About 18,600 Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) have applied for their foreigner relatives or dependents to enter Singapore between 1 April last year to 31 January this year, said Minister of State for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim in Parliament on Tuesday (16 Feb).
Dr Faishal was responding to a parliamentary question from Member of Parliament (MP) for Ang Mo Kio GRC Gan Thiam Poh, who asked about the number of appeals from Singaporeans and PRs for the entry of their foreigner relatives or dependents to Singapore, as well as the number of appeals for a waiver of Stay-Home Notice (SHN) dedicated facility cost.
“From 1 April 2020 to 31 January 2021, ICA [Immigration and Checkpoints Authority] processed about 18,600 applications for entry of foreign family members of SCs [Singapore Citizens] and PRs,” said Dr Faishal.
Of those, 97 per cent of the applications were approved, said the Minister.
“Foreign visitors entering Singapore are required to pay for the cost of their COVID-19 swab test and stay at dedicated stay home notice (SHN) facilities if required,” he added.
Dr Faishal also revealed that ICA processed about 371 appeals for a waiver of cost for SHN stays and COVID-19 swab tests, for the same period.
“About 60 per cent of these appeals were successful, while the remaining were either withdrawn or were unsuccessful,” he noted.
MOM approved 25,000 requests for foreign domestic workers to enter S’pore
Mr Gan also asked for the number of applications for the entry of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) into Singapore as well as the number of applications for appeals of a waiver of the SHN dedicated facility cost.
In response, Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang stated that between April last year to January this year, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has approved around 25,000 requests for the entry of FWDs into Singapore.
“About 600 Singaporeans and permanent residents whose initial application were not successful submitted appeals and about 500 succeeded eventually to bring their foreign domestic workers to Singapore,” she added.
Ms Gan revealed that about 3,200 appeals for a waiver of SHN dedicated facility cost for FWDs were acceded to constituting 13 per cent of all entry approvals.