APPLICATIONS FOR CITIZENSHIP (Particulars)

Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many applications for citizenship are still outstanding as at the latest convenient date: and (b) how many persons have applied for citizenship since 1st January, 1981, and how many of them have been granted citizenship.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, as at 31st July, 1981, there were 6,923 outstanding applications for citizenship. The number of outstanding cases has been drastically reduced in recent years. At the end of 1978, the number outstanding was 24,862. This was reduced to 14,489 by the end of 1979. The number dropped to 8,882 at the end of 1980. Of the 6,923 applications pending, 1,799 applications were received before 1st January 1981. 292 of the 1,799 applications have already been refused and the applicants will be informed soon. The remaining 1,507 applications have been held up for various reasons. In some cases, the information provided by the applicants is inadequate and the Registry of Citizenship has to wait for the applicants to provide further information or clarification. In other cases, the applications have been shelved temporarily as the applicants who do not now meet the criteria for approval are expected to qualify in the near future. These cases are not immediately rejected but are instead kept in view for the benefit of the applicants.

Priority will be given to clearing the older applications. All the 1,507 applications received before 1981 should be cleared within six to 12 months, although this would depend partly on the cooperation of the applicants.

In the first seven months of 1981, 10,131 persons applied for citizenship. Of these, 3,461 have been granted citizenship and 1,546 have been rejected. The rest are at various stages of processing. Normally, the average processing time of these new applications is about three months.

Mr Ng Kah Ting (Punggol): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, have there been any further changes in the criteria for processing of the applications so that citizenship may be granted much sooner?

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have, in fact, increased the number of criteria in the sense that we are now much more liberal so that we can attract more talent to Singapore. For example, if a foreign student who has studied in Singapore has done very well in the GCE 'A' level examination, that student will be favourably considered first for permanent residence and later for citizenship.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: Sir, if that is the case, what about those outstanding cases which do not meet that criterion?

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the outstanding cases, as I have said, have been drastically reduced from year to year and, as a result, we now have only 1,507 applications which were submitted before 1st January 1981. These cases, hopefully with the cooperation of the applicants concerned, may be dealt with within six to 12 months.