Recent content by john_nyc_71

It can be complicated. For example US imposes inheritance taxes if both spouses are not citizens. There were a number of British women living in NY who lost their American husbands in the Sept 11 terrorists attacks. Not only did they have to cope with the tragedy, they has to sell the house to...

Said minister's wife is American and under American law his children are automatically American. Anyway the SG government has never objected to minors holding dual citizenship.

Therein lies the dilemma for those on this board who have foreign passports but whose SG passports have expired: how to answer the question when renewing the SG passport.

Is this reliable? It sounds strange - someone born in Singapore may not even be a citizen of Singapore, and conversely, there are Singapore citizens not born in Singapore ...

I think it is highly unlikely that the Singapore government checks with other countries when you apply for a passport. For one, many countries would probably consider this information subject to privacy laws, or decide that it is against their national interest to let another country have...

I am no lawyer, but I have yet to find or be shown a law that prescribes a penalty for acquiring another citizenship, other than the acquisition of another citizenship giving grounds for the govt to deprive you of your SG citizenship. And even then, the law states that the govt MAY deprive you...

The keyword here is MAY. According to the constitution, the SG govt can choose do nothing for some people who have foreign citizenships, and revoke the SG citizenship of others. Unfortunately this means there is no guarantee (at least according to the law) which way they will go in individual...

Certainly. The options are not mutually exclusive. Although I don't think this is the case for SG, because you are not allowed to vote overseas or register overseas born children as SG citizens after acquiring foreign citizenship.

I am not a lawyer, so what I say is simply my understanding: When one says "dual citizenship is not allowed", one can mean any of the following: (1) There is a fine or jail time for being a dual citizen. (2) You have to inform the SG authorities once you acquire any citizenship. (3) If you...

Not so much to buy, but to keep or inherit. (Obviously the group of people in this category is unlikely to overlap with the group of people who have hardly worked in Singapore, but they would each have their reasons for keeping SG citizenship). I know people who have HDB flats, did not live in...

If you don't live in Singapore, reservist is not an issue anyway. Not everyone has a lot of money in CPF, especially if one has worked very little in Singapore (eg those who went abroad to study and got jobs overseas rightaway). Singapore passport is a more useful travel document in some...

I don't think they check. It's very difficult for them to check even if they wanted to anyway. Not every country stamps your passport these days. For example, many countries (UK, HK) now have electronic entry using thumbprint or iris scan. Another example, if you have a US green card, you do...

Not sure what you mean by "gotten away scot free". I don't think Singapore actually has any laws against holding a foreign passport. The SG govt may take away your SG citizenship if they find out (but it is not automatic). The problem is when your SG passport comes up for renewal - you have...

My layman's understanding of the law is that there is actually no penalty for acquiring a foreign passport. The only "penalty" is that this allows the government to take away your SG citizenship at their discretion. I do not know what is the penalty for making a false declaration (you have...

So the "nasty" letter has to do with withdrawing CPF as opposed to renouncing citizenship?