Adoption Procedures

Foreigners who meet the requirements can legalize their adoptions in Singapore. They need to obtain a HSR in Singapore to be able to adopt a non-Singaporean child. Letters of support from the Embassy are needed for you to apply for a HSR. Your country must support and recognize the adoption. Basically, once foreign adoption is completed in Singapore, your country…

Can a single person adopt a child in Singapore? Yes, singles go through the same child adoption process as couples. But the HSR processing time for singles can be longer than that for couples. However, if you fulfill all the requirements, you should be able to obtain the HSR and adopt. Once the HSR is approved, there should be no…

Singaporean couples can adopt babies from Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia. If you are adopting a Singaporean child, there is no need to do a Home Study report. But Singaporean child is hard to come by, that’s why most Singaporean couples adopt a child from another country. The followings summarize the adoption steps for Singaporean couples: how to adopt a foreign child:

#1: Sign up for the compulsory Pre-adoption briefing workshop
If you have any uncertainty about adopting, this workshop will help you to better understand what to expect in an adoption, your responsibilities as adoptive parents and the needs of an adopted child. It also gives you an understanding on the procedures and timeline of the adoption process, so you can make a plan for your adoption journey, so that it suits your work and family commitments.

Pre-adoption Briefing is a 2.5 hour workshop that is conducted by any of 4 family service centers accredited by MSF. You can register for a workshop at the following website:

Sign up via this link: https://app.adoption.gov.sg/WorkshopPARegistration.aspx

Once you have attended the workshop and have decided to proceed, you are ready for the next step.

#2: Apply for Home Study
Home Study is a compulsory study required by MSF (Ministry of Social and Family Development). They are carried out by one of the accredited agencies of your choice:

– Touch Family Services
– Lutheran Community Care
– Fei Yue Community Services
– Apkim Centre for Social Services

Each agency has their own waiting period according to the amount of cases they have on hand. You should call each agency to ask if they are having a long queue. So far, our customers who did their HSRs with Lutheran Community Care seem to have the shortest waiting time.

You can submit your online application via this link: https://app.adoption.gov.sg/ApplyForHomeStudy.aspx

#4: Submit hardcopy documents to agency
There is a checklist of documents you will need to prepare at the end of the form. Print out the checklist and be sure to get them ready. Once ready, submit the hardcopy of all the documents to the agency, and await your first interview. There is a long list of documents that you have to submit, and having the complete set of documents during your first submission will significantly reduce the processing time, as most redundant time is spent going back and forth for the missing documents.

#5: Start of Home Study
The Home Study is done over a period of about five weeks from the day the first interview starts. The first interview is typically an office interview with someone from the agency. It will usually take an entire day so do keep the day free.

There’s a payment of $1,500 and this amount may vary according to the agency.