Helpers changing employers in S'pore: 2 legal routes and a 2-month agency fee cap

Helpers can find a new employer in Singapore without going home, through two MOM routes.

A direct transfer needs your current employer's consent and must start at least 30 days before your Work Permit expires. An agency may charge you no more than two months of your salary.

Both routes keep you working in Singapore with no trip home and no fresh deployment costs.

Quick facts

• Eligible: a helper on a valid Work Permit whose current employer agrees.
• Deadline: the new employer must apply at least 30 days before your Work Permit expires.
• Medical: your 6-monthly medical exam must be done before any transfer.
• Agency fee cap: one month of salary per year of contract, never more than two months.

Before you start

• Check your Work Permit expiry. Under 30 days left means no direct transfer.
• Ask your employer to send you for your 6-monthly medical exam if it is due.
• Keep copies of your passport, Work Permit card, contract and payslips on your phone.
• Keep your passport within reach. No employer or agency may hold it against your will.

Stay in Singapore while the transfer runs. If you fly home first, you are no longer a transfer case: a new employer must apply for a fresh Work Permit, buy a new security bond, and send you for a medical exam after you land.

Route 1: direct transfer

No gap in work and no agency fee. You find the new employer yourself, through friends, church or a referral.

1. Current employer sends you for the 6-monthly medical exam, if due.
2. New employer asks for your current employer's consent and applies for a new Work Permit in MOM's FDW eService, at least 30 days before your permit expires.
3. Current employer approves the request in the same eService.
4. MOM gives an outcome within one week.
5. New employer buys medical and personal accident insurance (each at least S$60,000 of cover) and a S$5,000 security bond, then sets your transfer date.
6. New employer issues your new Work Permit within 21 days of approval, or before your old permit expires, whichever comes first.

Your current employer pays the levy until the new permit is issued. You keep working for them until the transfer date.

Route 2: through a licensed agency

If your employer agrees to release you but you have no new employer yet, a licensed employment agency (EA) can take over.

• Your current employer agrees the handover with the agency in writing, and you must agree too.
• The agency cancels your Work Permit and holds you on a Special Pass for up to 30 days.
• During that time it must give you acceptable housing, enough food, medical treatment, and medical insurance of at least S$60,000.
• If it finds no employer before the pass expires, the agency pays your trip home.

Agency fees

The cap uses basic salary plus fixed allowances, not bonuses or overtime. Charging more is an offence; report it to MOM on 1800 339 5505.

Fees paid to an agency in the Philippines sit outside this cap. Get a receipt for every payment.

Checking an agency

1. Open MOM's Employment Agencies and Personnel Search on mom.gov.sg.
2. Search the agency name. A licensed agency shows a licence number and address.
3. Search the staff member. Every registered staff member appears with a name and photo.
4. Ask for the licence number and check it matches.

Then ask, and write down the answers:

• Your housing during the Special Pass, and whether you keep your phone.
• The plan if your first placement does not work out.
• The usual time a transfer takes.
• Any fee not yet mentioned, and any salary deduction.

Red flags

• Someone asks for money before you have a job offer.
• An "agent" on Facebook or WhatsApp cannot give a MOM licence number.
• Anyone wants to keep your passport or Work Permit card.
• You are told to start work before the new Work Permit is issued. That is illegal work.

If something goes wrong

Rest-day problems with your current employer? Read our guide to MOM rest-day rights.

In an emergency, call 999.