Must You Report and Register a Birth in Singapore?

Last updated on October 11, 2024

When a child is born in Singapore, the child’s birth must be reported and registered by law. This guide will highlight the relevant processes involved, penalties for non-compliance and certain changes to the law as of 2024.

In particular, this article will cover:

The Difference Between Reporting and Registering a Birth in Singapore

Reporting involves informing the relevant authorities that a child has been born, while registering involves entering the child’s particulars in the official register of births. In Singapore, a child’s birth must be both reported and registered.

The process of reporting and registering is sequential.

A child’s birth must first be reported to the Registrar-General. While there is no specified timeframe for the reporting, it must be done as soon as practicable after the child is born.

Next, the child’s birth must be registered within 42 days from the date of birth, where the details of the child’s birth need to be provided in order to be listed in Singapore’s official register of births.

According to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBDA), in certain special situations, the registration process may also involve re-registration. This includes situations such as when a child is adopted or when a child who is born out of wedlock is later legitimised under the Legitimacy Act.

For instance, if a court issues an adoption order for a child, the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths must either register the child’s birth if it has not already been done so, or re-register the birth according to the adoption order.

Who is Responsible for Reporting and Registering a Birth?

Who should report the birth of a child?

The person(s) responsible for reporting a birth would depend on where the child is born. The following table contains the details of the situations described in the RBDA and the corresponding person(s) who would be responsible for reporting the birth:

If the child is born…	The person(s) responsible* for reporting the birth would be…
in a hospital	every medical practitioner who attends to the birth, and the hospital
outside a hospital and is brought to the hospital 24 hours after the child’s birth	every medical practitioner who attends to the child at the hospital, and the hospital
in any premises other than a hospital	the child’s parents, and every occupier of the premises who knows of the child’s birth in the premises
in an aircraft, a vessel or a train while it is in, or bound for Singapore	the child’s parents, and the master of the conveyance
in any other place	the child’s parents

Table A

* Where more than one person is listed as being responsible for reporting the death and any of the responsible persons reports the death, the duty of every other responsible person is discharged.

Who should register the birth of a child?

An application for the registration of a child’s birth has to be submitted by the child’s biological parents, legal guardians or any other legally appointed persons. If this is not done, the Registrar-General also has the power to register the child’s birth after receiving the child’s birth particulars from the persons specified in Table A above, or any other person.

Where a child is adopted, the Registrar-General is responsible for the registration or re-registration of the child’s birth in accordance with the adoption order to reflect the adoption and the new particulars, including the child’s name and the adoptive parents’ details.

Where a child is legitimised by the Legitimacy Act after their parents’ marriage, the parent must apply for re-registration if the child is below 21 years old. If the person is 21 years old or older, the person may make the application for re-registration by himself.

Process of Reporting and Registering a Child’s Birth

How do I report a birth in Singapore?

If the child is born in a hospital, the hospital will report the birth to the Registrar-General.

For births that occur outside of a hospital, the child’s parents must go to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in person to report the birth as soon as practicable. However, where the child is brought to the hospital within 24 hours of that child’s birth, the hospital will report such births to the Registrar-General.

How do I register a birth in Singapore?

All registrations of births can be done online.

The child’s parents, legal guardians or any other legally appointed persons must provide the birth particulars of the child within 42 days of the child’s birth. The only exception to the requirement for registration is where the child dies within 42 days of birth.

The birth registration particulars include:

Name, identification number, occupation, citizenship and marriage details of both parents (where applicable)
Name and birth information of the newborn child

The registration can be online via LifeSG (through the mobile app or www.life.gov.sg) if:

The child is born in Singapore;
The registration is done by the child’s biological parents; and
At least one of the child’s biological parents is a Singapore citizen, permanent resident, or FIN holder.

Where both biological parents are not a Singapore citizen, permanent resident or FIN holder, either parent can start the birth registration as the main applicant with a valid email address on the LifeSG website (not the app).

Legal guardians and other legally appointed persons may email ICA at ICA_Birth_RBD@ica.gov.sg for assistance with registering the child’s birth online.

If no application is submitted or if the application is incomplete, the Registrar-General may still proceed with registering the child’s birth if the Registrar-General is satisfied that the child was born in Singapore and that the registration can be completed despite the incomplete birth particulars.

If the birth particulars do not include the name of the child, the Registrar-General may give the child an appropriate name to identify the child.

Otherwise, where the child’s birth is registered without the child’s name, the responsible person for the child, such as the parent or the legal guardian, will have a duty to provide that name until the end of 7 years after a child’s birth. Where any other birth particular is not provided, the duty of the responsible person for the child to provide it continues despite the registration.

Upon successful registration, parents, legal guardians or any other legally appointed persons will be notified to download the child’s digital birth certificate on ICA’s website using the electronic retrieval of certificates and instant verification e-service. The certificate must be downloaded within 90 days at the cost of S$18.

Penalties for Failing to Report and Register a Child’s Birth

Am I legally required to report a birth?

It is an offence for any person responsible for reporting a child’s birth to not do so without reasonable excuse under the RBDA. While there is no official clarification on what entails a reasonable excuse under the RBDA, a possible reasonable excuse could be mental or physical incapacity. Ultimately, the court will assess the reason(s) on a case by case basis.

Upon conviction, a person is liable to a fine of up to S$1,500 and/or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one month.

However, where there is more than one person responsible for reporting the birth, and any of the responsible persons reports the birth, the duty of every other responsible person is discharged.

Am I legally required to register a birth?

Yes, there is a legal obligation on a person responsible for the child to register a birth. A person responsible to provide a child’s birth particulars for registration include a child’s parents, legal guardians, or any other legally appointed persons. Failure to provide the required birth particulars to the Registrar-General within 42 days of a child’s birth, without reasonable excuse, constitutes an offence under the RBDA.

Upon conviction, a person will be liable to a fine of up to S$1,500 and/or be imprisoned for a term not more than a month. There will be a further fine of up to S$50 for every day the offence continues after conviction.

What If I Want to Add My Name to a Child’s Birth Certificate?

Adding a biological parent’s name

To add a biological parent’s name to the child’s birth certificate, both parents must visit the ICA Information Counter at level 3 of the ICA Building for an interview. This can be done on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. The following documents are required:

Original identity cards of both parents and their original marriage certificate
The child’s original birth certificate
DNA test results confirming the father’s paternity (including identification numbers for both the father and the child)
Any other relevant supporting documents, if applicable

Once the application is approved, there is a fee of S$180 for adding the father’s name and details, and an additional S$40 for issuing a new birth extract (a certified copy of the birth certificate).

Adding a non-biological parent’s name

Where the biological parent of the child remarries and the non-biological parent wishes to add their name to the child’s birth certificate, the non-biological parent would have to adopt the child through an adoption order and indicate that the child is adopted by them in the register of births. Through the re-registration process of the birth of the child, the particulars of the adopting parent would be entered into the register as particulars of one of the child’s parents.

It must also be noted that the consent of relevant persons of the child are required in the adoption process, such as the biological parents of the child, unless such a requirement is dispensed with by the court.

For a more detailed overview, you may refer to our other article on adding a parent’s name to the child’s birth certificate.

Can I Change My Child’s Surname?

Parents may wish to change their child’s name in situations such as where a child is legitimised and the parents wish to change the child’s surname to the father’s surname.

Only the child’s parent or legal guardian may apply to alter the child’s name. For the alteration of a child’s name:

the child must be born in Singapore,
the alteration must occur before the child turns one year old, and
the child’s name must not have been previously altered.

Procedure for changing a child’s name

The application must be made using this form.

The following documents/information is required for the online application:

NRIC of both parents (or foreign passport and FIN card for foreigners)
Letter of consent duly signed by the other parent (who is named in the child’s birth certificate)
Other supporting documents (where applicable)

If there is no consent letter from the other parent, the parent making the application (i.e. the applicant) is required to produce a court order stating that the applicant has full control and rights to change the child’s particulars unilaterally without the other parent’s consent.

Upon approval, your child’s digital birth certificate which was previously issued will be cancelled and a new digital birth certificate reflecting the child’s new name will be issued.

A non-refundable application fee of S$33 must be paid. You will also be required to pay S$18 for the issuance of a new digital birth certificate. The application takes 3 working days, if all required documents were successfully submitted.

If My Spouse and I are of Different Races, Can We Register for a Double-Barrelled Race When Registering Our Child’s Birth?

All Singaporeans born on or after 1 January 2011 to parents of different races will be eligible to register for a double-barrelled race. A double-barrelled race option allows a child’s race to comprise both their father’s and mother’s race.

Singaporeans born before 1 January 2011 to parents of different races may request for a change from a singular to double-barrelled race to reflect both parents’ races, if they fulfil the eligibility criteria.

Important information to note for registering a double-barrelled race for a child

For relevant Government policies such as the initial assignment to a mother-tongue language class in schools and the HDB’s Ethnic Integration Policy, the first component of a double-barrelled race will be used. For example, if a child is Chinese-Indian, the first component would be ‘Chinese’.

Where both parents are registered with a double-barrelled race and wish to register a double-barrelled race for their child, the first component race of the child is taken from the first component race of either parent. For example, if one spouse is Malay-Chinese and the other is Indian-Thai, the first component race for the child can either be Malay or Indian only.

All siblings must have the same recorded race. Even if the first-born child was born before 1 January 2011, parents will be allowed to register a double-barrelled race for them, provided that their subsequent children are born after 1 January 2011. If a situation requires a change of race, all siblings registered with a double-barrelled race must change their race together, except for a sibling who is 21 years of age or older. Other exceptions may be allowed on a case-by-case basis.

A Singaporean born after 1 January 2011 is allowed to change their race twice – once before the age of 21 and once at/after the age of 21.

Process to change to double-barrelled race

Singaporeans can submit an application through this form to request to change to a double-barrelled race, and Permanent Residents can likewise submit an application through this form.

Once the application is approved, you may proceed with the IC registration/re-registration or replacement IC application.

The applicant will be required to pay the requisite fees for the issuance of an identity card which reflects the new race. The cost of changing the NRIC is S$60. Furthermore, all official documents such as the birth certificate or passport will have to be replaced.

Reporting and Registering Stillbirths, and Naming of Stillborn Children

Following the Stillbirths and Births (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill (SBMAB) that was passed in Parliament in early January 2024, bereaved parents can now officially register names for their stillborn children.

Under the new law, a stillborn child is defined as a child that issues from the child’s mother after the 24th week of pregnancy and does not show any sign of life at any point after being fully born. This is amended from the previous threshold of 22 weeks.

Reporting of stillbirths

The birth of every stillborn must be reported. The following table contains the details of the situations described in the RBDA and the corresponding person(s) who would be responsible for reporting the stillbirth:

If the child is born…	The person(s) responsible* for reporting the birth would be…
in a hospital	the hospital
in any premises other than a hospital	every relative of the stillborn child who is present at the stillbirth; and every occupier of the premises who knows of the stillbirth in the premises;
in an aircraft, a vessel or a train while it is in, or bound for Singapore	every relative of the stillborn child who is in the conveyance at the time and knows of the stillbirth; and the master of the conveyance
in any other place	every relative of the stillborn child who knows of the stillbirth; every person who is present at the stillbirth; and every person who takes charge of the body of the stillborn child.

Table B

* Where more than one person is listed as being responsible for reporting the death and any of the responsible persons reports the death, the duty of every other responsible person is discharged.

Registering of stillbirths

Once a medical practitioner determines that a child is stillborn, they will provide particulars to the Registrar-General within 24 hours after examining the child. A stillbirth in Singapore will be automatically registered once a doctor certifies the stillbirth online. There is no need for the parents to register a stillbirth at a registration counter.

Parents will need to produce their identification documents (e.g. NRIC, FIN card or passport) to the doctor/hospital to facilitate the certification of the stillbirth.

The certifying doctor will need to minimally provide the following particulars of the stillborn child to facilitate the certification of the stillbirth:

Stillborn child’s sex
Date of stillbirth
Time of stillbirth
Place/address where stillbirth occurred
Cause of death
Mother’s particulars (name, identification document number and date of birth)

Digital stillbirth certificate

There is no fee for stillbirth registration and for the issuance of a digital stillbirth certificate.

After the doctor has certified the stillbirth online, parents will have to download the digital stillbirth certificate at the My Legacy website within 30 days.

Naming of stillborn child

Parents of stillborn children can apply to register a name within a year after the stillbirth. However, these changes will only be reflected in the ICA in the expected year of 2026.

Until then, parents who wish to name their stillborn child can apply for the unofficial commemorative birth certificate on ICA’s website. The process will take about 10 working days. The commemorative birth certificate will be sent via email when it is ready.

For a more detailed overview of the amendments, you may refer to our article on new laws for stillbirths in Singapore.

—

In summary, there is a legal requirement to report and register a child’s birth in Singapore.

Recent amendments to the law, particularly those related to stillbirths, the addition of parent names to birth certificates and changing a child’s race to a double-barrelled one, highlight ongoing efforts to adapt the legal framework to better reflect Singapore’s recognition of diverse family structures.

If you require the assistance of a lawyer to guide you through the process of reporting and registering births in Singapore, you may get in touch with experienced lawyers here.