Applying for dual citizenship for baby

Legal Dual Nationality
1

I’m an American, my wife is Taiwanese, and both of us are here in Taiwan. My wife will give birth to our first child tomorrow (it will be a girl), and I would like our child to have dual citizenship (Taiwanese as well as American).

My questions are:

  1. How do I apply for our child’s Taiwanese citizenship?

  2. How do I apply for our child’s American citizenship?

  3. When is the deadline for entering the child’s name into the “Household Registration”?

  4. When is the deadline for applying for the child’s American citizenship?

  5. Do I have to apply for the child to have a Joining Family Resident Visa (JFRV) and an Alien Registration Card (ARC) even though I will apply for her to be a Taiwanese citizen? If so, when is the deadline for getting her JFRV and ARC?

Mark

2

Mark,

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter!

Here’s the info provided by AIT:

Applying for Consular Report of Birth Abroad

Sorry I can’t help with additional info… I’m actually interested in any responses you get.

Jennifer
Mommy of three

3

I will answer Mark’s questions by number:

  1. At the Household Registration Office, in your locality of residence, which I assume is the same location as where your Taiwan spouse has her household registration. Obviously, you will need the baby’s birth certificate, and parents’ ID documents. I am assuming that you, as the foreign spouse, are already registered in the wife’s household registration document, in the spouse column, i.e. the marriage is legally registered in Taiwan.

  2. Contact AIT, they will have full details. There is more that one AIT Office in Taiwan as I recall.

  3. If you want to do it, obviously the sooner the better. Some people will say that there is a 30 day time limit, 60 day time limit, or whatever, but that is not really true – there is no FINE for exceeding it. However, practically speaking, you are better to do it before the child is 12.

  4. AIT will have full details. Obviously, the sooner the better.

  5. No, as a Taiwan citizen (with Household Registration in the Taiwan area) the child does not apply for a JFRV or ARC, even though she simultaneously holds a foreign passport.

4

Richard,

Someone told me recently that her daughter cannot get ROC citizenship because although she (mother) is an ROC citizen, the father is not. According to her, only children of male citizens can get citizenship. (Whether the mother is a local citizen or a foreigner is irrelevant apparently.)

Is this right?

Jennifer

5

The information you have stated is incorrect. Please refer to Article 2 of the ROC Nationality Law, promulgated Feb. 9, 2000.