Employment Pass · 3 min read
Incorporation to EP approval in under a month, with a China degree verified first
Our client, a Chinese founder, went from a brand-new company to an approved Employment Pass in under a month, and the application itself was approved in five days. The key was verifying her China degree before filing, instead of waiting for MOM to ask for proof.
Details anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Facts, sequence and outcome are real. Every case is different and decisions rest with the authorities.
The situation
Our client was setting up an international trading company in Singapore. For applicants educated in China, MOM expects the degree to be independently verifiable. When the verification is missing, the pattern is predictable: MOM writes back, asks for proof, and a case that could have taken days drags into months of back and forth.
What we did
We reversed the usual order. While the company’s incorporation was completing in January, we obtained the official verification report for her China degree. By the time the Employment Pass was filed in early February, the proof was already attached, and her salary had been set to the benchmark for her sector.
The outcome
The application was approved five days after filing, within the same week. From incorporating the company to an approved pass took less than a month in total. There was nothing unusual about her case. It was fast because nothing was left for an officer to question.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| January 2025 | Trading company incorporated; China degree verification started at the same time |
| Early February 2025 | EP filed, with the verification report attached |
| Same week | Employment Pass approved, five days after filing |
What this case shows
- For China qualifications: verify first, file second
- Five-day approvals happen when there is nothing left to question
- Run the verification while the company is being incorporated; the two overlap
- A complete application is the fastest application
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