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support these families. Our approach here is for Singaporean families to be stable
ones, and able to care for and support their family members.
To support the family and the foreign spouses as they settle in and integrate,
we have a range of immigration facilities for foreign spouses, including the LongTerm
Visit Pass (LTVP), and the Long-Term Visit Pass-Plus (LTVP+) introduced in
2012, which enable the spouses to be employed and have access to some benefits,
and over time, progress towards naturalisation as PRs and citizens.
Various factors are considered when we
assess applications from foreign spouses for PR or citizenship. These include
the length of stay in Singapore, duration of marriage, whether the couple has
Singaporean children from the marriage, and whether the Singaporean sponsor
will be able to support the family. So like for like, the family that Ms Tin has
described - Singaporean children, stable marriage, stayed in Singapore
for a long period of time - would stand a better chance than one that is newly married
or do not have children. Where the foreign spouse does not yet
qualify for PR or citizenship, he or she could be granted an LTVP or LTVP+ to enable
the couple to reside together in Singapore. The LTVP+ carries healthcare and
employment benefits. LTVP+ also provides greater certainty of stay. It is
valid for a longer period, 3 years in the first
instance and up to 5 years for subsequent renewals.
I would like to assure Mr Png that we take into account whether there are
compassionate grounds when we consider applications from foreign spouses. In this
particular case, I think Mr Png was referring to a family member of a foreign spouse
who has become a Singapore citizen. We do have the stipulated response time, 6 weeks as stated
in the ICA website. But for some cases, could be
due to inadequate documentation, or some other reasons of concern. For example, if this
particular person has been applying for a social visit pass for relatives on a prolonged period of time,
then perhaps the situation is not as isolated or not as urgent as it would have seemed.
So for citizenship consideration like this,
ICA usually would take a second look and perhaps could have taken more time than
usually. But I have many experiences with ICA's application, that when it is
indeed a truly urgent matter, for example, to support a newborn in a family or a
critically ill parent, they do take urgent review of the application and grant it
expeditiously.