How should Singapore ensure fair investigation of sham marriages?

Take Australia as a model to follow a path, an expert suggests.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran announced last week that Singapore is taking a tougher stance on marriages for convenience. While the current trend is not alarming yet, he mentioned that there was an increase in the registered numbered of sham marriages in the first six months of the year to 12 from just four or five annually over the past five years.

Under the amendments to the Immigration Act, marrying to obtain immigration advantage including grants of visas, passes and permanent residents is now prosecuted. The penalty for this offence is a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both.

The amended bill also gives the officers option to revoke an individual PR status by cancelling his entry and re-entry permits without having to declare him as a prohibited immigrant.

The move was generally welcomed. Anamah Tan, a partner at Ann Tan & Associates said, “I am all for sham marriages to be prosecuted and criminalized. Sham marriages make a mockery of the institution of marriages. People who profit from sham marriages should be treated like criminals. Why wait for sham marriages to be a critical mass before taking action. Better nip the problem in the bud.”

WongPartnership Partner, Sim Bock Eng meanwhile commented that it is a timely move as Singapore opens its doors to more foreigners and there is growing acceptance of marriages between Singaporean men and foreign women arranged by marriage agencies.

“There is a need to sift out the sham marriages from the genuine ones as marriage is one of the ways society moves its property around. There was a recent High Court case (Toh Seok Kheng v. Huang Huiqun) where a foreign lady had married a local man in order to obtain permanent residency status in Singapore. They never lived as man and wife, but when the man passed away the foreign lady made a claim on his estate, much to the chagrin of his other family members. It is one thing to accept marriages between persons who had never met before marrying. It is quite different when the marriage is used to take advantage of our laws,” she said.

Nevertheless, concerns were raised over how such cases are being investigated so that genuine marriages are not persecuted.

“It will not be an easy task given the need to be sensitive to different cultural expectations. The fact that financial consideration was given to the foreigner or to the foreigner’s family cannot be the main factor as several cultures continue to give dowries, said Ms Sim.

In the case of permanent residency, Ms Sim said that it may be worthwhile to officially require a spouse to have been married to a Singaporean for a certain length of time before PR status is granted.

“For citizenship, the current requirement is two years but the authorities can consider increasing the length of time. A more in-depth interview that goes beyond simply verifying the information stated in citizenship application documents would also be useful. The interviewer can ask questions of both spouses to ascertain that the marriage before him or her is genuine,” she said.

What country that criminalises sham marriages should Singaopore learn a lesson from?

Australia and the United States have criminalised sham marriages, while the United Kingdom is expected to launch a major crackdown on the same this year.

According to Ms Sim, the United Kingdom trains its marriage registrars to identify and report suspected sham marriages to the authorities. The expert cautioned however that this may not be appropriate in Singapore given that arranged marriages are not uncommon, so it would not be inexplicable if the couple appear to be strangers even at their wedding.

Ms Sim suggested that Australia could be a better model.

“Australia relies on conducting interviews for spouses applying for visas to remain in Australia. Among other things, it applies a partner knowledge test, which is a series of questions designed to root out discrepancies. This would be useful if conducted after a few years of purported marriage – if, for example, the spouses are unable to communicate in the same language even after several years of marriage, the marriage would be greatly suspect,” she said.