About 200 Foreigners Were Granted PR Status for Their Large Investments in S’pore in the Last 3 Years

Singaporean residency is highly sought after by everyone, except Singaporeans maybe.

About 200 people have been approved to receive Permanent Residency (PR) through the Global Investor Programme (GIP) from the years 2020 and 2022, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling in Parliament on 23 February. 

This was in response to a question asked by MP Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) on the number of people that have used the programme to qualify for permanent residency in the past three years.

Here’s what you need to know.

What’s the GIP?

The Global Investor Programme (GIP), launched in 2004, was started by the Economic Development Board to encourage top foreign talent to take up permanent residency in the country while contributing to Singapore’s financial growth.

It’s also known as the Singapore investment visa—investable assets include bank deposits, collective investment schemes, capital market products, and share certificates. Real estate is surprisingly not included. 

Who Qualifies For GIP?

Foreigners can apply for the GIP for permanent residency through three options. The first is to invest at least S$2.5 million in a business to either kickstart or expand it. The second is to invest that S$2.5 million into a fund that invests in Singapore-based companies. The third requires an investment of S$2.5 million into a new or current Singapore family office that has Assets under Management totalling at least S$200 million.

Your business also needs to be in a specific industry, like aerospace engineering, medical technology, or media and entertainment.

The GIP has attracted more than $5.46 billion in total business expenditure via direct investments from 2011 to 2022, which has generated more than 24,000 jobs, said Ms Low in Parliament.

Why Do So Few People Get GIP?

Apparently, GIP is hard to obtain, because it basically requires you to be incredibly rich.

Ms Low herself said that a “very low percentage” of foreigners applying for permanent residency under the GIP actually get it. She revealed that this figure was less than 1% of applicants.

It’s probably because applicants need to have at least three years of entrepreneurial and business track record, and be running a company with an annual turnover of at least $200 million in the year immediately preceding the application.

I’m sure nearly everyone can agree that this kind of money is pretty hard to come by.