Post
by kraikk » Tue, 15 Jun 2010 9:52 am
I have just gone back to bolden a very important bit of the sticky. Hopefully parents learn from ltw1977 and the experience of many others. If your child - especially a son - is born overseas and will obtain an overseas citizenship, whether by jus soli or jus sanguinis, think very carefully about the implications of registering the birth with the Singaporean embassy and getting Singaporean citizenship for him. The pros and cons are countless, so read up on your own and learn from the experiences of others in this and other forums. The big one is, of course, NS. There is no way of avoiding this, or saying "just apply now in case and we'll worry about the consequences later". Where will your family be, where do you want your children to grow up and study, are you moving back to Singapore, what is your own citizenship/ residency status, all these are questions that must be answered before the child is born.
ltw1977 does your child already have Singaporean citizenship? If the application is still in processing perhaps you can do a last minute recall of some sort, tell them you made a mistake? Or even if he is already a citizen just give ICA a call; legally citizenship cannot be renounced until 21 but if your child is only 2 months old just give it a shot. Same for the baby bonus, all this is really uncharted territory.
If not then the EP, deferment, renunciation route stated by Mad Scientist is the way to go.
BUT I get the sense that you are trying to keep your options open for your son. In that case remember that you only have until the age of 11 to decide, once he hits 11 and is still a citizen, NS is unavoidable. There is no problem returning to Singapore with an Exit Permit and serving NS. This will delay his decision time until 22, when he must still choose between Australian and Singaporean citizenship.
The renouncement after 21 issue is something I'm quite interested in. I would like to hear if anyone has any anecdotes on ex-Singaporeans applying for EP, PR, or citizenship. Those who renounce for good reason usually will not try to return to Singapore again, but I would like to know about any experiences in this area.