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After giving birth to Baby T in November, we went through a bunch of administrative visits to apply the relevant documents as baby T is a Malaysian born to Singapore PR in Singapore. We were pretty clueless but managed to figure out everything in time, hence wrote this post to serve as a reference for anyone going through the process!

We are indebted to the guidance written in both of the blog posts here: He Ren Ke Ji and About my lil buds – Thanks for all your work in writing the posts!

Note: This workflow is a accurate as of Nov / Dec 2021 only (when COVID-19 is endemic and safe distancing measure are in place), please visit Malaysia Embassy website / ICA for latest information and updates!

Before we dive in to the steps involved, please receive my congratulations for the arrival of your bundle of joy! We were extremely blessed that baby T arrived 🙂 A helpful tip is to go through the document requirements for the steps below and prepare them ahead of time (best to be prior delivery) so that everything is organized.

Step 1: Birth Registration (Birth Certificate) & Visit Pass

If one of you or your spouse is a Singapore Citizen, simply go to LifeSG App to do this. For us, this is not the case and hence we have to register baby’s birth at the Birth Registration Counter at the hospital we delivered baby T. Be mindful of the operating hours of the Birth Registration Counter – our hospital one does not open on weekends and public holiday, and only issue queue number till 4pm.

The documents needed was (Birth Registration Counter at KKH): Source

• Notification of Live-Birth Form (only if Electronic Notification of Live-Birth Form is not raised)
• Duly Completed Report Form for Registration of Birth (BD13)
  – Forms are available at the Information Counter, Admissions Office, Level 1, Women’s Tower
• Marriage Certificate
  – Original Marriage Certificate (issued by Singapore Registry of Marriage) OR
  – Original Foreign Marriage Certificate with English translation copy
• Registration fee of SGD$45, inclusive of GST
• For Singaporeans/Permanent Residents: Original Identity Card of both parents (Pink or Blue)
• For Malaysians: Original (Red or Blue) Malaysian Identity Card (MyKad), FIN Card & Passport
• For Foreigners: Original Passport, Dependent Pass, Visit Pass and Work Permit

Baby T was delivered on a Friday afternoon – we were mindful about the operating hours and hence my husband was going through the birth registration process while I’m still at the labour room! A visit pass was issued to the baby with an explanatory note from ICA (contains useful information of timeline of application), which lasted for about 1.5 months.

Step 2: Obtaining an appointment to Malaysia Embassy Office

Pre COVID-19, I believe that this used to be a physical visit to the Malaysia Embassy Office to obtain an original Borang D to be filled, but this has changed. Before Baby T was born, we paid a visit to the Embassy Office to obtain the Borang D, but was told by the officer that now all birth certification application is by appointment only. We were given instructions to email the baby’s Birth Certificate to consular@mhc.org.sg AFTER the baby is born, and appointment will be given. The embassy website link was given too to prepare the documents needed:

Source of information: https://www.kln.gov.my/web/sgp_singapore/birth_marriage_cert

We emailed the consular office right after we obtain the birth certificate (we hope to minimize delay as much as possible). The appointment given was on 6/12/2021 (1 month later). We took the month to recharge and recover, learn about caring for baby T, preparing the documents needed including the passport photo of baby T. Note that the passport photo shall have the baby with eyes opened, with a white background (wearing dark clothes preferably).

Documents needed to be prepared before the actual day appointment was:

• Application Form (Borang D) duly-filled – 1 set
• Singapore birth certificate of child (Original & 2 photocopies)
• Birth certificate of both parents (Original & 2 photocopies)
• Passport of both parents (Original & 2 photocopies)
• Malaysian marriage certificate (Original & 2 photocopies)
• Identity cards of both parents (Malaysia & Singapore PR) (Original & 2 photocopies)

(or Work Permit/ Visit Pass/ Dependant Pass/etc)

• Passport-sized photograph of child – (white background) – 4 pieces (2 photos for registration of birth (Borang D) & 2 for passport application)
• Passport-sized colored photographs of both parents (2 pieces each)
• Payment in cash only: Registration fee of S$15.00 (Borang H) and S$6.00 (Pengesahan Taraf Warganegara (PTW))

Before we go further and confuse ourselves further with the names of the forms (what’s borang D and H?!), let’s have a breakdown of what are they:
– Borang D: JPN.WN02 – Borang Daftar Kelahiran Luar Negara, is a form for us to fill in to register a Malaysian baby born outside of the country, and to be submitted to the consular
– Borang H is the (wait for it, it’s long) Sijil Pendaftaran Seorang Anak Yang Dilahirkan Pada Atau Selepas Hari Malaysia Di Luar Persekutuan Dan Bapa Budak Itu Semasa Ia Dilahirkan Adalah Seorang Warganegara. It is a certificate for us to keep after we fill and submit Borang D, rather than a form (Imagine it better named as Sijil H). With Borang H, you can then apply for baby’s Malaysian Passport!

Step 3: Consular Office’s Appointment for Borang H Application

We were given an 8am appointment on the day itself, which we reach even earlier in the fear of the long queue. Bear in mind that baby has to be present for this appointment! Triple check your documents and photograph, bring a black ink pen (and even glue) to speed up the whole process.

Remember to print out the Consular Office’s email to you stating time and date of the appointment – we saw a lady who was there without the email printed, and was instructed to go and have it printed first before coming back..

Do not be frightened by the queue outside of the embassy office gate – most of them are ad hoc visits without an appointment. We walk straight to the entrance with baby T and showed the printed email stating our date and time of appointment and was granted access right away. After going in the gate, turn right to walk up a slope, leading you to the immigration office (on your left) and consular office (on your right). Queue for the opening of the consular office and you’ll be heading towards an officer sitting on a table near the entrance, distributing forms (Borang D, forms for registration of marriage, forms for renouncing citizenship etc) as well as answering queries from everyone, and borrowing out glue sticks to stick photographs on hence he was super busy. Get the form and start filling right away.

After showing the filled form to the officer again, we were given instructions to paste our photographs on the form and bring baby to him – we were asked to then expose baby T’s thumb on each hand to be inked and stamped on the form (look at those tiny circles called fingerprint!), before bringing the form to the counter at another side of the room. No queue number was given so we have to just brave ourselves and interject the officer after someone has left the counter – they told us babies are given priorities but the whole process was still a little chaotic to be honest.

Our names were called not long after at one of the counter, and payment was made. The officer informed us that our Malaysian ICs and baby’s Birth Certificate will be held, and an A5 sized collection slip was given to us with a return date to collect baby’s Borang H (which is 3 working days later). We were enquiring about how do we go by applying for baby’s passport, and was told to go to the neighboring immigration office Counter 10, where further explanation will be given.

Step 4: Malaysia Passport Application

We were lucky to have a short queue that day at Counter 10. When we were there, the officer gave us passport application forms (they call it the green form, I believe) to be filled at home, also requested a copy of baby’s photo to be affixed on it. We were told to return the forms when we come to collect Borang H, and passport application takes only 1 working day.

Step 5: Submission of passport application, collection of Borang H

We returned to the embassy 3 working days later to collect Borang H (you need not queue! Just bring the collection slip straight to the counter at consular office, they will call your names fast!) at the consular office, and headed to the immigration office to submit the forms for passport application. Be sure to obtain your IC and baby’s birth certificate back!

It was a short visit! We were given a number slip to return the next working day to collect baby’s passport.

Step 6: Collection of Baby’s Passport

This is our last visit to the Embassy Office! We were told to come by 2pm for collection – the queue was long but an officer was actively collecting number slips from everyone to be brought to the counter to get the passport prepared. We were asked to show our ICs and baby’s Borang H for the collection.

And we’ve completed all the visits needed to Malaysia Embassy Office! Note – there is a photocopy machine in the Immigration Office which you can pay by Credit Card. It is handy, we made copies of baby’s passport and Borang H there before we left 🙂

Step 7: Sg PR application, Extension of Visit Pass

After obtaining baby’s Passport, we then applied for baby’s Singapore PR online via ICA’s website (https://www.ica.gov.sg/reside/PR/apply). The material mandatory to go through will be the website’s section under “Spouse of a SC or PR, or child of a SC or PR who is unmarried and aged under 21” which the documents were detailed under the explanatory note.

After submission of the form, both parents and baby will need to visit ICA once to:
1) Officially stamp visit pass on baby’s passport
2) Obtain a DE card (Disembarkation/Embarkation Card, also known as the white card) – the DE Number will be useful during LTVP application!
3) Extend the visit pass validity

We were only given extension of the visit pass for another 2 months, and was advised by the officer to apply for a Long Term Visit Pass for baby while waiting for PR application to go through, as it might take longer than the validity period of visit pass.

Note for PR application: We downloaded the form to be filled and submitted, and noticed that we could not fill in the ID number section for baby (Borang H’s identification number was only 6 digits but the ID column has 12 spaces. We asked this question to the ICA officer when we were there extending the visit pass, and was told that we can just fill up the extra spaces with zeroes ‘0’.

Step 8: Long Term Visit Pass application

We then submitted baby’s Long Term Visit Pass Application via ICA online portal as well, waiting time was told to be 6 weeks.

Timeline of all application:

5/11/2021 Birthday of Baby T, Birth Registration, emailing Consular Office for Appointment
8/11/2021 Reply from Consular Office about Appointment given on 6/12/2021
6/12/2021 First visit to Consular Office to fill in Borang D, to apply for Borang H
9/12/2021 Second visit to Consular Office – Obtaining Borang H, submission of passport application
10/12/2021 Third visit to Immigration Office – Obtaining baby’s Passport

Hopefully this post will be helpful for you going through the process! What information which is not covered here that you would like to know? Leave them in the comments below 🙂