. 😭

It is not possible to tell the rejection reason from the limited information you gave.
There are several possibilities:
- Salary not in line with your education and work experience (you can check that with MoM'S SAT tool)
- Your education and experience is not deemed sufficient for the job
- You have a (recognised) university degree and thus should get an EP
- You are seen as job-hopper due to the short previous job
- The previous employer has reported you and you have an "adverse record" now
- New employer has no S-Pass quota
- There are suitably skilled locals who could do the job (and must be hired first)
Your employer could contact MoM and try to find out the reason - they do sometimes (but not always) tell.

Thanks for your response Beppi!

1. I have 3 years relevant experience in teaching.
2. My university is found in MOM list of accredited universities.
3. I'm not sure if mg previous employer reported me as I do have contact with their agent, and haven't informed me of such, and I'm pretty sure they will inform me had there been such issues.
4. Will there be any chance for me to do an appeal with my current employer???

Thanks in advance!

Your new employer can of course appeal against the rejection.
But without new information that wasn't submitted before - AND rectifies the rejection reason - an appeal is a waste of time. So I suggest they should contact MoM first and try to find out why you were rejected.

With the additional data you gave in your post, I think the most likely reason is that you should be on an EP, not S-Pass. The minimum EP salary is S$3600/month for a fresh graduate - with 3 years applicable experience you probably need S$4000/month to qualify.

Hello there Beppi!


I was able to ask my employer already regarding the reason for the rejection. They said that MOM did not give any reason for the rejection, however, they will just update me if there is any development.

Therefore, I assume that they have already or will probably file an appeal against the rejected SPass.

Moreover, I am not aware as to whether or not they have made any changes, or added other supporting documents to increase the chances of approval. Also, I was informed that they hired an agent to do all the processing.

Now my question, could it possibly be that the agent, as instructed by my employer, has tried keying in the minimum offer of $2,200 (which I know is not suited for my qualifications & experiences) in hopes that it will be approved, and save themselves some money..???

  I tried the Self-Assessment Tool, and the result shows that I am likely to get an SPass with $2,600 offer.

My employer is not disclosing too much information, so I couldn't stop myself from speculating that they made a mistake on keying in details for my application. Anyway, I hope that it will be approved already.


Hope to get a response. Thanks a lot!

Ahem: You must know what you will earn, don't you?
If not, check the employment contract you agreed to with the company.
If you have no employment contract (which needs to be part of the work pass application), they cannot have applied for a pass for you - and are likely cheats.
Did they, by any chance, ask you to pay for the application - or for getting the job?

In any case, if the SAT says you don't qualify for an S-Pass below S$2600/month, you will definitely not get a pass below that.
And since you are experienced degree holder: Try increasing the salary in SAT until you are eligible for EP - you will probably not get a pass below that.

As far as I remember, I did not sign any employment contract with them yet. I assume that we will be having the contract signing after it has been approved already, the same as what happened with ny previous employer.

Also, they did not ask for any payment from me as I did not go through agency, I was directly hired by the company itself.

More likely, they did not let me sign the contract first because they are still weighing in the offer for me.

They told me that my job offer salary would be $2,200 as it is the minimum, or could be more depending on the reprofiling.

So I really speculate that they tried keyingg in the $2,200 offer first that's why it got rejected. And I think they refuse to disclose any information because it was their mistake.

I have another problem. I only got 5 days left here. I could hardly decide what to do next. 😭😭😭😭😭

As I said, a work pass can only be applied for after the candidate accepted the job offer. Fixing the salary is part of this. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not honest.
Rather than hoping for a job that would pay you far below your market value, I think you should look for a more suitable one - maybe in your country, since you have to leave in 5 days anyway?

Thank you for being so helpful Beppi. But I decide to remain hopeful still regarding the approval of my pass. Now, I only have questions.

I presume that the company has already appealed for my rejected pass. Question is, will the status of my SPass on EPonline change to "Pending" once the appeal has been filed already or will it remain the same?

I have asked someone working as an HR manager for a different company and said that only if the Spass has done "Reapplication" rather than "Appeal", then will it change to Pending status. Is this correct?

Thanks for your response!

The online status will usually remain "rejected" during the appeal process.
There is no "re-application" possible, only a new, separate application (e.g. for another position).

Thanks a lot Beppi! All the best!