Becoming a Student's Pass Holder

A foreigner who has been accepted by an educational institution to pursue full-time studies in Singapore will need to apply for a Student's Pass unless he/she has a valid:

• Dependant's Pass^,
• Long-Term Visit Pass^,
• Immigration Exemption Order^, or
• Short-Term Visit Pass*

^Holders of valid Long-Term Visit Pass, Dependant's Pass and Immigration Exemption Order are not required to obtain a Student's Pass to pursue full time, non-religious related studies. They may enrol in any school within the duration of their existing pass. If the existing pass expires or is cancelled during the duration of their studies, the foreigner will need to submit an application for a Student's Pass to continue his/her studies. The prevailing Student's Pass eligibility criteria will apply.

*Foreigners attending short-term courses that meet the following criteria are exempted from requiring a Student's Pass. The course must:

• Be completed during the validity of the Short-Term Visit Pass or within 30 days, whichever is shorter
• Be a complete and stand-alone module; a Student's Pass is required to undertake courses with multiple programme modules
• Not include practical occupational training and/or industrial attachment that involves interacting with walk-in customers; not conducted at premises that are also places of business (such as a hair salon or beauty salon).

The requirements and procedures for a Student’s Pass differ slightly depending on the type of educational institution in which you intend to study. For more information on the type of educational institution, please click on the appropriate links below.

• Approved Private Education Institutions
• Foreign System Schools and Privately-Funded Schools
• Government/Government-Aided/Independent Schools
• Institutes of Technical Education
• Kindergartens and Childcare Centres
• Institutes of Higher Learning

To apply for a Student’s Pass, you must be accepted into an approved full-time course in Singapore. Part-time courses and courses conducted in the evening or on weekends are not eligible.

If you wish to transfer to another school after your application has been approved but have yet to collect the Student’s Pass, you will need to submit a new application.

Foreign born applicants aged 12 years 0 day or below, are required to submit their vaccination information to Health Promotion Board (HPB) w.e.f. 1 Feb 2019. For details, please visit the HPB website.

If you are aged 13 and above (based on year of birth) and your application is approved, you will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19* and achieve minimum protection before you can complete formalities for the pass issuance, unless you are medically exempted and certified by a Singapore doctor. Please refer to Ministry of Health (MOH) website for more details on how to achieve minimum protection.

*Those vaccinated overseas are required to have their overseas vaccination records updated into the National Immunisation Registry (NIR) by a Singapore healthcare provider. Please refer to MOH website for more details on how to do so.