⚖️ Parental leave and rights: what applies to your family

Leave, pay and parenthood

1. 1. What to prepare

   Check current leave eligibility, notification rules, pay and job protection with the relevant authority and employer; record your agreed plan.

2. 2. What to check

   Confirm legal parentage and decision-making authority separately. Obtain family-law advice for unmarried, donor-conceived, adopted, surrogate-born or cross-border families.

3. 3. In Singapore

   mum guidance provides four weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave for eligible fathers for births from 1 April 2025. Eligibility includes the child’s Singapore citizenship, employment/self-employment conditions and, for birth fathers, lawful marriage requirements. Shared parental leave is six weeks for births from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and ten weeks from 1 April 2026, subject to eligibility. Confirm allocation and notice through mum/MSF; employer benefits are separate.

4. 4. In Singapore

   Register a Singapore birth through LifeSG within 42 days and download the digital birth certificate. ICA does not register overseas births: use the authorities where the birth occurred and separately check Singapore citizenship, immigration and parentage requirements.

5. 5. In Singapore

   Section 377A was repealed with effect from 3 January 2023: consensual private sexual activity between adult men is not criminalised by that repealed provision. This did not legalise same-sex marriage or automatically grant joint parentage, adoption or leave rights. Marriage recognition, Muslim and civil marriage frameworks, ART access and parentage are distinct legal questions.

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