Published: 17 September 2026 · Reviewed by Ray Tay, Co-Founder & Managing Director, VIVOS PTE. LTD. (ACRA Filing Agent FA20240323 · MOM EA Licence 24S2425)
Quick answer: There is no separate “family office visa” in Singapore. A single family office (SFO) principal or key employee who is not a Singapore citizen or PR relocates on an ordinary Employment Pass (EP), assessed like any other professional hire under MOM’s COMPASS framework. The EP qualifying salary starts at S$5,600/month generally, but SFO roles are commonly benchmarked against the higher S$6,200/month financial-services floor because fund management is the SFO’s core activity. Candidates earning S$22,500/month or more are generally exempt from COMPASS scoring; below that, the applicant needs at least 40 of 80 COMPASS points. Family members can be hired as the 13O/13U-mandated investment professionals, but non-citizen family members still need their own EP — being family does not bypass MOM’s assessment.
Families setting up a Singapore single family office often assume there must be a dedicated immigration track for the principal or the Chief Investment Officer they are hiring — something equivalent to the Global Investor Programme but for staff rather than the family itself. There is not. A non-family Chief Investment Officer, portfolio manager, or other key employee joining an SFO has no access to the ONE Pass (reserved for S$30,000+/month earners or exceptional achievers), the EntrePass (for founders of venture-backed startups), or a Personalised Employment Pass. The route is an ordinary Employment Pass, sponsored by the SFO’s Singapore-incorporated entity, assessed under the same Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) as any other professional hire in Singapore.
This matters for planning: an EP application for an SFO hire lives or dies on the same salary, qualifications, and workforce-diversity criteria MOM applies to a bank hiring a relationship manager or a tech company hiring an engineer. There is no family-office carve-out that relaxes the bar.
COMPASS scores an EP application against four foundational criteria — salary relative to local PMET pay in the same sector and age band, candidate qualifications, workforce diversity of the employing entity, and the employer’s support for local employment (including its ratio of local to foreign PMETs) — plus two bonus criteria for shortage-occupation skills and strategic economic priorities. An application needs at least 40 of a possible 80 points to pass, unless it qualifies for an exemption.
| COMPASS criterion | What it measures for an SFO hire |
|---|---|
| Salary | Fixed monthly salary benchmarked against local PMET pay for the role’s sector and the candidate’s age band |
| Qualifications | Degree or equivalent from a recognised institution; relevant investment/finance credentials strengthen this |
| Diversity | Assessed at the employing entity level — a newly incorporated SFO with a small, concentrated nationality mix scores weaker here than an established, diversified employer |
| Support for local employment | The SFO’s ratio of local to foreign PMET employees; a single-hire SFO with no local staff yet has little to show here |
| Skills bonus (SOL) | Bonus points if the role sits on MOM’s Shortage Occupation List |
| Strategic economic priorities | Bonus points for roles MOM has flagged as nationally significant |
The practical implication for a brand-new SFO: your first non-family hire is often your weakest COMPASS application, because the employing entity has no track record on the diversity and local-employment criteria yet. Structuring a strong salary and a candidate with clean qualifications matters more for a first hire than it will for later ones, once the SFO has built up local headcount.
MOM’s 2026 EP qualifying salary starts at S$5,600/month for most sectors, rising with age, but a higher S$6,200/month floor applies to the financial services sector specifically — and fund management, which is the core activity of any 13O or 13U family office, sits squarely within that sector definition. In practice, most SFO investment-professional hires should be budgeted against the financial-services benchmark rather than the general one, and confirmed with MOM or a licensed employment agency before an offer is finalised, since the exact sector classification MOM applies can depend on how the SFO and its fund vehicle are structured.
Separately, candidates earning a fixed monthly salary of S$22,500 or more are generally exempt from COMPASS scoring altogether, though MOM retains discretion to review the employer’s profile and the role’s commercial rationale even for exempt applications. Many SFO principals and senior CIO hires clear this exemption threshold on salary alone; more junior investment professionals and analysts typically do not, and need to clear the 40-point COMPASS bar on the criteria above.
Both Section 13O and Section 13U require the family office to employ a minimum number of investment professionals — two for 13O, three for 13U — and both schemes allow qualified family members to count toward that headcount, provided each meets the same conditions as any other hire: Singapore tax residency, a genuine and substantial investment role, and a fixed monthly salary above the applicable floor. See our 13O vs 13U comparison for the full headcount and AUM requirements.
What being family does not do is remove the immigration step. A non-citizen, non-PR family member taking up an investment-professional role at the SFO still needs an Employment Pass in their own right, assessed under COMPASS exactly as described above — the family relationship affects the 13O/13U tax-incentive headcount test, not the MOM work-pass test. Because both schemes also require at least one non-family investment professional, an all-family team does not qualify under either incentive regardless of everyone’s immigration status.
1. Incorporate and structure first. The SFO’s Singapore entity must exist and be positioned to sponsor the pass before an EP application is filed — see our guide to Singapore’s revised single family office framework for the incorporation and MAS notification steps that typically precede hiring.
2. Confirm the sector classification and salary floor. Budget the offer against the financial-services benchmark unless you have specific confirmation otherwise, and check whether the candidate’s expected salary clears the S$22,500 COMPASS-exemption threshold.
3. Assess COMPASS exposure before making an offer. For candidates below the exemption threshold, model the likely COMPASS score against the criteria above — a first hire at a brand-new SFO should expect a tighter margin than a later hire at an SFO with established local headcount.
4. File the EP application through MOM’s EP Online system, with the standard supporting documents: the candidate’s qualifications, an employment contract at the confirmed salary, and the sponsoring entity’s business registration.
5. Sequence against the 13O/13U application. Many families file the fund’s MAS tax-incentive application and the founding investment professional’s EP in parallel, since MAS will want to see the investment-professional headcount genuinely in place, not merely promised.
Only if they independently clear the ONE Pass’s own bar — a fixed monthly salary of S$30,000 or more in the last 12 months, or outstanding achievement in a recognised field. There is no family-office-specific route into the ONE Pass; principals who clear that salary bar can apply on the same terms as any other senior professional.
No. Sponsoring an EP requires only that the SFO’s entity is validly incorporated and registered in Singapore. Qualifying SFOs separately operate under MAS’s class exemption from fund-management licensing rather than a licence — see our guide to the revised SFO framework — but that exemption process and the EP application are independent of each other.
That is the hardest profile to clear: no COMPASS exemption on salary, and weak scores on the employer diversity and local-employment criteria because the SFO has no headcount history. Strengthening the candidate’s qualifications, and where possible structuring the salary higher, are usually the two most practical levers before filing.
Yes, on the same terms as any Employment Pass holder: a fixed monthly salary of at least S$6,000 allows sponsorship of a legally married spouse and unmarried children under 21, including legally adopted children.
Salaries paid to investment professionals and other staff, including CPF contributions for local hires, are a component of the local business spending MAS assesses under 13O and 13U, alongside other operating expenditure in Singapore. The exact spending tiers scale with AUM — see our 13O vs 13U guide for the current thresholds.
The Employment Pass salary floors, the COMPASS framework’s criteria and points threshold, and the S$22,500 COMPASS-exemption benchmark were checked against the Ministry of Manpower’s own published Employment Pass and COMPASS pages on 17 September 2026. The 13O/13U investment-professional headcount and non-family staffing requirement were checked against MAS’s published FAQs on the Schemes for Single Family Offices, consistent with our 13O vs 13U guide. Sources:
This guide is provided for general information and does not constitute immigration or tax advice. COMPASS scoring, salary benchmarks and sector classifications are assessed by MOM on a case-by-case basis and can change without notice — confirm current criteria with MOM or a licensed employment agency before making a hiring decision. Last verified: 17 September 2026.
Getting the salary benchmark, COMPASS scoring and sequencing against your 13O/13U application right the first time saves months against a rejected or queried EP filing. VIVOS Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-licensed corporate services and immigration firm — ACRA Registered Filing Agent FA20240323 and MOM Employment Agency Licence 24S2425 — handling SFO incorporation, the 13O/13U application, and Employment Pass filings for principals and key staff under one team.
Talk to a specialist: WhatsApp +65 9366 9399 or contact@vivos.com.sg — family office structuring, passes and compliance handled by one licensed team.
Related: see our Singapore Single Family Office Framework guide for the 2026 MAS licensing-exemption conditions, and our EP vs EntrePass vs ONE Pass comparison for how the family office route compares to a founder’s own company.
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