Family Relocation to Singapore

A Singapore citizen gets to enjoy a more considerable amount of subsidy for medical and hospitalization bills in Public Hospitals, Polyclinics and National Centres compared to a PR and a foreigner.

Furthermore, there are additional government subsidies to finance the medical expenses of needy Singaporeans only.

There are always more job openings and opportunities that will be available to Singapore citizens and PRs based on the current government’s policies to ensure that locals are to be given priority over others.

A Singapore citizen is entitled to sponsor his/her direct family members – spouse, unmarried children under the age of 21, born within a legal marriage or legally adopted and aged parents to obtain a long-term stay visa or even a PR status. While as a PR, you are only limited to sponsoring PRs for spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21.

Singaporean children are entitled to a government initiative called the Edusave Scheme.

This scheme rewards children who do well academically or non-academic activities. The scheme can also be utilized to pay for 2nd-Tier Miscellaneous Fees.

Furthermore, Singapore Citizens pays the lowest fees for public education and are entitled to substantial number of subsidies for private and tertiary education.

The table below shows a comparison of the latest, maximum rates of school (including Miscellaneous Fees) payable monthly.

For more information, you may visit the Ministry Of Education website to know more: https://www.moe.gov.sg/admissions/international-students/general-info

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme is such, in which a Singaporean or a PR employee and their employer have to contribute a monthly minimum amount to the employee’s pension fund.

The CPF scheme helps the individual financially when it comes to home-ownership, health care, children’s education, family protection and asset growth through investments and higher interest rates given.

CPF contributions can also be a form of tax relief, hence, resulting in a lower taxable income per year.

If one has been a PR for more than 2 years, the employees’ CPF contribution is the same as a Singapore Citizen.

For more information, you may visit: https://www.cpf.gov.sg/members

(i) Public Housings

Unlike Singapore PRs, who are only entitled to purchase resale public housings (HDB) owned and managed by the Government after being a PR for at least 2 years, while Singapore citizens have further privileges.

They are eligible to own and rent apartments from the HDB once they are over the age of 21 years old. In addition, any Singapore citizen who is owning a property for the very first time is allowed to purchase the government’s Built-To-Order (BTO) flats, which are further subsidized by the Government.

For more information, you may check out: https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/homepage

(ii) Taxes For Residential Properties

As a Singapore citizen, it is a lot easier to borrow various loans such as a housing loan, should they want to buy property as compared to foreigners.

While a Singapore PR or foreigner needs to pay an Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) for even their first property ownership. But this is not applicable for a Singapore citizen.

Even for subsequent property ownerships, the stamp duty payable for a citizen is considerably lesser as compared to being a PR or foreigner.

The Singapore Government has implemented various measures to encourage and help Singaporeans at each stage or aspect of their journey as parents and also to address the broader set of concerns that have been preventing Singaporeans from having larger families. These measures include:

Making Child Birth More Affordable – Singapore citizens can use Medisave to pay for pre-delivery medical expenses (e.g. ultrasound scans) in addition to delivery expenses, for all their children.

Enhanced Baby Bonus – A cash bonus of up to S$8,000 for the first two children and up to S$10,000 cash bonus for the third and the fourth child of a Singaporean family.

Parenthood Tax Rebate and Working Mother’s Child Relief – Provides a lump sum tax rebate of S$10,000 – S$20,000, depending on the birth order of the child. There will also be a tax relief of 5% – 25% of a working mother’s (of a Singaporean child) earned income, depending on the number of children in the family.

Infant Care Subsidy – Parents of Singapore Citizen infants aged, 2-18 months and attending licensed infant or child care centres, will receive an infant-care subsidy of up to S$400 per month.

Foreign Domestic Worker Levy Concession – Singaporean families with children aged 12 years and below will only pay an FDW Levy of S$250.

With that many windows of opportunities and incentives to apply Citizenship in Singapore, should you wish to find out more about your chances or how to apply for Singapore Citizenship, do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation today!