If you are coming to Singapore on a Work Permit, the agent question shows up early. Someone in your home country says they can arrange the job, the medical, and the paperwork for a fee. A friend tells you to skip them. The trouble is that the rules around employment agents in Singapore are stricter than most people realise, and the agents who break those rules don’t advertise the fact.
This guide covers what a Singapore Work Permit agent is, who is licensed, how to verify them, what they can legally charge, and the patterns that point to a scam. For context on the wider pass landscape, see our Singapore PR, LTVP and work pass overview and the Singapore work visa and permits guide.
What a Singapore work permit agent actually is
In Singapore the proper term is Employment Agency, or EA. An EA is a business licensed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to source, recruit, and place workers. Most “Singapore work permit agents” you see advertising overseas are either licensed EAs in Singapore, their overseas partners, or somebody pretending to be one.
The Work Permit itself is always applied for by the employer through MOM’s WP Online portal. A candidate cannot file their own Work Permit, and an agent cannot file it in the candidate’s name either. What an EA does is sit between the worker and the employer: matching the candidate to a job, handling the paperwork that comes with the In-Principle Approval (IPA), arranging the medical examination, and getting the worker through arrival and pass collection.
EAs come in several licence types. Only the Comprehensive Licence (All) class can place migrant domestic workers. Comprehensive (Local), Comprehensive (non-MDW), and Select licences cover the other categories. The licence type matters: an EA on a Local licence cannot legally bring a foreign worker in, even if they claim they can.
How to verify an agent on MOM’s EA Directory
There is exactly one official check. MOM runs a public EA Directory at service2.mom.gov.sg/eadirectory. No login is needed. You can search by agency name or EA Licence number.
A clean entry shows the licence as Valid, with an active validity period, plus the licence type, registered business address, and the Key Appointment Holders — the named directors, partners, or owners. The directory also shows past violations and, for agencies placing domestic workers, retention and transfer rates that hint at how they treat their placements.
A few things to look for:
- The licence must say Valid, not Suspended or Revoked. A suspended licence means the agency cannot legally operate while suspended.
- The licence type has to match what you are applying for. A Select licence won’t cover foreign labour placements.
- EA personnel — the individuals doing the work — must hold a Certificate of Employment Intermediaries (CEI). Key Appointment Holders need CEI before registering. Other EA staff need it before, or within one month of, registering with MOM. The directory lists registered personnel by name.
If the “agent” you have been talking to over WhatsApp is not on the directory at all, that is your answer. There is no separate “informal” registry in Singapore. Either they are licensed or they are operating illegally.
Fee caps and what an EA can legally charge
The Employment Agencies Act caps what an EA in Singapore can charge a foreign worker. The cap is one month of the worker’s fixed monthly salary for each year of the employment contract, up to a maximum of two months’ salary. So a two-year contract caps the agency fee at two months of fixed monthly salary. A three-year contract caps it at the same two months, not three.
The fee a worker has paid to the Singapore EA is shown on the IPA letter MOM issues before arrival. If the figure on your IPA does not match what the agent has actually collected from you, that is your evidence. Overcharging is an offence under the EA Act, and workers who have been overcharged can report it to MOM directly.
Two practical points that catch people out. The cap applies to the Singapore EA, but Singapore EAs are responsible for what their overseas partner agents collect on their behalf. A scheme where the Singapore agent charges nothing while the overseas partner collects six months of salary as a “training fee” is the kind of arrangement MOM has prosecuted. The cap also does not cover separate documented costs like genuine medical fees, airfare set out in the contract, or work pass issuance fees paid by the employer. It does cover anything the EA labels as a “placement fee,” “service charge,” or “processing fee.”
Want to check whether the agent you have been talking to is actually licensed? Send us the agency name or licence number and we will run the EA Directory check, flag any past violations, and explain what your IPA letter should show on arrival.
Red flags that point to a scam
The honest agents and the dishonest ones use similar language. The difference shows up in the structure of the deal, not the brochure. A few patterns to watch for:
A large upfront fee collected in the source country before any job is confirmed. A legitimate placement charges its fee after the IPA is issued and the worker has a real job to go to. Upfront fees of several thousand dollars for “guaranteed placement” almost always end badly.
A job offer that comes without an IPA or an employer name. The IPA is the document that proves MOM has approved a specific employer to hire a specific worker for a specific role. No IPA, no Work Permit. An “agent” who promises the job but says the IPA “comes later” is either disorganised or running you.
A request to pay through personal channels — a private bank transfer to an individual, a cash handover at a hotel, a payment to a name that doesn’t match the EA on the directory. Licensed EAs invoice through the registered business.
An “agent” who is not on the EA Directory at all, or whose listing shows a Suspended or Revoked licence. There is no version of this story where that ends in a valid Work Permit.
Pressure to sign a contract you haven’t read, in a language you don’t read fluently, with verbal promises that “the real terms are different from what is written.” If the contract doesn’t match the verbal promise, the contract wins.
For information on how long the actual work pass takes to come through once a real application is filed, see our Singapore work permit processing time guide.
What good agents actually do for you
A good EA earns its fee on the parts of the process that are genuinely complicated.
They match the candidate to a real role at an employer that is registered with ACRA, in good standing, and able to demonstrate legitimate hiring intent to MOM. The matching is the bulk of the value, and it is hard to do without a network on both sides.
They prepare the source-country documentation the employer needs to file the Work Permit application: passport, education and work history, the right photos and forms. For source countries with extra screening — and the approved source country list varies by sector — they handle the country-side checks before the application goes in.
They walk the worker through what happens after the IPA: the security bond the employer purchases before arrival (S$5,000 for each non-Malaysian Work Permit holder), the mandatory medical examination at a Singapore-registered doctor or MOM-appointed provider within two weeks of arrival, biometrics, and pass collection.
They keep records. A properly run EA can show you the IPA, the contract, the receipts for what you paid, and the breakdown of where each fee went. If they cannot produce that paperwork on request, treat that as a red flag in itself.
OCSC is an immigration consultancy, not an EA. We do not place foreign workers directly. What we do is advise candidates and employers on the structure of the application before it goes in, and check that the agent or arrangement in front of you holds up against MOM’s rules. For employers new to hiring foreign labour, our Singapore visa sponsorship guide covers the employer-side responsibilities that an EA cannot do for you.
Hiring a Work Permit holder and want to be sure the agent and the paperwork are clean? A short review covers the EA licence, the contract structure, the IPA, and the security bond before you commit.