More foreign spouses granted permanent resident status in Singapore

More foreign spouses of Singapore citizens have gained Permanent Resident (PR) status in recent years, said Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on Monday in a written parliamentary reply.

An average of 4,000 foreign spouses were given PR status under the Family Ties Scheme each year between 2010 and 2014, which saw a slight increase over the average of 3,800 per year between 2010 and 2012, said Teo.

It estimated that 62,100 spouses were granted PR status at the end of 2014, compared with 58,600 at the end of 2012. These figures exclude spouses who obtained PR on their own merits or those who were already PRs at the time of marriage.

The deputy prime minister also noted that while the number of marriages between Singapore citizens and foreigners has risen over the last decade, the number of PR holders has remained relatively stable in the past five years, around 6,700 on average. Endi