Guides
Guides to Singapore immigration.
Every official figure in these guides is attributed to ICA or MOM and linked to its source. Where the authorities publish nothing, we say so rather than filling the gap with a figure of our own.
- Permanent Residence
Singapore PR requirements
Eligibility to apply is clearly defined. Approval is a judgement ICA makes case by case. This guide separates the two.
6 min read · Updated 7 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
How long a PR application takes
ICA advises allowing around six months. In practice the range is wider, and nothing can expedite a decision.
5 min read · Updated 7 September 2026
Read the guide - Choosing a consultancy
Do you need an agency at all?
Yes, and for a straightforward profile that is often the sensible course. Here is how, and when paying someone is genuinely worth it.
7 min read · Updated 7 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
Why PR applications are declined
ICA does not give reasons. That is the honest starting point, and it is why most of what you will read on this subject is inference presented as fact.
6 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
Documents for a PR application
ICA's own list governs and it differs by category. This is what almost every application needs, and where people most often come unstuck.
6 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
PR for spouses
A distinct eligibility route with its own considerations, and one where a decision about your sons is better taken before you apply than after.
6 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
Keeping PR: the Re-Entry Permit
Despite the name, Permanent Residence is conditional. It runs on a Re-Entry Permit, and it lapses without one.
5 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
PR or citizenship?
Most comparisons list benefits side by side. The decision usually turns on two things instead, and one of them is commonly misunderstood.
6 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
From Employment Pass to PR
Employment Pass holders are the largest group of PR applicants. That makes the route common, not automatic.
6 min read · Updated 15 September 2026
Read the guide - Work passes
COMPASS, explained
Since September 2023 an Employment Pass application is scored, not simply assessed against a salary floor. Two of the six criteria have nothing to do with the candidate at all.
7 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide - Permanent Residence
Singapore PR for Malaysians
Malaysians are the largest foreign community in Singapore and among the most common to take up Permanent Residence. The criteria are identical to everyone else's. What differs is the paperwork, and occasionally the timing.
6 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide - Choosing a consultancy
What a PR agency costs
Fees in this market run from around S$1,400 to well over S$5,000 for broadly similar work. The spread is real, it is not explained by quality alone, and almost nobody publishes enough detail to compare properly.
6 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide - Citizenship
Singapore citizenship requirements
The eligibility criteria are short and public. The consequential part is not a criterion at all: Singapore does not permit dual citizenship for adults, and renunciation is effectively irreversible.
7 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide - Family
Can your spouse work here?
This is the single most common misunderstanding in a family relocation, and the rules changed in 2021 in a way that a great deal of advice still online has not caught up with.
6 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide - Policy changes
The 2027 Employment Pass salary rise
Announced at Budget 2026. It affects new applications from 1 January 2027 and renewals for passes expiring from 1 January 2028, and the age escalation means the change is larger than the headline figure suggests.
5 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Read the guide
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