So… I’m Finally Applying for Singapore Citizenship

Seventeen years. That’s how long I’ve been in Singapore now — 3 years on an EP grinding it out, then PR for the rest. And somewhere along the way, without me really noticing when it happened, this place quietly became home. Not “home away from home.” Just… home.

I’ve been sitting on the fence about citizenship for a while, but this year I finally decided to just do it. Honestly, going back to Korea doesn’t even feel like an option anymore in any real sense. Most of my close friends there have drifted, my life isn’t really wired into that rhythm anymore, and if I’m being brutally honest, I think I’d feel more like an outsider in Seoul than I do here. That’s a weird thing to sit with, but it’s true. My family’s whole life — school runs, weekend habits, the food we crave, the language my kids think in half the time — all of it is here now.

Let’s not pretend this is purely sentimental. Singapore is expensive — brutally so if you’re still paying PR-tier school fees and dealing with the housing situation as a non-citizen. Citizenship actually changes the math in a real way: school fees for the kids drop, and the housing situation (grants, HDB options, etc.) opens up in ways that just aren’t available to PR holders. When I ran the numbers, it hit me — if housing and school fees stop being the two things eating my paycheck alive, even something like SGD 9,000 a month starts to feel like a genuinely livable, comfortable income for a family here. That’s not nothing. That’s the difference between constantly feeling behind and actually being able to breathe.

This is the part nobody warns you about. I pulled the official ICA document checklist and it’s a whole project on its own. Since I’m the main applicant applying with family,

here’s roughly what I’m gathering:

• Passport-sized photo (very specific — 400x514px, white background, no headgear unless religious/racial custom)
• My passport / travel documents
• Birth certificate (since mine wasn’t registered in Singapore)
• Marriage certificate (same deal — not registered locally)
• Educational certificates and transcripts
• Any professional/skill certificates I’ve picked up over the years
• Employment letter (dated within 3 months of applying, with role/salary details)
• Payslips from the last 6 months
• If I’d been working overseas — 3 years of tax assessments (thankfully N/A for me)

And that’s just my side. My spouse, as the non-applying spouse, has her own subset — marriage cert, employment stuff if relevant, etc. It’s genuinely a “block out a weekend to dig through old files” kind of task. Pro tip to future me (and anyone else doing this): start hunting for the birth/marriage certs early, because those are the ones that take forever to track down if they’re not sitting in a drawer already.

I’m basically in document-collection mode — chasing down old certificates, getting a proper photo taken, asking HR for an updated employment letter. Nothing glamorous, just admin. But every time I feel annoyed filling out one more form, I remind myself why I’m doing this: this is where my kids are growing up, this is where our life actually happens, and honestly, this is where I want to retire someday too.

Seventeen years in — feels less like a decision and more like finally making it official.