Article
Singapore EP COMPASS Scoring 2026: C1–C6 Math, Failure Combinations, and the Appeal Path
In one sentence
Singapore EP COMPASS scores six criteria (C1 Salary, C2 Qualifications, C3 Diversity, C4 Local Employment, plus C5 SOL and C6 SEP bonuses) and the application needs at least 40 points to pass.
Quick answer
- The four foundational criteria each award 0, 10, or 20 points, measured against MOM-published benchmarks: C1 against the sector and age-band 65th and 90th salary percentiles, C2 against the qualifying-institutions list, C3 against the firm's existing PMET nationality mix, and C4 against the firm's local PMET share and trend (averaged over the past three months for C3 and C4).
- C5 Skills Bonus adds up to 20 points when the role maps to MOM's Shortage Occupation List by both job profile and substantive work; C6 Strategic Economic Priorities Bonus adds 10 points when the firm participates in an MOM-recognised SEP programme.
- The pass threshold is 40 points across the full C1–C6 sum, and there are many paths to 40: a balanced 10/10/10/10 across the foundational criteria passes, as does 20/20/0/0, though every zero leaves the application brittle to MOM benchmark refreshes such as the one published in August 2025.
- The most common sub-40 patterns Anlian Group's Singapore corporate services team sees in client engagements are driven by C3 (nationality concentration in small teams) and C4 (firms with no local PMET base or with a declining local PMET trend), not by salary alone.
- When MOM rejects an EP on COMPASS, the higher-yield path is reapplication after the scored weakness is fixed (a local PMET hire that lifts C4, a SOL realignment that supports C5, or a candidate substitution that corrects C3) rather than a formal appeal of the original decision.
Why this matters in 2026
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) refreshed COMPASS C1 sector salary benchmarks in August 2025, raising the 65th and 90th percentile yardsticks across multiple sectors. A January 2024 candidate package that earned C1 = 20 in financial services or professional services may now score C1 = 10 against the August 2025 benchmark for the same sector and age band. The C2 Top-Tier Institutions List was updated in November 2025, expanding and reordering which universities qualify for the C2 = 20 award. Both updates moved the scoring goalposts within twelve months, and renewal applications are evaluated against the version of the framework current at submission time.
Since the EP qualifying salary floor moved to S$5,600 per month on 1 January 2025 (and higher in the financial services sector), most applications now clear the salary floor by margin but land somewhere between C1 = 10 and C1 = 20 on scoring. Whether the application passes COMPASS depends on what C2 through C6 contribute, which is precisely where overseas-headquartered firms, founder-led SMEs, and family-office-stage operators without an established local PMET base structurally underperform.
This article walks the actual 0/10/20 triggers per criterion, runs through the failure combinations Anlian Group sees in 2026 client work, and documents the MOM appeal versus reapplication channels with the timing prospects need to plan for. It is the scoring-math companion to the EP general overview at [/insights/singapore-employment-pass-2026](/insights/singapore-employment-pass-2026), not a re-explanation of what COMPASS is.
The fundamentals
C1–C4 foundational scoring: the 0/10/20 triggers per criterion
COMPASS C1 through C4 each award 0, 10, or 20 points against a single benchmark comparison: C1 against the sector and age-band salary percentiles, C2 against MOM's qualifying institutions, C3 against the firm's existing PMET nationality mix, and C4 against the firm's local PMET share and trend.
C1 (Salary). The candidate's fixed monthly salary scores zero if it falls below the 65th percentile of local Professional, Manager, Executive and Technician (PMET) salaries in the candidate's sector and age band, ten points if it meets the 65th percentile, and twenty points at or above the 90th percentile. The August 2025 benchmark refresh is the current version. As a concrete anchor, the Accommodation sector at age 25 requires S$4,547 for ten points and S$6,225 for twenty points; the Administrative & Support sector at age 25 requires S$5,993 for ten points and S$10,139 for twenty points; financial services and ICT benchmarks sit materially higher. The benchmark scales with age within each sector because the local PMET salary curve rises with experience.
C2 (Qualifications). Candidates with no MOM-recognised qualification score zero. Candidates with a degree-equivalent qualification from an institution on MOM's published list score ten points. Candidates with a qualification from an institution on MOM's Top-Tier Institutions List score twenty points. The Top-Tier list was updated in November 2025 and is global: selected universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, India, and across Europe and the Americas are included alongside the United States and United Kingdom institutions most prospects expect. C2 is the principal lever for overseas-educated candidates and rewards verifying the actual institution against the MOM-published list before assuming the score.
C3 (Workforce Diversity). C3 measures the candidate's nationality share in the firm's PMET headcount, averaged over the past three months. A high concentration of the candidate's nationality scores zero; a moderate share scores ten; a low or zero share scores twenty. The MOM-published FAQ at [/faq/compass/how-are-pmets-counted](https://www.mom.gov.sg/faq/compass/how-are-pmets-counted-under-the-diversity-and-support-for-local-employment-criteria-for-compass) clarifies that the calculation uses the firm's recent average rather than a snapshot at application date.
C4 (Support for Local Employment). C4 measures the firm's local PMET share against a sector benchmark, with weight given to the trend over the past three months. Firms with a healthy and rising local PMET share score twenty; firms at the sector average score ten; firms below average or on a declining trend score zero. Renewal applications are scored against current-firm state, so a firm whose local PMET share fell over the year leading into renewal can see C4 drop even when the EP holder's own profile is unchanged. C4 is the criterion that quietly determines outcomes for small Singapore-incorporated firms and is the highest-frequency binary fix in failed applications. The [EP vs S Pass vs Work Permit listicle](/comparisons/ep-spass-work-permit-tiers) maps the visa-tier alternatives when EP is not viable on COMPASS alone.
C5 SOL + C6 SEP bonuses: when they apply and how to actually claim them
C5 adds up to 20 bonus points when the role maps to MOM's Shortage Occupation List by both job profile and substantive scope, and C6 adds 10 bonus points when the firm participates in an MOM-recognised Strategic Economic Priorities programme at the time of application.
C5 mechanics. The Shortage Occupation List is role-mapped, not industry-mapped. The candidate's actual scope of work documented in the employment contract and the firm's hiring rationale must match the SOL profile published by MOM. Working in a sector that contains SOL roles does not by itself earn C5; the specific role must align. The most frequent refusal pattern is a title-substance mismatch: a Data Analyst doing operational reporting cannot claim the Data Scientist SOL profile and the C5 = 20 award is disallowed at MOM review. The MOM SOL Employer Guide describes the documentation MOM expects to support an SOL claim.
C5 stacking. The SOL bonus stacks on the foundational score rather than replacing it. A candidate at C1 = 10, C2 = 10, C3 = 0, C4 = 0 sits at 20 foundation points and cannot pass on foundation alone; adding C5 = 20 lifts the total to 40 and passes the threshold, provided the SOL claim is substantively defensible at review. This is the most common path to approval for solo overseas founders who would otherwise fail on C3 and C4, provided the role is genuinely on the SOL and the work is substantively SOL-aligned.
C6 mechanics. The Strategic Economic Priorities bonus is awarded to firms participating in an MOM-recognised programme; eligible partnership categories include selected research and development partnerships, internationalisation programmes, and innovation initiatives. Most family offices, founder-owned SMEs, and overseas-headquartered firms without a Singapore subsidiary participating in such programmes do not qualify for C6. Where the firm already has SEP eligibility, claiming C6 is procedural; where it does not, pursuing C6 to fix an EP within a short window is the wrong order of operations. For AI and technology founders unable to satisfy SOL or SEP, the [Tech.Pass vs ONE Pass vs EntrePass comparison](/comparisons/tech-pass-vs-one-pass-vs-entrepass) maps the alternative routes outside the EP framework.
Failure combinations and the appeal-versus-reapplication path
The four dominant sub-40 COMPASS profiles in Anlian Group's 2026 client engagements are the solo-founder C3 + C4 zeros, the small-team same-nationality concentration, the at-benchmark-salary borderline, and the renewal-time C4 drop, and the practical recovery is reapplication after the scored weakness is fixed rather than a formal appeal.
The following table reverses the framework: given a sub-40 score, the table identifies the binary fix that lifts the application above threshold, ordered by the speed at which it is operationally achievable. Each row represents a scoring configuration Anlian Group has navigated for clients during the post-2024 COMPASS tightening cycle.
| Profile (C1 / C2 / C3 / C4 / C5 / C6) | Total | Result | Most common context | Binary fix | Operational time-to-fix (Anlian Group typical range) |
|---|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 10 / 20 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 | 30 | FAIL | Solo overseas founder, no local PMETs yet | Hire one local PMET in a substantive role before EP submission | 4–8 weeks |
| 10 / 10 / 0 / 10 / 0 / 0 | 30 | FAIL | Small SME, finance team dominated by one nationality | Substitute candidate or diversify upcoming hires | 8–16 weeks |
| 10 / 0 / 10 / 10 / 0 / 0 | 30 | FAIL | At-benchmark salary, no degree, sector-average diversity | Add C2 verification, or pursue SOL realignment for C5 | 2–6 weeks |
| 10 / 20 / 10 / 10 / 0 / 0 | 50 | PASS (borderline) | Top-tier degree, at-benchmark salary in services | None required, but rebuild C1 margin before next renewal | n/a (monitor) |
| 10 / 20 / 0 / 0 / 20 / 0 | 50 | PASS via SOL | Solo founder, role on SOL, work substantively SOL-aligned | None required; ensure SOL documentation airtight | n/a |
| Renewal: C1=10 / C2=20 / C3=10 / C4 drops 10→0 | 40→30 | FAIL at renewal | Firm's local PMET share fell over twelve months | Hire local PMET before renewal window, or accept non-renewal | 12–24 weeks |
| 10 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 20 / 0, SOL claim refused | 50→30 | FAIL on review | Role title does not match SOL substantive profile | Realign role description; resubmit; or rebuild on C1–C4 only | 4–12 weeks |
*Time-to-fix ranges reflect Anlian Group's operational sequencing in past engagements and depend on hiring market, role-substance verification, and submission queue at MOM. They are not MOM-published timings.*
Appeal versus reapplication. MOM operates an appeal channel through the EP Online portal for EP rejection decisions, and the framework's published guidance distinguishes appeals from reapplications clearly: appeal asks MOM to reconsider whether the framework was applied correctly to the original package; reapplication is a fresh submission with a corrected profile. In the Anlian Group team's engagement experience, reapplication resolves a higher share of rejections than appeals overturn, because the typical rejection reason is a substantive scoring weakness rather than a framework misapplication. MOM does not publish a mandatory cooldown period between EP applications, so reapplication can begin once the corrective change (a local PMET hire that lifts C4, an SOL realignment that supports C5, a candidate substitution that fixes C3) is operationally in place. Where the underlying weakness is structural and not fixable within the prospect's timeline, alternative routes such as [Tech.Pass renewal](/insights/tech-pass-renewal-2026) or PEP can sequence into the broader relocation plan, as the [Indonesian tech founder case study](/case-studies/indonesian-tech-founder-tech-pass) illustrates.
| Criterion | Score range | What triggers each tier | Typical fix when sub-40 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 Salary | 0 / 10 / 20 | Below 65th / at 65th / at or above 90th percentile of sector and age-band PMET salary (August 2025 benchmark) | Salary uplift to next tier; reframe role to a substantively defensible sector with lower benchmark | |
| C2 Qualifications | 0 / 10 / 20 | None / degree-equivalent from MOM list / institution on Top-Tier list (Nov 2025) | Verify the candidate's institution against the MOM-published Top-Tier list before assuming zero | |
| C3 Workforce Diversity | 0 / 10 / 20 | High / moderate / low candidate-nationality share in firm PMETs (3-month average) | Diversify upcoming hires; substitute candidate from an under-represented nationality | |
| C4 Support for Local Employment | 0 / 10 / 20 | Below sector benchmark / at benchmark / above benchmark with rising trend (3-month average) | Hire one local PMET in a substantive role 3–6 months before submission or renewal | |
| C5 SOL Bonus | 0 / 20 | Role does not map / role maps to published SOL profile by both title and actual scope | Realign role description to match the SOL profile, if substantively defensible | |
| C6 SEP Bonus | 0 / 10 | Firm not on / firm on an MOM-recognised Strategic Economic Priorities programme | Rarely fast-fixable for small firms; deprioritise versus a C4 local hire | |
| Foundation pass threshold | 40 | Any combination summing to 40 across C1–C6 | Choose the cheapest binary fix: a C4 local hire is the lowest-cost path | |
| Bonus path | up to +30 (C5 + C6) | Both bonuses claimed where substantively defensible | Use only when SOL or SEP claims survive MOM review |
Common pitfalls
Treating C1 = 10 (at-benchmark salary) as a comfortable margin
At-benchmark salary earns ten points, leaving the application dependent on C2 through C4. Most prospects mentally treat "meets the benchmark" as a strength; under COMPASS scoring it is the minimum non-zero contribution, and the August 2025 sector refresh has moved several benchmarks upward, so positions that were comfortably C1 = 20 in 2024 may now score C1 = 10 under the same nominal salary.
Claiming SOL on title alone without role-substance mapping
MOM reviews SOL claims against the actual scope of work documented in the employment contract and the firm's hiring rationale, not against the job title. A Data Analyst doing operational reporting cannot claim the Data Scientist SOL profile; the C5 = 20 award will be disallowed at review and the application drops twenty points from the score the prospect had planned for.
Stacking same-nationality hires into a small PMET team
C3 is calculated on the firm's existing PMET nationality mix, averaged over the past three months. A two-person finance function with both holders from the same country puts the third hire at C3 = 0 structurally, before the application is even drafted. The fix here is sequencing: diversify the team before adding the same-nationality candidate, not after.
Assuming C6 SEP bonus is procedural for any firm
SEP partnerships are bilateral with specific firms on MOM-recognised programmes. Most family offices, founder-led SMEs, and overseas-headquartered firms without a Singapore subsidiary in an SEP programme are not eligible. Pursuing C6 in a short window to fix a borderline EP is the wrong order of operations; a C4 local PMET hire is faster and cheaper.
Reapplying with the same package after rejection
MOM rejection on COMPASS does not bounce back if the same profile is resubmitted with a covering letter requesting reconsideration. Reapplication requires the actual scored weakness to be corrected: a local PMET hire that lifts C4, a SOL realignment that supports C5, or a candidate substitution that fixes C3. Anlian Group's standard sequence is to reverse-engineer the score from the rejection rationale, identify the binary fix, execute the fix in four to eight weeks, and only then reapply.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the COMPASS pass threshold and can my candidate clear it on the foundational criteria alone?
- Forty points. A 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 distribution across C1 through C4 passes the threshold. Most family-office and SME prospects need at least one C5 or C6 contribution, because C3 = 0 is structurally common in small PMET teams.
- If C1 scores zero because the salary is below the sector 65th-percentile benchmark, can C5 SOL and C6 SEP fully compensate?
- The scoring math allows it (0 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 20 + 10 sums to 60 and passes COMPASS), but the EP qualifying salary is also a Gate 1 hard floor. Sub-S$5,600 per month (and higher in financial services) cannot proceed at application stage regardless of COMPASS scoring.
- Does the C2 Top-Tier Institutions List include non-English-language universities?
- The Top-Tier list updated in November 2025 is global. Selected institutions in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, India, and across Europe and the Americas appear on the list alongside the United States and United Kingdom institutions. Verify the candidate's specific institution against the MOM-published list before assuming the score.
- How does C3 work for first-employee firms with no existing PMET workforce to compare against?
- MOM applies the criterion on a basis that uses the firm's recent three-month average data; single-PMET firms structurally find C3 difficult because the candidate is the firm's PMET headcount. This is one operational reason ONE Pass, Tech.Pass, and EntrePass are sequenced alternatives for solo overseas founders. The [EP vs S Pass vs Work Permit listicle](/comparisons/ep-spass-work-permit-tiers) maps the wider visa-tier set.
- How does COMPASS scoring differ at EP renewal compared with first-time application?
- Renewal is scored against the framework current at renewal and against the firm's current-state C3 and C4 averages. A firm whose local PMET share declined over the year leading into renewal can find C4 drops from 10 to 0, pushing a 40-point original profile to 30 at renewal even when the EP holder's own salary, qualifications, and role have not changed.
- When MOM rejects an EP on COMPASS, what is the difference between appeal and reapplication?
- Appeal asks MOM to reconsider whether the framework was applied correctly to the original package. Reapplication is a fresh submission with a corrected profile after the scored weakness is fixed. Reapplication resolves a higher share of rejections in the Anlian Group team's engagement experience, because the typical rejection reason is a substantive scoring weakness rather than a framework misapplication.
- How does Anlian Group help with EP applications that fail or are at risk on COMPASS?
- Anlian Group's Singapore corporate services team, operating under MAS CMS101702 and the firm's ACRA Filing Agent licence, supports clients by reverse-engineering the candidate-and-firm COMPASS score from the rejection rationale or the pre-submission profile, identifying the binary scored weakness (in most engagements C4 via a local PMET hire or C5 via SOL realignment), and sequencing the corrective steps before EP submission or reapplication. Engagement scope and pricing are scoped per case during the [strategy call](/contact/strategy-call). Annualised cost varies materially with role complexity, sector, and the timeline available before submission; engagement-specific quotes are provided in the call.
How Anlian Group helps
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