Singapore’s military service law reaches permanent residents
Edward Nguyen
Korea, Türkiye and Switzerland name citizens: a naturalised man may be placed in Korea's wartime labour reserve if he wishes, and counts as having served in Türkiye if 22 or older in his year of acquisition.
A Vietnamese family choosing a residence or citizenship route for every member may also be placing its sons under another state’s military service law. Singapore’s Enlistment Act reaches permanent residents, so the duty can begin with the residence grant.
The statutes of Korea, Türkiye and Switzerland, as read on 5 November 2026, name citizens, so for a son the duty there follows citizenship, not the residence grant. Vietnam’s own law lists no deferral or exemption for residence abroad.
Where each text starts to bind a son
| Country | Who the text binds | Age markers | Deferral, exemption or substitute | If the duty is not met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Citizens and permanent residents, male according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and the Ministry of Defence | Register at 16½ (Authority); enlist from 18 (s. 10(1)); full-time service up to 2 years, then up to 40 days a year (ss. 12, 14) | Study to A-level or polytechnic first, none for university (Authority); postponement or exemption by notice (ss. 28, 29) | Fine up to S$10,000, prison up to 3 years, or both (s. 33) |
| Korea | Korean-national men (Art. 3) | Reserve register at 18 (Art. 8); army 2 years, shortenable by up to 6 months (Arts. 18, 19) | Naturalised men may be placed in the wartime labour reserve if they wish (Act Art. 64; Decree Art. 136) | Up to 3 years in prison if, without cause, he has not enlisted 3 days after the date in the notice (Art. 88(1)) |
| Türkiye | Male citizens (Arts. 2, 4) | Military age: 1 January of the year a man turns 20 to 1 January of the year he turns 41 (Art. 3); service 6 months, or 12 for reserve officers and reserve warrant officers (astsubay) (Art. 5) | Later citizens (Art. 43); residents abroad with more than one citizenship (Arts. 38, 39); paid service (Art. 9) | Daily fines, bar from employment, referral to the prosecutor (Arts. 24, 41) |
| Switzerland | Swiss citizens (Const. Art. 59; Military Act Art. 2) | Liable to recruitment from the year a man turns 18; duty to report lapses after the year he turns 29 (Art. 7) | Swiss abroad, with exceptions the Federal Council may make (Art. 4); dual nationals who served or paid elsewhere, duties to report and pay reserved (Art. 5); replacement tax from the year he turns 19 at the earliest to the year he turns 37 at the latest (Replacement Tax Act Arts. 1, 3) | Penal provisions not read |
Singapore: liability can start with the residence grant
The Enlistment Act applies to citizens and permanent residents aged 16½ to 40, or 50 in listed cases; its printed text does not use the word male. The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority states: Under the Enlistment Act 1970, all male Singapore citizens and permanent residents, must serve National Service (NS) unless exempted.
The same page says the duty includes men granted citizenship or permanent residence as a foreign student or under their parents’ sponsorship. The only exemption named on the agency pages read is administrative: it covers permanent residents granted under the Professionals/Technical Personnel and Skilled Workers Scheme.
The Authority lists foreign investors as a permanent-residence category needing no sponsor and points to the Economic Development Board’s Global Investor Programme. The pages read do not say whether that category covers a man’s children or whether the administrative exemption reaches them.
Renouncing or losing citizenship or permanent residence without full-time service affects the man’s own work and study applications and his family members’ re-entry permits, citizenship and residence applications, the Authority says.
Korea: permanent residence carries no duty, citizenship does
The Military Service Act binds men who are Korean nationals (Art. 3). The route in is acquiring nationality: the Nationality Act‘s general route asks for five years’ continuous domicile, a residence status that allows permanent residence and adulthood (Art. 5); a minor child may apply with his parent and acquires nationality when the parent does (Art. 8).
The Enforcement Decree (Art. 136) lists men who acquired nationality under Articles 5 to 8 of that Act among those the regional military manpower office director may place in the wartime labour reserve without the military service examination, if they wish (Act Art. 64(1)).
A man who wants active or social service instead may have the disposition changed (Decree Art. 136(5)). The reserve takes men unfit for active or supplementary service and others the Act places in it, and is called out in war or a comparable emergency (Act Arts. 5, 53).
The weekly bulletin
Türkiye: later citizens have their own article
Article 12(1)(b) of Law 5901 lets the President grant citizenship, absent a national-security or public-order obstacle, to holders of the short-term permit for foreigners who do not work in Türkiye but invest in the scope and amount the President sets (Law 6458, Art. 31(1)(j)).
The same clause covers Turquoise Card holders, and the foreign spouse and the minor or dependent foreign child of the person or the spouse. An earlier article reported the Interior Ministry’s statement that investor applications run under it.
Article 43(1) of Law 7179 sets the rule for a man who acquires citizenship later. He serves according to his age and education on the date of acquisition, like the conscripts entering military age that year. Men who document service, or service deemed performed, in the country they came from, and men aged 22 or more in the year of acquisition, count as having served.
The text then says that “their” service is deferred for two years from acquisition if they wish and that in a mobilisation “they” may be sent to the army as needed. Men who acquire citizenship through descent cannot use the article (Art. 43(3)).
A resident abroad with more than one citizenship may have military processes deferred to the end of the year he completes 35, on application through his Turkish consulate (Art. 38). After three years actually abroad he is treated as having served on applying through his consulate to his military branch and paying in advance an amount in euros set by formula (Art. 39(1), (2)); not applied in mobilisation or war (Art. 39(11)).
Switzerland: the texts name citizens, and one clause names foreigners
The Federal Constitution says that every Swiss man must perform military service, with a civilian alternative, and that Swiss men who serve in neither owe a levy (Art. 59). The Military Act repeats the duty for every Swiss; its text has no German word for a foreigner, settlement permit or residence permit.
The Replacement Tax Act uses the word for a foreigner once, in an enabling clause (Art. 47(2)) that lets the Federal Council subject foreigners resident in Switzerland to the levy if their home state makes Swiss citizens serve or pay.
Recruitment is to be completed by the end of the year a man turns 24 (Art. 9(2)); later only if the Federal Council so provides, the training-service duty can still be met within the age limits for military service, and the man consents (Art. 9(3)).
Vietnam: residence abroad is not a ground
The consolidated Law on Military Service of September 2026 requires a registered citizen (men register from 17, Art. 12) to transfer his registration when he changes his place of residence, work or study, and to register a temporary absence if he is away for three months or more (Art. 17(2), (3)). Article 41 lists no deferral or exemption based on residence or status abroad, and Article 4(2) says citizens of service age must serve whatever their place of residence.
Article 26 of the consolidated Law on Nationality lists five grounds of losing Vietnamese nationality; another state’s citizenship is not among them (earlier article).
What this article has not established
Israel is not covered: no current official text of its Defense Service Law was reached.
Singapore: where the limit to males is set; the Enlistment Regulations and the exit-permit rule of section 32.
Korea: what class a naturalised man joins if he does not ask.
Türkiye: whom the pronouns of Article 43(1) cover; whether Article 43(3) reaches a child who acquires citizenship with a parent under Article 12(1)(b); the euro amount under Article 39 and the lira fine under Article 24.
Switzerland: how a man naturalised after 24 is recruited; whether the Article 47(2) power has been used; the penalties for refusing service.
Vietnam: the implementing decrees; whether Article 17(3) covers a stay abroad; how the two duties interact for a man who has both.
