The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has reviewed the administrative fees for all work passes. The administrative fees for most work passes will increase on 1 April 2013.

This is in line with the Government’s financial principle that the full cost of providing a public service should be borne by users of the service, rather than taxpayers in general.

Employers have been paying administrative fees for the application and issuance of work passes since 2005. When the fees were first introduced, they were set at a level that was substantially below cost recovery. The fees were first revised in 2011. This helped increase the proportion of costs borne by employers who use work pass services, but it still fell short of full cost recovery. Read full article