Programme overview
The Global Investor Programme is Singapore’s only direct-to-PR route for principals who can credibly run capital, build, or steward generational wealth from the city-state. It is administered by the Economic Development Board’s Contact Singapore arm — not by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority — which signals the philosophy: GIP is a talent-and-capital tool, not a visa product. The bar is high, and was raised again on 21 February 2025 when the family office route’s deployment requirement moved from “approved investment categories” to a much narrower SGD 50 million in Singapore-listed equities, qualifying funds, and Singapore-domiciled private equity.
Approval rates are not published. The case files we see clearing tend to share three features: an operating business with a documented revenue history, a coherent Singapore-thesis (why here, not Dubai or Hong Kong), and a willingness to staff up. GIP is not a passive product — every option carries a continuing obligation that EDB reviews at the five-year renewal of the Re-Entry Permit.
Investment routes
There are three live routes. Profile distinctions (established business owner, next-gen business owner, founder, family office principal) determine which routes a candidate may select, not separate investment thresholds.
Option A — New or expanded Singapore business · SGD 10 million. Capital injection into a new entity or the expansion of an existing one in a sector EDB considers strategic. Comes with a Five-Year Business Plan: hire at least 30 employees by year five (50% Singapore citizens, of whom 10 must be net-new hires). Renewal hinges on delivering against the plan.
Option B — GIP-approved fund · SGD 25 million. Subscription into a fund on EDB’s approved list, all of which deploy substantially into Singapore-based companies and growth sectors. Lighter operational lift than Option A; correspondingly higher capital.
Option C — Single-Family Office · SGD 200 million AUM, SGD 50 million deployed. Establish a Singapore-based SFO with at least SGD 200 million in assets under management, of which a minimum of SGD 50 million must be deployed and maintained for the full five-year residence period in Singapore-listed equities, qualifying debt securities, funds distributed by Singapore-licensed fund managers, or private equity in Singapore-incorporated non-listed companies. The SFO must hire five family office professionals by year five (three Singapore citizens). Most family-office cases are structured under the MAS Section 13O or 13U fund tax incentive in parallel — these are separate exemptions, not part of GIP, but the AUM thresholds align with 13U.
Profile gate: family office principals additionally need at least five years of provable entrepreneurial, investment, or managerial experience and SGD 200 million in net investible assets to apply at all. Established business owners need a 3-year track record at a company with SGD 200 million annual turnover (up to two businesses can be consolidated to meet this).
Tax architecture
Singapore is a territorial-source tax jurisdiction with no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and no wealth tax. Resident individuals pay 0–24% on Singapore-source income; foreign-source income is generally not taxed unless received through a Singapore partnership. Headline corporate rate is 17%, with the first SGD 200,000 of chargeable income taxed at deeply discounted rates for qualifying SMEs.
The fund-tax incentives that most GIP family-office files run alongside — Section 13O (Singapore-resident fund) and Section 13U (enhanced-tier fund) — exempt qualifying investment income from tax at the fund level. From January 2025, 13U requires SGD 50 million in designated investments at application and at the end of each financial year, with local business spending of SGD 200,000 to SGD 500,000 depending on AUM. 13O now requires SGD 5 million in designated investments at year-end. Both schemes have been extended to 31 December 2029.
GST stands at 9%. Property tax on owner-occupied residential property runs progressively from 0% to 32%; investment property and non-residential are higher. Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for foreign buyers of residential property is 60% — a meaningful planning constraint for principals contemplating a personal home purchase pre-PR.
What it gets you
A direct PR grant — no work-pass interim — for the principal, spouse, and children under 21. PR allows unrestricted work and business activity, public-school access at PR rates, eligibility for HDB resale flats (with restrictions), and CPF participation. Re-Entry Permits are issued for five years; renewal requires demonstrating physical presence and ongoing economic contribution.
Children of male PRs are liable for National Service at age 18 — a planning point that families with sons frequently weigh against the wider package. Daughters are not affected.
Citizenship is technically available after two years of PR, but Singapore enforces single citizenship. Renunciation of the principal’s existing nationality is the practical gate, and most GIP grantees stay PR indefinitely rather than convert.
Mobility on the Singapore passport, when eventually held, is among the world’s strongest (typically top-three globally on the Henley Passport Index).
Our role on a Singapore file
GIP is a multi-year engagement, not a transaction. Our work begins with a candid profile review — does the file genuinely sit inside one of EDB’s four investor profiles, and is the Singapore-thesis defensible to a junior EDB officer reading it cold? — and proceeds through structuring (entity formation, fund subscription, or family office set-up with a Singapore-licensed fund manager), the EDB submission itself, post-approval execution of the Five-Year Business Plan or family office deployment, and the renewal cycle at year five. Most files run 14–18 months from first call to issued PR; longer for family office structures requiring concurrent 13O/13U applications to MAS.