K Shanmugam on high net worth individuals being granted Singapore citizenship

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority does not collect information on the wealth or net worth of applicants for Singapore citizenship as that is not one of the primary criteria for assessment. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said this in Parliament on Monday (May 8) in reply to a question on the number of ultra-high net worth individuals and their families who have been granted citizenship. Mr Shanmugam said a researcher who was recently reported in the media as saying 3,500 high net worth individuals were due to get Singapore citizenship this year had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to say he had been misquoted. This is after MHA issued a statement saying the reports were highly misleading and had no credible basis. The researcher said he had never said anything about citizenship in his interview, that he did not track citizenship in his research and that his projection referred to high net worth individuals coming to Singapore in general, most of whom might be expatriates and work transfers - in other words, not necessarily people who applied for and became citizens. Mr Shanmugam reiterated that applications for Singapore citizenship are assessed on a broad range of factors. These include the ability to contribute to the country, the number of jobs the applicant or their business may be able to create here, their special skillsets, family ties to Singaporeans and commitment to sinking roots in Singapore.