S PASS / Work Permit application

The wording might cause confusion here. I am not sure what "my university (in Malaysia) is not listed in the list given by MOM in the pre assessment of the Epass" means.

• MOM does not maintain a "white list" or a "black list" of universities when it comes to EP application assessment.
• The HR may refer to the list of university in the C2 criteria of COMPASS. C2 maintains a list of "Top-tier institutions" which, if you are from these universities, you get additional 10 points. Only UKM, UPM, USM, UTM and Universiti Malaya are in this list. However, it does not mean that if you are not from these universities, you are not able to get an EP. If the other criterias still helps you to collect enough 40 points, you will still be eligible.

For Malaysian, especially Chinese Malaysian, usually it is pretty much easier to get a work pass (including Work Permit, SPass, and EP) approved (compare to other nationalities). Anyway, no one in this forum can say for sure if you will get your application approved or rejected. Just pray and wait for the result.

@Patrick Collison COMPASS only applies to EP applications. Here we are talking about S-Pass, so it is not relevant.

@beppi thank you! do you have an insight tho? im kinda nervous about this whole work permit application thing

    @Patrick Collison COMPASS only applies to EP applications. Here we are talking about S-Pass, so it is not relevant.        -@beppi

Quoted from the original text:

However, they said they will apply work permit for me as my university (in Malaysia) is not listed in the list given by MOM in the pre assessment of the Epass

"Epass" in this context refers to EP.

What HR told OP is, your university is not in the list --> cannot apply EP --> need to apply WP

but then they proceed with SPass.

I think the OP does not know the wording:

    WP = Work Permit - a work visa for unskilled labourers

    S-Pass = a work visa fo semi-skilled employees

    EP = Employment Pass - a work visa for degree holders with applicable experience

COMPASS applies only to EP.

@beppi I have just read OP's first post again, and i have just read my first reply (15 April 2024 06:59:50) carefully again; but I sill do not quite get what you mean.

I have been in Spore long enough to know that there are different types of passes including WP, SPass, EP. I have followed the news about COMPASS since the day 1 and I know that it only applies to EP.

• The OP mentioned the "pre-assessment of EPass", and again, in this context, "EPass" means "Employment Pass". Even though the term "EPass" is not officially used by MOM to refer to Employment Pass, it is quite commonly used colloquially among local people and HRs of small local companies.

• I think the story OP told is quite clear:
• "they said they will apply work permit for me as my university (in Malaysia) is not listed in the list given by MOM in the pre assessment of the Epass" --> This means, FIRSTLY, the company INTENDED to apply for an EP; but afer doing the pre-assessment, the company realize that OP has low chance of getting the EP application approved, THAT'S WHY they decided to apply for a lower category of pass (which is work permit or SPass).

In my reply, I was trying to talk about the reason why the company thought OP would not be able to get an EP.

The story cleary goes from EP(ass) to Work Permit then back to SPass, I failed to understand why you insist that "we are talking about S-Pass" and mentioning the company's previous intention (of applying EP) is "not relevant"

@Patrick Collison What you write is of course correct - but I focussed my replies on the actual question the OP asked at the end of his/her first post:

"Just wondering if my work visa application will get approved based on these criteria."

And that application is for an S-Pass. For this, previous considerations of WP or EP are irrelevant (and unknown to MoM anyway).