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singapore golden visa

Singapore golden visa: what actually exists in 2026

There is no Singapore golden visa, and the phrase misleads in a specific and expensive way. The only investor route is the Global Investor Programme, which starts at S$10 million, charges a S$20,000 non-refundable application fee, and grants permanent residence rather than a residence permit. Below that threshold Singapore sells no residence at any price: the routes are work passes, and they are graded on salary or on what your company has done. Figures below are from EDB, MOM, ICA, ACRA and IRAS and change without notice.

There is no Singapore golden visa

The term does not exist in Singapore law or in any government programme, and searching for it leads almost entirely to advisory firms who have adopted the phrase because that is what people type. What Singapore actually runs is the Global Investor Programme, administered by Contact Singapore, a division of the Economic Development Board.

The difference is not pedantry. A golden visa, everywhere it exists, is a renewable residence permit: you pay, you hold a card, you renew it, and citizenship is a separate question years away. The Global Investor Programme skips that layer entirely and goes to permanent residence, which is a stronger status than any European golden visa grants and is priced accordingly.

It is also not a product you buy. Every other programme on this site tests your money. Singapore tests you first, and the investment options only open once you clear a profile gate that most golden visa applicants would fail before the question of funds arises.

The profile gate comes before the money

EDB publishes four qualifying profiles. Established business owners need at least three years of entrepreneurial track record and a company turning over at least S$200 million in the year before the application, and at least S$200 million a year on average across the three preceding years, with at least 30 percent shareholding if the company is privately held. Next-generation business owners face the same structure at S$500 million of turnover. Founders of fast-growth companies must be one of the largest individual shareholders of a non-listed company valued at S$500 million or more, backed by reputable venture capital or private equity. Family office principals need five years of track record and net investible assets of at least S$200 million, excluding real estate.

Read that list again with a golden visa budget in mind. A reader comparing Portugal at 500,000 euros and Greece at 400,000 euros is not in the same conversation. Singapore is not selling residence to investors; it is recruiting people who already run large businesses and would like them partly relocated.

Every profile must also operate in one of the industries listed in the programme's Annex B, which is a positive list rather than a general permission. If your business is outside it, the turnover figure does not help you.

The three investment options, and the fee you pay to be considered

Option A is an investment of at least S$10 million in a new Singapore business entity or in the expansion of an existing operation, with a detailed five-year business plan covering projected employment, expenditure and financials. You must hold at least 30 percent of the Option A company and sit on its management team or board. Option B is S$25 million into an EDB-approved GIP-select fund that invests in Singapore-based companies. Option C is a Singapore single family office with at least S$200 million of assets under management, of which at least S$50 million must be transferred into Singapore and deployed in EDB-specified investments.

Family office principals may only use Option C. The other three profiles may choose A, B or C.

Before any of that, there is an application fee of S$20,000, payable in a single transaction before the forms are submitted, and non-refundable regardless of the outcome. That is an unusually large sum to pay for consideration alone, and it is worth naming plainly: it is the price of being assessed, not the price of being approved. EDB's own factsheet states that nothing in the document constitutes an undertaking that any application, or any later permit renewal, will be approved.

The renewal criteria are where the real price sits

Permanent residence in Singapore comes with a Re-Entry Permit valid for five years. Without a valid Re-Entry Permit you lose permanent residence the moment you leave the country, so the renewal criteria are not a footnote; they are the actual terms of the deal, and they are stricter than the entry conditions.

For a five-year renewal, an Option A investor's Singapore company must employ at least 30 people, at least half of them Singapore citizens, including at least 10 incremental employees, and the investor or all dependants who obtained residence through the application must have lived in Singapore for more than half the time. Option B requires maintaining the S$25 million in the fund and the same residence condition. Option C requires the family office to employ at least five incremental family office professionals, at least three of them Singapore citizens, maintain the S$50 million deployed, and meet the same residence condition. A three-year renewal relaxes this to the investment condition plus either the economic condition or the residence condition, not both.

This is the clearest contrast with the European programmes. Hungary asks for no presence at all and Portugal asks for roughly seven days a year. Singapore asks you to live there more than half the time, or to have built a 30-person company, and preferably both. Anyone selling this as a passive mobility play has not read the renewal table.

Below ten million, the routes are work passes

Singapore does not sell residence at any price below the Global Investor Programme, and there is no mid-tier. What exists instead is the work pass system, which prices on salary or on what your company has actually achieved.

The Employment Pass is the mainstream route. The qualifying salary starts at S$5,600 a month and rises with age to S$10,700 at 45 and above, with a higher scale for financial services running from S$6,200 to S$11,800. Those figures increase for new applications from 1 January 2027, to S$6,000 rising to S$11,500, and S$6,600 rising to S$12,700 in financial services. Clearing the salary bar is only stage one: unless exempted, the application must then score 40 points on the COMPASS points framework, which weighs salary against sector benchmarks, qualifications, and the employer's workforce diversity and local hiring. The Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass sits above it and requires a fixed monthly salary of at least S$30,000 from a single employer, or outstanding achievements in sports, arts and culture, or academia and research.

The EntrePass is the founder route, and it is narrower than its name suggests. You need an ACRA-registered private limited company in which you hold at least 30 percent, which is venture-backed or owns innovative technologies, and you must additionally meet one of five criteria: at least S$100,000 raised in a single funding round, backing from a government-recognised or internationally renowned incubator or accelerator, a venture-backed technology business you founded and sold, registered intellectual property that gives real competitive advantage, or an ongoing research collaboration with a Singapore institute of higher learning or research institution. Whole categories of business are excluded outright, including food courts and coffee shops, bars and karaoke lounges, massage and reflexology, traditional Chinese medicine, employment agencies and geomancy. And if your company is more than 12 months old when you apply, you are assessed against the renewal criteria rather than the entry criteria, which catches founders who incorporate early and apply late.

The company is a precondition, and it is the cheap part

Both the EntrePass and Option A of the Global Investor Programme require a Singapore private limited company to exist. So does any realistic plan to be employed by your own business on an Employment Pass. Against the sums above, the incorporation itself is close to a rounding error: ACRA charges S$15 to apply for a business entity name and S$300 to register the entity, S$315 in total, with annual returns at S$60.

The cost that matters is the compliance structure around it, and one requirement in particular. Under the Companies Act, a company director must be ordinarily resident in Singapore, which in practice means a citizen, a permanent resident, or someone who meets the local residency rules. A founder applying from abroad does not meet that on day one, which is why nominee director services exist and why they are a recurring annual cost rather than a setup fee. A company secretary must also be appointed within six months, with a fine of up to S$1,000 for failing to do so.

The tax position is what makes the structure worth carrying. Corporate income tax is a flat 17 percent. A qualifying new company gets 75 percent exemption on its first S$100,000 of normal chargeable income and a further 50 percent on the next S$100,000 for each of its first three years of assessment, a maximum of S$125,000 exempted per year, and for the 2026 year of assessment a 50 percent corporate income tax rebate applies, capped at S$40,000. None of this depends on your immigration status, which is the point: the company can be profitable and compliant while your pass application is still pending, or refused.

Price the Singapore company setup

Sleek is a Singapore corporate services firm that bundles incorporation, the resident director, the corporate secretary and bookkeeping into one package, which is the practical way for a founder abroad to satisfy the local-director rule. This link applies a S$100 referral discount. It is a corporate services provider, not an immigration adviser: registering a company creates no pass eligibility on its own, and MOM assesses every EntrePass and Employment Pass application on its own criteria.

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Permanent residence, and the line nobody quotes

ICA's published eligibility list for permanent residence names spouses and children of citizens and permanent residents, aged parents of citizens, holders of an Employment Pass or S Pass, certain students, and foreign investors applying through the Global Investor Programme. EntrePass is not named on that list, which is a meaningful gap if your plan was to found a company, take an EntrePass and convert. Confirm the current position with ICA rather than with an agency; ICA states plainly that it has no affiliation with any commercial migration consultancy and endorses none of them.

ICA also says it weighs family ties, economic contributions, qualifications, age, family profile and length of residency. There is no published points table and no stated qualifying period. A refusal comes with no reasons.

Then there is the line that rarely appears in golden visa marketing. Male permanent residents are liable for National Service under the Enlistment Act. Under the Global Investor Programme, male children who obtain permanent residence as your dependants are liable, and a male dependant whose spouse is the main applicant may be liable too. Renouncing or losing permanent residence without completing that service damages any future application to work or study in Singapore, and can affect family members' applications as well. For a family with teenage sons, that consideration outranks every fee on this page.

Common questions

Is there a golden visa for Singapore?

No. Singapore operates no programme called a golden visa and sells no renewable residence permit to investors. The only investor route is the Global Investor Programme, run by Contact Singapore within the Economic Development Board, which starts at S$10 million and grants permanent residence rather than a temporary permit. Sites offering a Singapore golden visa are describing that programme, or describing a work pass, under a name Singapore does not use.

How much do I need to invest in Singapore to get PR?

The Global Investor Programme has three options: at least S$10 million into a Singapore business entity, S$25 million into an approved GIP-select fund, or a Singapore single family office with at least S$200 million under management of which S$50 million must be transferred in and deployed locally. A non-refundable application fee of S$20,000 is payable before the application is even assessed. Money alone is not sufficient, because applicants must also meet one of four published business or family office profiles first.

Can a US citizen get permanent residency in Singapore?

Yes, on the same terms as anyone else, since none of Singapore's routes are nationality-restricted. In practice that means holding an Employment Pass or S Pass and applying to ICA, marrying a citizen or permanent resident, or qualifying through the Global Investor Programme. ICA assesses family ties, economic contribution, qualifications, age, family profile and length of residency, publishes no points table or qualifying period, and gives no reasons for refusals.

How much does it cost to register a company in Singapore?

ACRA charges S$15 for the business entity name application and S$300 to register the entity, so S$315 in official fees, with annual returns costing S$60. The real recurring cost is compliance rather than registration: a director must be ordinarily resident in Singapore, which usually means paying for a nominee director if you are applying from abroad, and a company secretary must be appointed within six months. Budget for those annually rather than treating incorporation as a one-off charge.

What salary do you need for a Singapore Employment Pass?

The qualifying salary currently starts at S$5,600 a month and rises with age to S$10,700 at 45 and above, with a separate financial services scale from S$6,200 to S$11,800. For new applications from 1 January 2027 those become S$6,000 rising to S$11,500, and S$6,600 rising to S$12,700 in financial services. Meeting the salary is only the first stage; unless exempted, the application must also score 40 points under the COMPASS framework, and a candidate who fails the salary test is ineligible regardless of their COMPASS score.

Does an EntrePass lead to Singapore permanent residence?

Not directly, on the published rules. ICA's eligibility list for permanent residence names Employment Pass and S Pass holders and Global Investor Programme investors, and does not name EntrePass holders. That does not mean an EntrePass is worthless as a step, but a plan that assumes automatic conversion is built on an assumption ICA has not published. Confirm the current position with ICA before choosing the route on that basis.

How long does the Global Investor Programme take?

EDB indicates roughly 12 months to process a complete application, subject to due diligence. After that the sequence continues: Approval-in-Principle is valid for six months, within which the investment must be made and evidenced, and permanent residence must then be formalised within 12 months of the Final Approval letter. Option C applicants have a further 12 months from Final Approval to demonstrate that S$50 million has been deployed into the specified investments.

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