EP application rejected due to high salary

"The high salary offered does not seems to commensurate the candidate's credentials" means that the salary is too high for the job and/or your background.
Try other jobs with lower salary!

thanks bebbi for your reply. Actually I holds Masters ansd Bachelors degree for the job I applied for. Possess 7 years of working experience ( Middle East, Africa and Singapore) in the relevant field. Asbper the MOM self assessment tool 6500 SGD is the minimum salary to qualify for EP. Once EP is approved I will be the new director for that company. Still MOM says my salary is too high!!

Sorry typo. Thanks beppi.

MoM is not saying salary is too high for that position. MoM talking about your credentials because if you had Master degree then I’m quite sure you never disclose that degree certificate while applying S pass. Secondly, you current salary is $3900, so the salary increment at new employer is nearly 66% hike which is a very rare in Singapore.

Did you complete recently your master degree? If not then did you declare Masters degree to MoM earlier along with your bachelor degree certificate? Any mismatch in prior declaration also leads to rejection. Good luck

Thanks Surya for the reply. While applying S pass my company disclosed  about my master's degree to MOM. But during that time 6k was the minimum to pay by the company to qualify for an EP. They were not capable for that. Due to that I got S pass.

Secondly I completed my Master's in 2012. Not recently. My 7 years of experience is in the same field in different countries. That's why I quite confused about their reason for rejection.

My new company is incorporated in last sep 2019. But this company generated a profit about 200k during this period after the incorporation of company. Which means company is capable for paying the stated salary in EP for the next 2 years atleast. Also company holds new work order agreements.

I have doubt your Master degree is recognised at MoM. For S pass, only a diploma certificate is required, degree certificate does not required for S pass. Master degree is way over qualified for a s pass. So, what was your current employer told may not be correct. MoM will straight way reject S pass if someone submit master degree. For market standard, no matter whether your employer applied S pass or EP, but with master degree and 6plus years of experience, minimum salary shouldn’t be less than $6k. Hence, I have doubt last time your employer had submitted your master degree.

So, when your new employer submitted Masters certificate, MoM rejected due to possible three reasons, 1. Master degree certificate declaration was not submitted earlier. 2. Why a master degree holder with 6-7yrs experience was working merely of a salary of $3900 which was too low to the market standard. 3. A new company who recently set up offering such a high salary with a senior position, was there any local or PR considered?

Try to look into new opportunities. Good luck

Dear Surya,
My master degree and the university is approved by MOM. I am not sure whether my HR submitted my Master's degree when they applied for S pass. But if the job requires only a bachelors degree why we need to submit the master's degree if the candidate is ready to work for that position ? If he find another higher post in the same category which requires Master's degree, why can't he apply for that post under EP ? Leave the Master's degree. Even with Bachelor's degree with 7 years of experience is also eligible for EP.  I am just exploring the possibilities. Don't take it as I am commenting against your opinion.

My new company was unable find any local or PR for this post as my course is quite unique. This course is not offered in Singapore. That's why they want to appoint me as Director of this company to recruit more locals and create more job opportunities.

I

MoM requires a submission of a candidate's true and complete details for any work pass application. Omission of a degree is not allowed, even if t isn't required for the job.
(Note: Overqualification for a job is as much a potential rejection reason as underqualification, especially as you are underpaid for your actual level, as seems thecase in your old job.)
Conflicting information in subsequent applications will always cause problems, and may lead to rejection. I hope you can prove that you gave the degree certificate to your old employer and it was their mistake to not submit it!

Hi, I would like to give you an update on my case. Today my EP got approved in my second appeal. During my S pass application my employer submitted my Master's degree certificate. MOM won't reject s pass application even if you hold master's degree..if salary is not enough for EP they will give S pass. We checked with MOM on this.

The reason for rejection is high salary offered by my new employer for my EP compared to my previous S pass salary. We give a proper justification for this in this regard as I will take over the director position of this company. And I provided the documents to MOM  which supports my job position is unique and can't replace by local. My EP application timeline is as follows:

Date of application : 6th July
Rejected : 14h July
1st Appeal : 17th July
Rejected : 7th Aug
2nd Appeal: 27th Aug
Approved : 21st Sep

Congrats. Not sure about your specific query to MoM and their response. But, over qualification or under qualification are also part of selection process. In order to maintain the imbalance within the industry (it varies industry by industry).

Yes, it depends which industry you may apply into and the number of years experiences you have. As the EP minimum salary level gone up substantially higher, from 3.3k to 5k in span of a year or two, so many EP holders also downgraded to S pass level.

Nevertheless, good that your second appeal with valid rationale to justify your application placed in front of MoM officer successfully. All the best.

Thank you for sharing the result and experience

You are welcome. If your case is strong enough and can provide proper justification, then surely MOM will consider that application. Good luck!

Hi Silvercode , could you
provide some pointers on the justification given for the second appeal?

Hi all,

I am finding myself in a similar situation: currently on S pass with salary between 5.5 and 6k for a senior manager role. Role proposed from new employer is director - where I am asking at least 8k - and minimum salary to qualify for EP for me is 7.8k. Is this increase considered too high? Honestly speaking for a director role 7.8 is very low, just unluckily that in my current company I am underpaid.

Any advice on this?

Thank you

DurbanP: Such a decision is up to MoM to make - and nobody here knows the exact details of your case, neither MoM's decision criteria. Thus it is impossible to give you a good answer!

Thank you Beppi

Hi

Can you please share the pointers you have mentioned in your letter