Oral Reply to Parliamentary Question on Priority for Stepchildren for PR or SC Applications by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs

Question:

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether priority can be given to applications for Singapore PR or citizenship by minors who are step-children of Singapore citizens.

Answer:

1. Singapore citizens are eligible to sponsor their children for Permanent Residency (PR) and Singapore Citizenship (SC), only if the children are born to them within the context of a legal marriage or have been legally adopted by them.  In the case of foreign minors who are the step-children of Singapore citizens, the Singapore citizen should legally adopt the minor before he or she is eligible to sponsor the child for PR or citizenship.

2. Applications for PR and SC are evaluated holistically on a range of criteria. Strong consideration is given to family ties such as being the legal child of the sponsoring SC.