What you should know
Read the pre-requisites and next steps before registering your society.
Last updated 9 January 2026
What you should know
The are two types of registration processes – Automatic and Normal.
The types of societies that are listed in the Schedule of the Societies Act shall seek registration under the Normal Registration process.
The types of societies that are not listed in the Schedule of the Societies Act are eligible to seek registration under the Automatic Registration process.
Under the Societies Act, the Registrar of Societies is empowered to order an automatically registered society to alter its registration, change its name or its rules if he is of the opinion that the rules of the society, if unchanged, would be contrary to national interest or prejudicial to the public peace, welfare or good order in Singapore.
What information you need
A society can submit its application for registration at ROS eServices. The 3 key office bearers of the society i.e. the President, Secretary and Treasurer are required to verify and submit the application online using their Singpasses. The constitution of the proposed society shall be in Microsoft Word format while other supporting documents should preferably be in pdf or jpg format. The file size of each attachment should not exceed 5MB.
The information provided in the application should contain:
Information on the society
Name of the society (and 2 more alternative names for Normal Registration process)
Registered Address
Constitution of the society in English
Email and Telephone.
Letter of affiliation, where necessary, in English
Constitution of affiliated body, where necessary, in English
Letters of approval or support from relevant government agencies, schools, organisations, personalities etc, where necessary, in English
Information on the members
Full name of proposed members, NRIC. No./ FIN/ Passport No., Date of Birth, Country of Birth
Title of office bearer (e.g. President, Secretary, Treasurer, Ordinary Member, etc) and their Equivalent Post
Residential address
Nationality, resident status in Singapore
Gender, marital status, race, religion
Contact information (e.g. email address, residential/ mobile telephone no.)
Highest educational level
Present employment status, name of employer/ company, position/ job title, address of company
Present membership in other registered societies, if any (name of society, position in society)
Additional questions if you are applying under Normal Registration
What are the other two alternative names - in order of preference - that your society would like to be called? What is the meaning and significance of the alternative names? Where applicable, please also provide the foreign language characters (e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Tamil etc.) of the alternative names.
What are the sources of funds for the society, apart from those mentioned in the constitution?
Was the society previously in existence? If so, where was it and why was it not registered then? Was it registered under any written law?
What is the expected size of membership?
Will any foreigners be employed? If so, who are they (name, date of birth and passport number)? How long will they be working here?
Does the proposed society represent the interests of any ethnic group? Is the membership restricted to any particular ethnic community? If so, please state the ethnic group.
Additional questions if you are a religious society
A "religious society" refers to any society conducting worshipping activities or studying any religious text pertaining to any deity or deities.
For Catholic or Christian societies
What is the Christian denomination of the proposed society?
Will the society publish any literature in Singapore for dissemination outside Singapore and vice versa? In what languages will the literature be published?
Please state the church each protem member is currently attending.
Please provide us with the religious leader’s curriculum vitae including his name, NRIC No./ Foreign Identification No. (FIN)/ Passport No., nationality and religious background.
Is the proposed society under or intending to come under any umbrella Christian organisation, locally or overseas? If so, please state the name of the organisation.
For Buddhist or Taoist societies
What are the deities that will be worshipped/revered/paid homage to? What do they symbolise? (Names in Chinese characters must also be provided, where applicable.)
What are the religious beliefs of the society (i.e whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, a combination of them, etc.)?
Will the proposed society be conducting any classes? If yes, please state the texts to be used.
Please provide us with the religious leader's curriculum vitae including his name, NRIC No./Foreign Identification No. (FIN)/Passport No., nationality and religious background.
For Hindu societies
What are the deities that will be worshipped/revered/paid homage to? What do they symbolise?
What are the religious beliefs of the society?
Will the proposed society be conducting any classes? If yes, please state the texts to be used.
Please provide us with the religious leader's curriculum vitae including his name, NRIC No./Foreign Identification No. (FIN)/Passport No., nationality and religious background.
For other religious societies
What are the deities that will be worshipped/revered/paid homage to? What do they symbolise? (Names in Chinese characters must also be provided, where applicable)
What are the religious beliefs of the society?
Will the proposed society be conducting any classes? If yes, please state the texts to be used.
Please provide us with the religious leader's curriculum vitae including his name, NRIC No./Foreign Identification No. (FIN)/Passport No., nationality and religious background.
What to expect
Upon receipt of a Registration application, the Registry of Societies will review the application and where necessary, seek further clarification or information from the applicant. A fee of $400 (application under Normal Registration process) or $300 (application under Automatic Registration process) is payable upon submission of the application. The application fee for registration is non-refundable.
Applicants can log in to our e-services to check on the status of their application/submission.