eNewsletter

Singapore’s government recently revised regulations governing foreign workers. Adding to the foreign worker levies that were increased in July 2010, an adjustment in October 2010 to legal status laws makes it more difficult for foreigners to attain permanent residency status in Singapore.

In the past, many foreign workers in Singapore applied for and successfully attained foreign resident status. This process requires applicants to have a specific income level, categorize themselves under a specific job category (such as entrepreneur, professional, skilled worker, etc.), and more. To be eligible, applicants must now have an even higher income level. As for job categories, each one has its own set of criteria that must be met by the prospective permanent resident. The recent legal status law amendments altered the criteria for many of these categories. For example, an investor was previously able to become a permanent resident if s/he invested S$1 million (US$777,000) in Singapore. Now, the requirement is a S$2.5 million (US$1.95 million) investment for permanent residency status.

The Singapore government appears to be regulating these new changes stringently. Foreign workers have already begun reporting that their foreign residency statuses are being reviewed. Industry experts note that there are approximately 450,000 permanent residents in Singapore amongst the nation’s total population of 5 million. Since the revised laws will effectively no longer accommodate this high number of permanent residents, many of them will have to relocate to jobs outside of Singapore or try and attain citizenship.

Approximately one third of Singapore’s population is estimated to be comprised of foreign workers. These government actions seem to be a response, in part, to reports of locals expressing antipathy towards foreign workers. The criticisms are centered around the belief that foreigners are benefitting disproportionately from Singapore’s governmental provisions while national issues such as unemployment are hurting citizens more than foreigners.