You quoted a salary that made you impossible to hire.
This one is brutal because it's the opposite of what feels smart. Many overseas applicants lower their salary expectation to seem affordable. In Singapore, that can disqualify you outright.
To sponsor a foreign professional on an Employment Pass, an employer must pay at least S$5,600 a month in most sectors, or S$6,200 in financial services — and that floor rises with age, reaching S$10,700 and S$11,800 respectively at 45 and above. Ask for less than the floor for your age and sector and the employer cannot legally hire you on that pass, no matter how much they like you.
We work out the number you should actually be quoting, and how to say it.

