Check before the person starts work. In practice, check right after you decide you would hire them: once the shortlist is final and before the offer goes out, or as a condition written into the offer. The legal moment differs by market. Singapore bars employing a foreign employee without a valid work pass. Australia requires you to confirm that a non-citizen can legally work, and a recruiter who refers a candidate is only protected by a check made before the referral. New Zealand requires the check before employment starts but lets you make an offer before the candidate has a visa. In all three, the check is a step a person completes with an official tool. A resume score cannot decide it. If you screen with HyreTech, it ranks the shortlist and your team runs the check. HyreTech does not verify anyone's right to work.
This guide is for HR teams and recruiting agencies hiring engineers in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, including candidates who are outside those countries today, such as engineers based in Indonesia.
It covers the check itself: which official tool each market points to, where the check falls in the process, what the penalties and defences are, and where the check belongs in a pipeline that uses AI screening. It does not cover which visa or pass a candidate should apply for.
For Employment Pass eligibility, COMPASS and the Fair Consideration Framework, see our guide to hiring your first engineers in Singapore or Indonesia.
Checked against the primary sources on 17 October 2026. This is general information, not legal or immigration advice, and some official pages we cite were last updated well before this article. Confirm the current rule with the official source or a licensed adviser before relying on a specific step.
Why Timing Matters More Than The Tool
Every market gives employers an official way to run a right-to-work check, so the tool is rarely the hard part. The hard part is the moment you run it.
Run it too early, at the application stage, and you collect passports and identity numbers from hundreds of applicants who will never be hired. That is a data minimisation problem before it is anything else. Run it too late, after the start date, and you have already employed someone whose status you never confirmed. The workable point sits between those two: when you have decided who you would hire, or, for an agency, who you would put in front of a client.
Most guides mix up two kinds of statement, so we keep them apart here. A rule is what the official source says you must do. A practice is what we suggest because it keeps the process clean. Where the sources set a moment, we say so. Where they do not, we label our suggestion as practice.
What Each Market Requires, Side by Side
| Singapore | Australia | New Zealand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal starting point | Employment of Foreign Manpower Act s5(1): no employing a foreign employee without a valid work pass | Migration Act 1958: offences for allowing a non-citizen without work rights to work, and for referring one for work | Immigration Act 2009: the employer must check the right to work before employment begins |
| Official check | SGWorkPass app (QR scan), MOM's "Check work pass and application status" eService, or MOM's automated phone line | VEVO, through an ImmiAccount for organisations | VisaView for registered employers, or an accepted document |
| Candidate permission | Collect ID numbers only after the hiring decision (PDPC NRIC guidelines, para 3.9) | VEVO shows only visa holders who have given you permission | The applicant gives authority to use their information |
| Limit to know | A genuine-looking card may still have been cancelled | VEVO cannot confirm Australian citizenship | Checking a citizen's passport needs a Disclosure Agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs |
| Timing in the sources | Before employment, because a valid pass is required to employ | No fixed moment for employers; before the referral for recruiters | Before employment begins; the offer may come earlier |
| Defence if it goes wrong | Due diligence, which includes having checked the passport (s5(4)–(5)) | Reasonable steps at reasonable times, such as a VEVO check (s245AB(2), reg 5.19G) | None for employers since 6 January 2024 |
| Penalty headline | First offence: S$5,000–30,000 fine, up to 12 months' jail, or both | Criminal: up to 2 years' jail and A$131,040 per worker for an individual | Infringement: NZ$1,000 or NZ$3,000 per employee; up to NZ$50,000 if knowing |
The sections below give the source for each column.
Singapore: A Valid Work Pass Before The First Day
Singapore's Employment of Foreign Manpower Act is the starting point. Under section 5(1), an employer must not employ a foreign employee unless the employee has a valid work pass. Employer-sponsored passes (Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit) are valid only for the employer and the occupation named on them.
Personalised passes are the exception: the ONE Pass lets the holder work for several companies at once, and a Personalised Employment Pass holder does not need a new pass to change jobs.
The penalties are set in section 5(6). A first offence carries a fine of S$5,000 to S$30,000, up to 12 months' jail, or both. A repeat offence means a fine and a mandatory jail term of 1 to 12 months for an individual, and a fine of S$20,000 to S$60,000 for a company.
Not knowing the worker was foreign is no defence unless the employer used due diligence, and under section 5(5) that includes having checked the person's passport or travel document. Employing someone outside the conditions of their pass is a separate offence, and company officers can be personally liable. MOM's summary of the Act gives the main figures.
To check a pass a candidate already holds, MOM's work pass FAQ sets out two steps. First, inspect the original card: the photo should match the person, the two holographic lenses should show the holder's image and the pass number, the design should match MOM-issued passes, and the details should match the passport.
Second, check validity even if the card looks genuine, because the pass may have been cancelled. You can do that with the SGWorkPass app, which scans the QR code on newer cards and on digital passes, through MOM's eService for work pass and application status, or through MOM's automated phone line.
Two limits apply to that FAQ. It is written for pass holders, landlords, and premises owners and main contractors, not specifically for employers, so treat it as the verification method rather than a full employer checklist. And a candidate who is still abroad holds no pass yet, so there is nothing to scan. In that case the practical safeguard is an offer that is conditional on the pass being issued (practice, not a quoted rule).
The data side matters just as much. The PDPC's advisory guidelines on NRIC and other national identification numbers say organisations are generally not allowed to collect NRIC numbers, and the same treatment covers FIN and Work Permit numbers (paragraph 1.4). They ask organisations to refrain from collecting passport numbers, or to collect only part of the number where one is needed (paragraph 1.5).
The PDPC's own worked example is a job application form that does not ask for an NRIC number, followed by a request for the number once the organisation decides to hire, for its employment records. The PDPC adds that no law requires asking for NRIC numbers on a job application (paragraph 3.9). One more line is useful for a work-pass check: looking at a card and handing it straight back, without recording anything, is not collection (paragraph 5.12).
HyreTech's apply form and CSV import have no field for NRIC, FIN or passport numbers. Your screening stage stays clean as long as nobody adds a free-text screening question that asks for one. The guidelines date from 2018 and are advisory: the PDPC's introduction to its guidelines says they are not legally binding (paragraph 3.1). The PDPC has said they will be updated and remain valid in the meantime.
Australia: VEVO Checks, and Why Recruiters Carry Risk Too
Home Affairs says a person can legally work in Australia if they are an Australian citizen or hold a valid visa with permission to work. Its employer page says you must check you are employing someone who can legally work, because some visa holders can work without limits, some only a limited amount, and some not at all. A Medicare card, tax file number or driver licence does not prove work rights on its own.
The tool for non-citizens is VEVO. Registered organisations use an ImmiAccount to see the visa conditions of visa holders who have given them permission. VEVO cannot confirm Australian citizenship. A citizen shows a citizenship certificate or an Australian passport instead.
The Defence is a Check You Can Show
The Migration Act 1958 makes it an offence to allow a non-citizen without work rights to work (section 245AB), or to allow a visa holder to work in breach of a visa condition (section 245AC). Both sections give a defence if you took reasonable steps at reasonable times to verify the worker's status.
The Migration Regulations 1994 say what counts (regulation 5.19G): a VEVO check, sighting an Australian or New Zealand passport, or an Australian citizenship certificate with photo identification. It is up to you to raise the defence, so keep a record of each check. The civil penalty versions of these provisions do not need any proof of what you knew.
On timing, the Home Affairs pages confirm the obligation for employers but do not name a single moment. Its guidance says to hire someone only if their visa allows the work, to check again within 2 days of the visa's expiry, and to check every 3 months for a bridging visa with no expiry date. Checking before the offer, or making the offer conditional on a passed check, is our practice because it avoids withdrawing an offer you have already announced.
Recruiters: The Check Comes Before The Referral
Recruiters should read this part closely. Home Affairs states that it is a criminal offence to employ, refer, coerce or contract a non-citizen who does not have the right to work, and that this includes workers sourced through recruitment or labour hire companies.
Sections 245AE and 245AEA apply to anyone who runs a service referring people to others for work, paid or not. Their defence requires reasonable steps taken before the referral, and VEVO is again the prescribed check. This is the one place Australian law fixes the moment: for an agency, the check belongs before the profile goes to the client, not after the client makes an offer.
Two more points matter for tech hiring. Contractors count, because "allows to work" includes engaging someone under a contract for services (section 245AG). And penalties apply per worker. Fines are written in penalty units, which are indexed. From 1 July 2026 one Commonwealth penalty unit is A$364. At that rate:
| Contravention | Individual | Company |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal offence (allowing work, referring, breach of visa conditions) | Up to 2 years' jail and/or 360 units (A$131,040) | 1,800 units (A$655,200) |
| Aggravated offence (the worker is exploited) | Up to 5 years' jail and/or 900 units (A$327,600) | 4,500 units (A$1,638,000) |
| Civil penalty | 240 units (A$87,360) | 1,200 units (A$436,800) |
| Infringement notice | 48 units (A$17,472) | 240 units (A$87,360) |
The unit value applies to contraventions on or after 1 July 2026, so do not quote dollar figures from older pages.
The data side follows the Privacy Act. APP 3 lets an organisation collect personal information only if it is reasonably necessary. So collect passport and visa details from the people you are about to refer or hire, not from every applicant.
New Zealand: Offer First, Verify Before The Start Date
Immigration New Zealand is the most explicit of the three on timing. You can legally offer a job to an overseas candidate before they hold a work or resident visa. The usual way is an offer with a clause such as "subject to immigration criteria being met".
What the law fixes is the other end: you must check that the person has the legal right to work for you before employment begins, and the obligation is placed on the employer. The applicant must give authority for you to use their information for that purpose.
You have two routes. The first is VisaView, where a registered employer can verify that prospective and current employees hold a valid visa and see its conditions and expiry date. Enquiries are saved in your VisaView account, so they double as evidence of the check. VisaView can also confirm New Zealand passport details for citizen candidates, once you complete a Disclosure Agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs.
The second route is a document check, where the worker shows an accepted document such as a foreign passport with a valid New Zealand visa, or an Australian passport. That last item matters for cross-Tasman hiring, because an Australian passport holder can use the document route in New Zealand.
The penalties are in the Immigration Act 2009. Allowing someone to work without the entitlement is an infringement offence (section 359A), with a fee of NZ$1,000 for an individual employer or NZ$3,000 for a company, for each employee.
Knowingly allowing that work is a criminal offence under section 350, with a fine of up to NZ$50,000. There is no "reasonable precautions" defence for employers any more: the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Act 2023 removed it on 6 January 2024. That makes the record of your check more important, not less.
On data, New Zealand's information privacy principle 1 allows collection only where the information is necessary for your purpose. As in Australia, collect identity documents from the person you are hiring, at the point you check them.
Where The Check Belongs in a Screened Pipeline
Most teams that use AI screening still run the right-to-work check by hand with the official tools above. The only question is where it sits. This map is our suggested practice, built on the rules in the sections above.
| Stage | What happens | Right-to-work activity | What to collect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application | Applicant uploads a CV and answers any screening questions you added | One Yes/No question, such as "Will you need a work pass or visa sponsorship to work in Singapore?" (confirm wording with your adviser) | CV and contact details only. No ID numbers |
| Screening | Applicants are scored against written criteria and a person reviews them | None. Do not score on inferred status | Nothing new |
| Shortlist final | You decide who you would hire, or who an agency would submit | Tell the candidate which check applies. Australian recruiters run VEVO here, before the referral | Visa details for the check, with the candidate's permission |
| Offer | Conditional offer where a pass or visa is still pending | Run the official check, or make the offer conditional on it | Identity documents as the check needs them |
| Before start date | Contract signed | Complete the check and record the result | Evidence of the check, kept in your HR system with a retention period |
| After start | Employment begins | Diarise pass or visa expiry and any conditions | Nothing new |
The screening row deserves a note, because that is where software sits. In HyreTech, each applicant is scored against the role's weighted criteria, with a written reason for each criterion (see how weights become a score).
You can also approve deal-breakers on a role. Once you approve one, such as "Must be based in Singapore", a candidate who clearly fails it has their score multiplied by 0.2 by default (see how the match score is built). HyreTech checks a location deal-breaker against the city and country on the resume.
It can be tempting to add "has the right to work in Australia" as a deal-breaker. We would keep it out. A resume rarely proves legal status, so any automated judgement would rest on signals such as location, university or past employers, and a wrong one could sink a candidate you could have hired legally.
Ask the Yes/No screening question instead. The answer sits on the candidate's record, you can filter the list by it, and it never changes the AI score. HyreTech labels applicants Shortlist, Consider or Reject, but it has no auto-reject: only someone on your team can move or reject a candidate, and that person runs the check. For the wider rules on automated decisions, see our guide to AI hiring compliance in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Two timing points connect to other parts of hiring. The candidate's notice period usually decides how much time you have between offer and start date, which we cover in notice periods in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. And the evidence copy needs its own retention period.
Keep it in your HR system with the employment record, not in your screening tool, and use the same discipline for candidates who were not hired (see deleting candidate data).
Mistakes That Turn a Routine Check Into a Problem
- Trusting the card. MOM says to check validity even when a pass looks genuine, because it may have been cancelled.
- Treating the check as a one-off. A check shows the position on the day you run it. Passes get cancelled and visa conditions can limit hours or employers. Diarise expiry dates; in Australia, Home Affairs says to check again within 2 days of a visa's expiry.
- Using VEVO to confirm citizenship. It cannot. Ask for the citizenship certificate or passport.
- Copying one checklist across three markets. The tools, permission rules, timing and defences in the table above differ.
- Collecting ID numbers on the application form. In Singapore, the PDPC's guidance points the other way, and Australia and New Zealand both limit collection to what you need.
- Leaving the check to someone else. If you are an agency placing candidates in Australia, the law names referring as an offence and your defence depends on a check before the referral. Agree in writing with each client who runs which check. Recruiting firms running several client searches can see how HyreTech fits in HyreTech for recruiting firms.
Write The Handoff Before The Next Offer Goes Out
The simplest improvement is a one-page procedure: who runs the check, which official tool they use, at which stage, what record they keep, where it is stored and for how long. Test it with one real candidate before it matters.
Screening is the part software handles well. It ranks every applicant against the same written criteria, so the shortlist reaches your check step with the reasoning attached. HyreTech's free plan includes one active role and 20 one-time credits, and analysing one resume uses one credit.
To try the screening step on a live role: start free and run your next shortlist through a written rubric.
If you hire across more than one of these markets and want to map where screening fits your pipeline: book a demo and we will walk through it with you.
FAQ
Should AI screening software decide whether a candidate can legally work for us?
No. A resume rarely proves legal status, so software can only guess from proxies. HyreTech ranks applicants against the criteria you set, with a reason for each score, and nothing is rejected automatically. Ask a Yes/No sponsorship question on the application, keep work rights out of the scoring criteria and deal-breakers, and have a person run the official check: MOM's work pass checks in Singapore, VEVO in Australia, and VisaView or a document check in New Zealand.
Do I check right to work before or after I make an offer?
It depends on the market. New Zealand lets you offer before the candidate holds a visa, but the check must happen before employment begins. Singapore requires a valid work pass to employ a foreign employee, so an offer to a candidate without a pass should depend on it being issued. Australia's pages confirm the obligation for employers without naming a moment, so checking before the offer or making the offer conditional is the cleaner practice. Recruiters in Australia should check before they refer.
Does a VEVO check protect a recruitment agency in Australia?
It can. Referring a non-citizen without work rights is an offence under sections 245AE and 245AEA of the Migration Act, and the defence is reasonable steps taken before the referral. The Migration Regulations name a VEVO check as one of those steps. A check after the client has already made an offer comes too late for the referral.
Can VEVO confirm that someone is an Australian citizen?
No. Home Affairs says VEVO cannot confirm Australian citizenship. A citizen can provide a citizenship certificate or an Australian passport as proof.
Can I ask for an NRIC, FIN or passport number on a job application in Singapore?
Generally not. The PDPC's guidelines treat FIN and Work Permit numbers like NRIC numbers, which organisations are generally not allowed to collect, and ask organisations to refrain from collecting passport numbers or to collect only part of one. The PDPC's own example has an application form without an NRIC field and asks for the number only once the person is being hired.
What is the penalty for employing someone without a valid work pass in Singapore?
A first offence under section 5(6) of the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act carries a fine of S$5,000 to S$30,000, up to 12 months' jail, or both. Repeat offenders face a mandatory jail term if they are individuals, and fines of up to S$60,000 if they are companies. Not knowing is a defence only if you used due diligence, which includes checking the passport.
If a candidate passes the check, am I covered for good?
Not necessarily. A check shows the position on the day you ran it. Passes can be cancelled and visa conditions can limit what a person may do, so diarise expiry dates and recheck when they come up. New Zealand no longer gives employers a reasonable-precautions defence. No tool, ours included, can certify compliance for you, so ask your legal adviser how often to recheck and what records to keep.