While the intent of both legal guardianship and adoption is the same, the length and legal consequences of each process vary.

1. Legal guardianship is a temporary caregiving solution for a child till the age of 21 to ensure that they receive necessary care that the legal guardian can’t provide. However, the legal parents retain all legal parental rights of the child, and therefore can terminate the guardianship or reclaim custody of their child.
2. Adoption legally terminates the rights of the child’s legal or biological parents and are placed into the custody of the adoptive parents. It is a permanent decision that legally separates the child from their biological/legal parent.

To adopt in Singapore, you have to be able to satisfy the following requirements:

1. Residency Status: For joint application by married couples, one of you has to be a Singapore Citizen or both of you have to be Permanent Residents. Single persons who wish to adopt must be either a Singapore Citizen or a Permanent Resident. Applicants have to be habitually residing in Singapore of a period of at least a year immediately preceding the application for an Adoption Suitability Assessment.
2. Age Requirement: Applicants should not be more than 50 years older than the child. Applicants has to be at least 25 years old and 21 years older than the child they wish to adopt.
3. Marital Status: For couples wishing to adopt, only a man and a woman married in Singapore may do so. Married applicants who wish to adopt as a sole applicant must obtain the consent of their spouse. Singles are allowed to apply as sole applicants, but single males are not allowed to adopt a girl unless there are special circumstances.

In Singapore, the most common form of adoption is closed adoption, where the birth family and adoptive family has no contact, and all record of biological parents are sealed.

An open adoption occurs when both sets of parents have access to information of varying degree and can interact with each other.