# Verification record — `sg/acra/sole-proprietorship-registration` v1.0.0 This file is the **source-review record** for this document version, per the [`manual-source-review-v1`](../../../../../practices/manual-source-review-v1.md) practice. ## Current claim - **`status`:** `draft` - **`verification.method`:** `manual-source-review-v1` - **`verification.lastVerifiedAt`:** `2026-07-02` ## Sources examined - **Document `(id, version)`:** `sg/acra/sole-proprietorship-registration` / `1.0.0` - **Spec version:** GovSchema `0.3.0` - **Authority:** Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority ("ACRA"). - **Primary sources:** - — "Registering a sole proprietorship or partnership" (eligibility, required documents/information, ownership requirements, fees, registration periods, processing timeline). - — "Who can set up a sole proprietorship or partnership in Singapore" (Singpass/CSP distinction between local and foreign owners). - — "Requirements for local residency" (local-manager appointment for foreign owners residing overseas). - — "Reserving a business name via Bizfile" (name application fields, SSIC codes, fee, 120-day validity). - — "Applying for a new business entity name" (name/SSIC/entity-type form fields, referral authorities). - — "Registering a New Business Entity — Sole Proprietorship/Partnership" (the official Bizfile step-by-step guide PDF: Business Details, Position Holders, Registration Confirmation & Payment field sections). - **Field extraction method:** unlike the pdfjs-dist AcroForm/XFA extraction used for PDF-form-based schemas in this registry (e.g. `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation`, `ca/cra/individual-income-tax-and-benefit-return-t1`), Bizfile has no downloadable fillable form — it is a Singpass-authenticated online eService. The guide PDF above was retrieved and read via automated fetch-and-summarize tooling rather than raw text/field extraction, which is a **weaker sourcing method**: the field names and section groupings below reflect that tool's paraphrase of the PDF's content, not a direct character-for-character transcription. This is recorded honestly rather than presented as equivalent in rigor to a pdfjs-dist extraction. See "Path to a `verified` claim" below for how to strengthen this. - **Retrieved / reviewed:** 2026-07-02. - **Reviewer:** GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer — initial authoring source review). ## What was confirmed against the source | Source element | Field(s) | |---|---| | "Who can set up a sole proprietorship or partnership in Singapore" / "Requirements for local residency" | `ownerHasSingpassAccess`, `ownerIsForeignResidentOverseas` | | "Reserving a business name via Bizfile" / "Applying for a new business entity name" | `proposedBusinessName`, `primarySsicCode`, `secondarySsicCode`, `businessActivityCustomDescription`, `nameApplicationEmail` | | Bizfile Guide, Step 2, Business Details | `nameRegistrationEserviceNumber`, `proposedCommencementDate`, `businessEmailAddress` | | "Registering a sole proprietorship or partnership" — business address requirements | `businessAddressLine`, `businessAddressUnitNumber`, `businessAddressPostalCode` | | Bizfile Guide, Step 3, Position Holders | `ownerNricOrFin`, `ownerFullName`, `ownerDateOfBirth`, `ownerResidentialAddressLine`, `ownerResidentialAddressUnitNumber`, `ownerResidentialAddressPostalCode`, `ownerMobileNumber`, `ownerContactEmail` | | "Requirements for local residency" | `ownerResidencyStatus` (scoped enum) | | "Registering a sole proprietorship or partnership" — consent requirement | `ownersConsentConfirmed`, `documents[].ownerConsentAttestation` | | Bizfile Guide, Step 4, Registration Confirmation & Payment | `registrationPeriod`, `specialUenRequested`, `paymentMethod` | | "Reserving a business name via Bizfile" — 120-day validity | `nameRegistrationEserviceNumber` description | Fees ($15 name application; $100/1-year or $160/3-year registration) were confirmed across multiple independent source pages but, consistent with every other schema in this registry, are **not** modelled as authoritative structured data — only referenced in field descriptions for context. ## What is NOT independently confirmed / out of scope - **Exact NRIC/FIN and postal code validation patterns.** The reviewed sources state that an NRIC-or-FIN and a postal code are collected, but none of them publish Bizfile's own field-level format validation (character count, regex). `ownerNricOrFin` is modelled as free text bounded only by a generous `maxLength`, deliberately **not** asserting Singapore's commonly-cited public NRIC/FIN letter-digit-letter shape as a `pattern`, since that shape was not confirmed against Bizfile's own form — the same discipline `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation` applied to `numberNameLegalElement`. `businessAddressPostalCode` / `ownerResidentialAddressPostalCode` **do** carry a `^[0-9]{6}$` pattern, since Singapore's 6-digit postal code format is a well-established public fact independent of Bizfile (Singapore Post's national addressing standard), not a Bizfile-specific claim. - **Partnerships.** Bizfile's shared registration flow also covers partnerships (two or more owners) and professional partnerships; this document scopes to the single-owner sole-proprietorship path only, consistent with the single-entity/single-owner scoping convention used throughout this registry (e.g. `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation`'s single director/incorporator, `ie/cro/company-incorporation`'s single director/secretary/subscriber). The "Professional Partnership Status" field noted in the Bizfile guide's Business Details section applies only to the partnership path and is out of scope here. - **Foreign owners.** Both the "without Singpass" and "residing overseas" foreign-owner paths are modelled only as eligibility gates that exit the flow (`ownerHasSingpassAccess`, `ownerIsForeignResidentOverseas`), not followed through to the corporate-service-provider engagement or local-manager appointment process — genuinely different, CSP-mediated flows outside this document's scope. - **Corporate position holders, nominee/trustee arrangements.** The Bizfile guide's Position Holders section also supports a corporate entity as position holder and nominee/beneficiary sub-fields (class of children, corporate beneficiary, etc.); out of scope, matching the individual-owner scoping above. - **Referral-authority name review.** Some proposed names are referred to a referral authority for approval (e.g. names implying a professional qualification), taking up to 15 working days; not modelled as a distinct gate or field, only mentioned in `proposedBusinessName`'s description. - **Home office (HDB/URA) approval.** `businessAddressLine`'s description notes that a home address requires prior HDB/URA approval to be used as a business address, but this is not modelled as a separate boolean gate — unlike the licence-renewal-style eligibility gates elsewhere in this document, ACRA's own pages describe this as a prerequisite the applicant arranges separately with HDB/URA, not a Bizfile registration-screen question. - **CPF Board eligibility criteria for the 3-year registration period.** `registrationPeriod`'s `three_year` option is conditional on "CPF Board criteria" per the source, but the criteria themselves were not detailed in any source reviewed for this document. ## Scope and jurisdiction notes - Conditional flow-exit is expressed with `transitions`/`exitReason` (GSP-0013), following the `ca/on/mto/drivers-licence-renewal` / `gb/dvla/driving-licence-first-provisional` eligibility-gate precedent — the first time this registry applies that pattern to a Business Formation schema rather than a DMV one. `ownerHasSingpassAccess`/`ownerIsForeignResidentOverseas` are both marked `fieldRole: eligibility` and genuinely exit the flow, unlike `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation`'s `directorIsResidentCanadian`, which is informational-only. - This document models Bizfile's two linked eServices — "Apply for New Business Entity Name" and "Register a New Business Entity" — as two sequential steps of one flow (`business_name_reservation` then `business_details`/`owner`/`declaration_and_payment`), per the open question flagged in the original `discovery/catalog.json` candidate note ("likely two linked processes or a two-step flow within one document; confirm at authoring time"). This differs from `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation`'s treatment of its own name-reservation prerequisite (the NUANS Report), which is issued by a third-party NUANS-licensed search house external to the Ontario Business Registry and is therefore only referenced as an input (`nuansReportReferenceNumber`/`nuansReportDate`), not modelled as a step of that document — the difference reflects that Bizfile's name reservation is ACRA's own first-party eService, not a third-party process. - This is the **fifth** company-formation jurisdiction in the registry, after `gb/companies-house/company-incorporation-in01`, `us/ca/sos/business-entity-llc-formation`, `ie/cro/company-incorporation`, and `ca/on/registration/business-incorporation` — and the first **sole-proprietorship** (rather than company/LLC-incorporation) form of business formation modelled in this registry. It closes the `discovery/catalog.json` Business Formation vertical's last open candidate. - Consistent with `gb/dvla/driving-licence-first-provisional` and `ca/on/mto/drivers-licence-renewal` (both prose-guidance-sourced, not form-PDF-sourced), this document's addresses are modelled as flat `addressLine`/`unitNumber`/`postalCode` string triples rather than a fully decomposed address object, since no source reviewed exposes Bizfile's own screen-level address field breakdown to decompose further. ## Path to a `verified` claim (next step) To advance to `status: verified`, a reviewer with Singpass access drives the live Bizfile "Apply for New Business Entity Name" and "Register a New Business Entity" eServices with a mock (test) sole-proprietorship application, confirms the exact screen-by-screen field list, the `ownerNricOrFin` and postal code validation patterns, and the CPF Board 3-year-registration criteria noted above, and records the outcome here — shipping a new schema version if discrepancies are found (VERSIONING.md §3, immutability). Independently re-deriving the Bizfile guide PDF's field text via `pdfjs-dist` (rather than relying on the automated-fetch summary used for this version) would also strengthen this record even before a live-eService walkthrough is possible, per the `gov-form-pdf-extraction` lesson that a prior version's stated extraction method should be independently re-confirmed, not assumed reproducible. ## Re-verification Per the practice's Cadence, `nextReviewBy` is set to **2027-01-01** (6 months).