Birth Admin in Singapore: Every Form, Account and Deadline

Birth admin in Singapore starts with one legal deadline: register your baby’s birth with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) within 42 days. You do it on LifeSG, the Government’s app and website at life.gov.sg. For a Singapore citizen baby, the same application also enrols your child in the Baby Bonus Scheme and picks the bank for the Child Development Account (CDA), a savings account the Government tops up for preschool and medical bills.

After that, three more things need you. Download the digital birth certificate within 90 days of ICA’s notice, open the CDA at the bank, and link your child’s bank account to PayNow before 1 April 2027. MediShield Life cover and the S$5,000 MediSave Grant for Newborns arrive on their own, so the only job there is to check.

The first vaccines are due at birth, and leave and the infant care subsidy follow. One date runs through the money steps: a baby born before 1 April 2027 starts on Baby Bonus and moves to the new SG Child Support Package, and a baby born on or after it starts on the Package.

Every step, its deadline and where to do it

Here is the order we’d work in, with the agency behind each step and the page on this site that goes deeper.

The steps split into two kinds: the ones that wait for you, and the ones that happen by themselves once the birth is registered.

Read this as words instead

You do these: register the birth on LifeSG, within 42 days; download the digital birth certificate, within 90 days of ICA’s notice; open the CDA and Child Savings Account at your bank; link your child’s account to PayNow, before 1 April 2027; give your employer 4 weeks’ notice of leave; apply for the infant care subsidy when your baby enrols.

These happen by themselves: MediShield Life cover, from birth; the MediSave Grant for Newborns, within a week of registration; the CDA First Step Grant, within 2 weeks of opening the CDA; Baby Bonus moves to the SG Child Support Package, April 2027.

Sources: ICA, LifeSG, CPF Board, MOM, ECDA. As of September 2026.

1. Register the birth on LifeSG within 42 days

Every birth in Singapore must be registered within 42 days. Missing the deadline is an offence under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, and ICA says the penalty can be a fine, jail or both. Hospitals stopped registering births on 29 May 2022, so this one is yours.

One parent starts the application on LifeSG as the main applicant, and the other parent confirms the details. Parents who are citizens, permanent residents (PRs) or long-term pass holders log in with Singpass. It costs S$18 (as of September 2026), paid by credit or debit card or PayNow, and the fee covers the digital birth certificate too.

Have these ready before you start:

• both parents’ names, ID numbers, occupations, citizenship and marriage details;
• your baby’s name and birth details;
• a credit or debit card.

Who starts the form matters more than it looks. The parent who registers the birth becomes the trustee of the CDA, the person who manages it, and you can change that only once the accounts are open. LifeSG also says a parent who cannot pay by card can register in person at the ICA building.

ICA usually confirms the registration shortly after you submit. If it needs to check something, the notice comes within three working days, though ICA says some cases take longer. Our step-by-step birth registration guide goes through the registration itself in more detail.

2. Download the digital birth certificate within 90 days

ICA has not issued paper birth certificates since 29 May 2022. Once its notice arrives, you have 90 days to download the digital certificate from ICA’s e-Service, and ICA advises saving it on your own device.

We’d save a second copy somewhere backed up the same day. The birth certificate number on it is what later steps ask for, including PayNow and HealthHub. If you want to change your baby’s name, ICA takes that online before your child turns one, for a fee.

3. Baby Bonus, the CDA and the Child Savings Account

You don’t apply for Baby Bonus separately. For a citizen baby born in Singapore, the Baby Bonus application is part of the birth registration on LifeSG, and it asks two things: a parent’s bank account for the cash gift, and which bank will hold your child’s accounts, POSB/DBS, OCBC or UOB.

Once your child is enrolled, instructions arrive by email and in the LifeSG app inbox. You then open the CDA in your bank’s app or internet banking, and the Child Savings Account (CSA), a joint savings account with a parent where the Baby Bonus Cash Gift is paid, opens with it. Existing customers of all three banks can do this online; POSB/DBS asks new customers to open an ordinary bank account online first.

CDA money can only be spent at approved institutions, such as preschools and clinics, and cannot be taken out as cash. The First Step Grant lands in it within two weeks of opening, with no deposit needed, and the Government then matches every dollar you save, up to a cap.

For a first citizen child born on or after 14 February 2023, LifeSG lists a S$11,000 Baby Bonus Cash Gift, a S$5,000 First Step Grant and a S$4,000 co-matching cap (as of September 2026). Those are Baby Bonus figures, and Baby Bonus is ending.

The SG Child Support Package, announced at the National Day Rally on 23 August 2026, replaces the Baby Bonus Scheme, with payouts from April 2027. A baby born before 1 April 2027 is enrolled in Baby Bonus at registration and moves to the Package automatically in April 2027.

A baby born on or after 1 April 2027 is enrolled straight into the Package at registration. Our guide to the SG Child Support Package sets out what each birth date gets.

4. Link your child’s account to PayNow before 1 April 2027

The Package needs this step, and it matters for every citizen baby, whichever side of 1 April 2027 they are born. LifeSG says the Package pays into the bank account linked to your child’s PayNow ID, which is your child’s NRIC (identity card) number or birth certificate number, and asks parents to set it up before 1 April 2027 so the payouts arrive promptly.

Your child needs an account to link first: a personal account in their own name, or a joint account with a parent. The CSA from step 3 counts. Then, in your bank’s app:

1. Log in to the bank’s app or internet banking.
2. At the PayNow registration screen, link the account to your child’s NRIC or birth certificate number.
3. Enter the one-time code the bank sends by SMS, if it asks.
4. Open the PayNow profile to confirm the link is there.

Do not link your child’s PayNow ID to the CDA. The CDA is ring-fenced for approved expenses, and its money cannot be taken out as cash.

5. MediShield Life and the MediSave Grant: check, don’t apply

There is no form for either. Every Singapore citizen baby is covered by MediShield Life from birth, for life, including babies born with a medical condition or who develop one in the first weeks. MediShield Life is basic health insurance for large hospital bills and some costly outpatient treatments.

The MediSave Grant for Newborns is S$5,000 for a citizen baby born on or after 1 April 2025 (as of September 2026). The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board opens a MediSave account for your baby and pays the grant in automatically, within a week of the birth registration. The money can go to MediShield Life premiums, recommended vaccinations, hospital stays and approved outpatient treatment.

So the job here is a check. About a week after you register, log in with Singpass at cpf.gov.sg/childdashboard and look for the grant on your child’s CPF statement. If it has not arrived by then, CPF asks you to write in at cpf.gov.sg/writetous. Babies who are PRs or foreigners do not get the grant.

6. The first vaccines, and where the record lives

Two vaccines on the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule (NCIS), Singapore’s list of recommended childhood vaccinations, are due at birth: BCG, which protects against tuberculosis, and the first dose of hepatitis B. The next round is due at 2 months (as of September 2026). Measles and diphtheria vaccinations are compulsory by law, under the Infectious Diseases Act.

Parents are given the paper Child Health Booklet at the delivery. Its digital companion is Children’s Health Services on HealthHub: log in with Singpass, add your child with the birth certificate number, and the app shows upcoming vaccinations and past doses from the National Immunisation Registry, where doctors and nurses record them.

Citizen children get the nationally recommended vaccinations fully subsidised at Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) GP clinics, and up to fully subsidised at polyclinics, with no application. Our guide to immunisations for newborns in Singapore covers the schedule in more detail.

7. Leave: what each parent can book, and when

Leave is arranged with your employer, under Ministry of Manpower (MOM) rules, and each kind asks for 4 weeks’ notice. These are the entitlements for a Singapore citizen child when the parent has worked for the employer, or been self-employed, for at least 3 months before the birth (as of September 2026):

• Mother: 16 weeks of Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML). If she cannot give 4 weeks’ notice, she tells her employer about the delivery as soon as she can.
• Father: 4 weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL) for a child born on or after 1 April 2025. By default he takes it as 4 weeks in a row within 16 weeks of the birth; if his employer agrees, he can take it any time in the first 12 months, whole or split into days.
• Both: 10 weeks of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) for a child born on or after 1 April 2026, split between the two of you and taken within 12 months of the birth.

For paternity and shared leave, the father must also be, or have been, married to the mother between conception and birth, or within 12 months of the birth. His default window closes 16 weeks after the birth, so we’d agree his dates with the employer before the baby arrives.

Our guide to parental leave in Singapore sets the leave types side by side, and the shared parental leave guide goes deeper on the 10 shared weeks.

8. The infant care subsidy, when your baby starts care

Infant care in Singapore covers babies from 2 to 18 months, so this step comes last, and only if your baby goes to a centre. Every citizen child at an Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) licensed infant care centre gets a Basic Subsidy, and there is nothing to file in the first weeks: the preschool helps you apply when your baby enrols.

For full-day infant care with a working mother, meaning one who works at least 56 hours a month, the Basic Subsidy is S$600 a month (as of September 2026). Families earning S$12,000 a month or less can also get an Additional Subsidy of up to S$710. The subsidy is paid to the centre, and you pay the fee after it.

Our guide to childcare in Singapore covers choosing a centre, the step that comes before the subsidy.

Where to start today

Register the birth on LifeSG within 42 days, and decide first which parent starts the form, since that parent becomes the CDA trustee. Our birth registration guide is the next thing to read before you log in.

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

A Singapore parent writing the guide he wished he'd had — practical, calm, and grounded in what actually works.

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