How to Register a Birth in Singapore: LifeSG Steps and the Digital Birth Certificate

To register a birth in Singapore, one parent fills in the birth registration form on LifeSG, the Government’s app and website at life.gov.sg, within 42 days of the birth. Parents who are Singapore citizens, permanent residents (PRs) or long-term pass holders log in with Singpass, the digital ID that residents use for Government services. A long-term pass holder is a parent who is neither a citizen nor a PR but lives here on a long-term pass. The fee is S$18 (as of October 2026), paid in the form, and it covers the certificate too.

The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), which registers every birth, then tells you by SMS or email when the certificate is ready. From the birth registration you have 90 days to download the digital birth certificate from ICA’s e-Service, ICA’s name for its online services, and save it. There is no paper certificate any more, so that file is the certificate.

Missing the first deadline is rare. In 2024, ICA registered 12 of the year’s 33,703 births after day 42.

How to register a birth on LifeSG, step by step

This is the order we’d follow, from before you log in to the saved certificate.

1. Decide which parent starts the form. One parent is the main applicant, and the other parent confirms the details that were entered. For a citizen baby, the parent who registers also becomes the trustee of the Child Development Account (CDA), the child’s savings account for Government grants. The trustee is the parent who manages the account for the child, and LifeSG lets you change that only after the account is open. So settle this first.
2. Log in to LifeSG with Singpass. Use the LifeSG app or life.gov.sg and open “Register your child’s birth”. If a parent has no Singpass, the table further down shows who starts the form instead.
3. Enter your baby’s and both parents’ details. Upload any document the form asks for. The table below lists what to have ready.
4. Enrol for Baby Bonus in the same form, if your baby is a citizen. Baby Bonus is the Government scheme that pays a cash gift and adds money to the CDA. The form asks for a parent’s bank account for the cash gift and a bank for the CDA. Our guide shows how to open, save into and spend from the CDA. A baby born on or after 1 April 2027 is enrolled here instead in the SG Child Support Package, the scheme that will replace Baby Bonus. Our guide sets out what the SG Child Support Package pays from April 2027. The form also offers a National Library Board (NLB) membership for your child, free for Singaporeans.
5. Pay the fee and submit. ICA takes payment inside the form, as part of the birth registration, and the table below lists the ways to pay.
6. Wait for ICA’s notice. It usually comes shortly after you submit. If ICA needs to verify something, it comes within three working days, though ICA says some cases take longer.
7. Download the certificate and save it. Follow the notice to ICA’s e-Service and download the digital birth certificate within 90 days of the birth registration. Save it to your phone, then to one backed-up place, the same day.

What the LifeSG form asks for

Have these to hand before you log in. If you have to stop partway, LifeSG keeps a draft you can continue later.

How the digital birth certificate works, and how to download it

ICA stopped issuing paper birth certificates on 29 May 2022, the same day hospitals stopped registering births. Every certificate since then is a PDF file that you download yourself from ICA’s e-Service. If you need a paper copy, print the PDF.

ICA counts the 90 days from the birth registration. Inside that window you can download the certificate again if you lose it, and ICA advises saving it to your own device.

We’d keep two copies from the first day, one on your phone and one somewhere backed up. The birth certificate number on it comes up again soon, for example when you link your child’s bank account to PayNow.

What if you miss the 42 days or the 90 days?

You missed the 42-day birth registration deadline

Not registering your baby’s birth within 42 days is an offence under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 2021, the law ICA administers. ICA says the penalty can be a fine, jail or both.

The birth still has to be registered, so we’d go to LifeSG at once. If LifeSG will not take the birth registration, email ICA at [email protected], the address ICA gives parents who cannot register on LifeSG.

You missed the 90-day download window

After 90 days, ICA asks parents to email [email protected] for help downloading the digital birth certificate. It is the same address ICA gives when its e-Service is down and you need the certificate urgently.

Who can register a birth, and what if a parent has no Singpass?

Only parents can register a birth on LifeSG, and LifeSG says the applicant must be the child’s biological parent. A proxy, meaning anyone else acting for you, cannot register, even with a letter of authorisation. Parents register whatever their marital or immigration status.

Who starts the form, and how they log in, depends on the parents’ status. Long-term pass holders count with citizens and PRs here. ICA and LifeSG call them FIN holders, and the table does the same.

If the trouble is LifeSG itself, ServiceSG Centres, which you visit in person, can help you register the birth on LifeSG. They can also help a parent apply for a Singpass account, or download the certificate and save it to your device. If none of that works, ICA asks parents to email [email protected].

If your baby is not a Singapore citizen

A baby who is not a citizen at birth is treated as holding a special pass to stay in Singapore for 42 days from the birth. You will find the pass’s expiry date on the Advisory Note, a note ICA issues together with the digital birth certificate.

After the certificate arrives, and within those 42 days, apply for your baby’s passport at the embassy or high commission of your country. Your baby also needs a valid immigration pass to stay past day 42. You can renew the special pass with ICA’s extension of stay form or apply for a visit pass; work pass holders whose pass covers dependants should check the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website.

Births at home, and births overseas

A baby born outside a hospital is registered in person at the ICA Services Centre. First, email [email protected] with proof of the birth, proof of prenatal checks (the appointment card or booklet, and an ultrasound scan), both parents’ ID documents and the marriage certificate, if there is one. ICA replies by email within three working days, asking you to come to the centre to register.

If you are still planning a home birth, our guide to giving birth at home in Singapore covers the risks to weigh and how to prepare.

Singapore does not register births that happen overseas. Register the birth with the authorities where your baby was born and get the birth certificate there. A Singapore citizen parent then applies for the child’s citizenship separately, and ICA’s website sets out how.

Names, race, and changing a name later

An ethnic name in Chinese characters, Jawi script or Tamil script is optional, and its characters must be in a recognised dictionary. A Hanyu Pinyin name is optional too, but only with a Chinese-character name. It shows in brackets on the certificate, as in ICA’s own example, Isaac Tan (Chen Xiao Ming) 陈小明, and it carries on to your child’s passport.

Race can follow either parent, or an accepted mixed race when the parents’ races differ. A citizen child can also have a double-barrelled race made of both parents’ races. Brothers and sisters under 21 with the same parents should all have the same race.

To change your baby’s name after the birth registration, apply online to ICA before your child’s first birthday, and pay the fee ICA sets. A change is its own application with its own fee, so we’d read every spelling over with the other parent before you pay the S$18.

Once the certificate is saved

That is the birth registration done. The paperwork after it, from opening the CDA to the first vaccines and parental leave, is in our birth admin checklist of every form, account and deadline, in the order you will meet it.

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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