Debated in Parliament on 13 Sep 2016.
Mr Kok Heng Leun asked the Minister for Home Affairs in each year since 2009 (a) what is the number of foreigners married to Singapore Citizens who have been (i) successful and (ii) unsuccessful in their PR applications respectively in that year; and (b) what is the breakdown of these numbers by household income, gender, and number of citizen children.
Foreign spouses married to Singapore Citizens (SCs) may be granted Permanent Residence (PR) under the Family Ties Scheme (FTS). Each application is evaluated on a range of criteria, which include an assessment of the ability of the SC sponsor to support the family, the length of marriage and whether the couple have any children from the marriage.
From 2009 to 2015, on average about 4,000 such PR applications were approved each year and about an equal number were rejected each year.
Foreign spouses who do not qualify for PR yet may be granted a Long-Term Visit Pass (LTVP) for them to remain in Singapore with their families. Those who are granted LTVP are allowed to seek employment to help support their families. Over time, the foreign spouse can qualify for a Long-Term Visit Pass Plus (LTVP+) if the marriage proves stable, or if there are SC children from the marriage. The LTVP+ provides the foreign spouse with longer periods of residency and subsidies for inpatient services in public hospitals.
The profile of foreign spouses of SCs who were granted PR from 2009 to 2015 is as follows: a) around 45% had a monthly household income of less than $4,000, which is around the 25th percentile of monthly incomes across all resident households in 2015; b) around 81% were female; and c) at the point of application, around 28% of them had children. Of them, around 86% had SC children.
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