How to hire a confinement nanny in Singapore: the MOM permit, dates and costs

To hire a confinement nanny from Malaysia, you apply to Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for a Work Permit for confinement nanny. It is the pass that lets her work in your home for a short time. You can apply from four weeks before your due date, and it lasts up to 16 weeks from your baby’s birth, with no renewal.

The government charges S$35 to apply. Then you pay a levy each month, a fee for employing a foreign worker: S$60 if your baby is a Singapore citizen, S$300 if not. You must also buy her medical insurance, a policy that covers at least S$60,000 of her medical bills a year (MOM, as of October 2026).

The nanny’s own fee comes on top; the cost table below has two agencies’ prices for 28 days. Whether an agency fills in the forms or you do, you are her employer. So the application, the levy and the insurance are yours to sort out.

Which permit does a confinement nanny need?

She needs the Work Permit for confinement nanny. MOM issues it to Malaysians employed as confinement nannies in Singapore. Because the job is short, she gets a Work Permit letter instead of the usual card.

You both have to qualify at the time you apply. You must be 21 or older and have a newborn under four months old. She must be Malaysian, at least 23 and below 70 years old, and work at your home.

A medical check-up for her is optional, MOM says, though you may want one because she will be in contact with your newborn. Her pay as a confinement nanny is taxable too. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), the tax office, has the details.

If your nanny is not Malaysian, she cannot get the Work Permit for confinement nanny. The section on nannies from other countries, further down, gives the route MOM points to instead.

The calendar, from four weeks before your due date to week 16

Every date here hangs off two days: your due date and your baby’s birth. MOM counts the 16 weeks from the birth, so that is day 0.

Four weeks before your due date: the application opens

You can apply from this day. Applying before the birth costs you none of the 16 weeks, because they only start on your baby’s date of birth. Applying after the birth does: MOM says you then get fewer weeks.

When she arrives: check her visit pass

When she arrives, the immigration officer stamps a visit pass in her passport. That pass is what lets her stay in Singapore. It is a single-entry pass, good for one entry, and it runs for a fixed period.

If it does not cover all the weeks she works for you, ask MOM to extend her stay before it runs out. We’d check the date on the stamp in her first week.

The request needs her SG Arrival Card, the arrival form visitors submit online, and the personal particulars page of her passport, the page with her photo and details. MOM emails the outcome within two weeks.

The extension is free until her visit pass adds up to 90 days or more, counted from the date she entered or the pass was issued. From then on, each extension costs S$40.

Day 28: a 28-day package ends

A nanny package can be much shorter than the 16 weeks. Two agencies price a full-time nanny by the 28-day block, which ends twelve weeks before the 16 weeks would. For how long the confinement month itself runs, see our guide to how long postpartum confinement lasts.

Within a week of her leaving: cancel

MOM asks you to cancel the Work Permit for confinement nanny within one week of the day she leaves Singapore. You need not cancel one that has already expired. Cancelling takes effect at once, and the levy stops one day before the cancellation.

So if her package ends at day 28, cancel that week, not at week 16. She must leave Singapore before her visit pass runs out.

Both dates carry legal weight. MOM states it is a criminal offence for a foreigner to stay past the end of the visit pass. It is also an offence for an employer to employ a foreigner without a valid work pass, the general name for any permit to work here.

Week 16: the latest end date

The Work Permit for confinement nanny ends 16 weeks after the birth at the latest, and it cannot be renewed. That is also the last point you can apply. Past it, MOM says to apply for a Work Permit for a migrant domestic worker instead.

How to apply, step by step

You apply online, on MOM’s page to apply for a Work Permit for confinement nanny, in this order.

1. Get your nanny’s written consent to the application.
2. Log in and fill in the application. If she needs to start work quickly, give her start date in the form.
3. Pay S$35 for the application, by Visa, Mastercard or PayNow, Singapore’s instant bank transfer.
4. Check the status after one week. MOM decides within a week unless it needs more information, and some cases take longer.
5. If MOM approves, you get an in-principle approval (IPA) letter, the letter that says MOM has agreed. She prints it and shows it to the immigration officer when she arrives.
6. If you did not give her start date in the form, tell MOM before she starts work. Use the FDW eService, MOM’s online service for foreign domestic workers (FDW).

Ask her to check Singapore’s latest travel requirements before she books her trip. MOM puts it among her tasks before she arrives.

How much is the levy, and what insurance must you buy?

The levy turns on your baby’s citizenship. It is S$60 a month if your newborn is a Singapore citizen and S$300 a month if not, as of October 2026.

If you already have a helper registered under your name, MOM adds the two levies into one monthly amount. It takes that amount from your bank account by GIRO, an automatic deduction.

The insurance is medical cover for her while she works for you. For any policy that starts on or after 1 July 2023, the minimum is S$60,000 a year, so that is the figure for a policy you buy now. MOM says the higher cover protects you better against large medical bills for her.

The old minimum was S$15,000, and you may still see that figure. If a quote you get says S$15,000, ask the insurer for the S$60,000 cover in writing.

We’d set the policy to start on her first working day and run until the day she leaves Singapore.

What does a confinement nanny cost, line by line?

Here is each cost line, who sets it, and what to check, as of October 2026.

These are two agencies’ prices, not a market rate. Before you pay any agency, ask in writing which of the government lines its price covers, and what a day past day 28 costs.

Do you need an agency, or can you hire a nanny directly?

Either works. MOM lets you apply on your own or through an employment agency, and an employment agent (EA) you appoint can submit the application for you. The agent must first get your go-ahead in the FDW eService before it can act for you.

Either way, you are the employer. The levy and the insurance are yours to pay and to check, whoever does the paperwork.

In November 2025, a Member of Parliament (MP) asked whether the lack of rules on directly hired nannies puts newborns and mothers at risk. MOM replied in a written answer, a reply printed rather than read out in Parliament. It said it received no complaints about safety, fraud or negligence involving confinement nannies in 2023 and 2024.

No complaints overall tells you nothing about the nanny you hire, though. Agency or direct, we’d ask for references from families she has worked for. We’d also agree her duties and her last day in writing before she arrives.

An agency earns its fee when you have no nanny lined up: it finds one and can handle the MOM forms. Hiring directly suits a family that already has a nanny it trusts, such as one a relative has used.

Can you hire a confinement nanny who is not Malaysian?

Not on the Work Permit for confinement nanny. In a written answer to Parliament on 10 September 2026, MOM said it has no plans to open it to nannies from other countries.

MOM explained that it was set up to meet Singaporeans’ demand for Malaysian confinement nannies, for short-term care after the birth. Its view is that the current arrangement is enough to meet households’ needs.

A family that wants a nanny from another country can hire her through the Migrant Domestic Worker scheme, MOM said. That scheme is how families hire a foreign domestic helper. It uses a different permit, the Work Permit for migrant domestic worker, with its own rules.

Your next step

Count back four weeks from your due date and put that day in your diary: it is the first day you can apply. On that day, get your nanny’s written consent and apply on MOM’s page for the Work Permit for confinement nanny.

If you are still choosing between a nanny and a centre, read our confinement centre vs nanny comparison first. If a centre wins, our guide to confinement centres in Singapore takes it from there.

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

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

chunguy.comMy Miracle Baby