beppi wrote:I have a question about citizenship issue for mixed kids, looking for people with experience in this. Sorry if it has been discussed before, but my search did not show anything applicable.
A girl was born in Singapore and has by birth local (mother is Singaporean) as well as father's citizenship.
Father's country allows double citizenship in such cases, Singapore doesn't (after 21 years of age).
Singapore didn't ask if the baby has another citizenship, only if another one was applied for (parents said No, as father's citizenship is given automatically and no application is needed). Thus Singapore doesn't know about the other citizenship (yet).
Now my question is: Could/Should the parents keep it this way? What can or is likely to happen? And if not, how and whom to inform?
Most likely nothing is going to happen as long as the child always uses the Singapore passport to enter and leave Singapore and doesn't let anyone know about it.
The legal point of view is different. Not reporting it, doesn't mean that the law doesn't apply to the child any more and she will still have to chose at 21. Keeping it secret and not saying anything makes things worse. So the bottom line is a breach of law and the consequences if found guilty could be hefty.
The way to go would have been to give birth outside Singapore and then to apply for PR for the child if the father is a PR as well or apply for PR for both of them jointly. However as the child is a citizen already (because she was born in Singapore to a Singaporean mother) there is nothing much one can do now.
You will have to contact ICA to inform them about the second citizenship. One more thing to note is that certain countries do not consider renunciations of citizenship but I am not sure about possible scenarios in this case.
a.k.a. littlegreenman
