A crucial piece of the puzzle when dealing with an international child custody case is the standards or law of the jurisdiction in which the child is currently residing. Residency determines jurisdiction in most cases.

The concept of residency is a fluid one, in some places, such as the United States of America, residency is based on duration of time in a jurisdiction. For example, under the Uniform Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, a child’s residency is determined by where they have spent the previous six months, generally.

In some nations, it is dependent on a more flexible standard of ‘habitual residence’ which may look to where the child goes to school, attends religious services or spends the night. It can look to the overall situation rather than a bright line definition of 6 months.

Singapore uses the more flexible standard, and a society that has a highly mobile and transient population of ex-pats who come and go based on work, that makes sense for them.