ST : Fewer given PR status or citizenship in past 12 months

May 19, 2010

Fewer given PR status or citizenship in past 12 months

By Sue-Ann Chia

FEWER foreigners were granted permanent residency or citizenship here since the Government tightened eligibility requirement late last year.

Fresh figures released by Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs and Law) Ho Peng Kee in Parliament yesterday showed that there has been a slowdown in the past 12 months.

Between April last year and the end of March this year, there were 46,300 new PRs and 19,300 new citizens.

The numbers that Associate Professor Ho provided to the House were lower when seen against previously released figures of the number of applications approved for the whole of last year.

Those figures showed there were 59,500 new PRs approved last year, down from 79,200 in 2008. As for new citizens, the figure last year was 19,900 compared to 20,500 for the whole of 2008.

Explaining the reasons for taking in a larger number of foreigners in the last few years, he said that it was 'to catch the wind of growth to propel our economy forward'.

'The growth in the number of new immigrants in recent years was because we wanted to take advantage of the strong economy to attract and retain suitable foreigners to sink roots here, and to augment our population,' he added.

But the Government also recognised and understood the concerns and sentiments of Singaporeans over the rapid increase in numbers and had reviewed the immigration framework to 'better manage the pace and overall numbers' of foreigners here, he said.

Prof Ho was responding to Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang GRC) who asked whether the rejection of PR and citizenship applications was due to the strong sentiments expressed by Singaporeans about there being too many foreigners here.

He said that as eligibility requirements had been made more stringent since the final quarter of last year, some applicants did not meet the new criteria. 'Others, even though they meet the new criteria, may take a longer time before they are granted PR or citizenship as the residency requirement has been stretched out in the new framework,' he explained.

For citizens whose foreign dependants did not yet qualify for PR or citizenship, they could apply for long-term visit passes (LTVP) to remain here.

From 2005 to last year, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority processed an average of 15,400 LTVPs and 9,900 PR applications annually from foreign spouses of Singaporeans. Of these, 2,200 pass applications and 4,500 PR applications were not successful, he said to a separate question from Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC).