Hi, looking for help with this unusual situation.
Just last month I fathered a child here in Taiwan with my long term Taiwanese partner of 15 years. We never planned to get married but Before the child was born I had heard that in order to be accepted as the child’s legal legitimate father we needed to be married and that was the law here in Taiwan. Unfortunately in order for us to be married I had to get a document from my own government proving that I was lawfully unmarried and in order to get that document needed to fly home. All of that was not possible in that time frame.
I have subsequently adopted my own child which is saddening but true.
I’m in a situation where the child has a Chinese language birth certificate that has its Chinese name in Chinese characters and the Chinese name converted in English language i presume using Pinyin, this is standard. Usually the option for an English given birth certificate with the babies chosen english name fathers sir name is available at this point but only if your married of course.
so heres the issue, i want my child to have my family name on the passport that i get from my country of origin, but to get that passport i can only priovide him with a birth certificate with his Chinese name converted to English.
Any ideas on how I can obtain some sort of birth certificate with my sir name and chosen english name to then apply for a passport from my home country with my sirna,me and chosen English name.
I presume you are British given you needed to fly home to get the certificate of no impediment. I had to do the same during COVID and ended up getting stuck there for exactly 6 months.
So, if you can’t get the English birth certificate from the hospital, you have some options.
First, you could get the Chinese version translated to English and then have the translation notarized (the translation company will help do the notarization). It can be pricey though, sometimes up to $2000 per document. Ideally, the translation company will translate the Chinese name to English however you ask them to. Normally they just do what you ask.
Another option is to get an English version of the 戶籍藤本 household registration transcript, which can act as a birth certificate in lieu of one, as it contains all the same info. However, unless you have a document showing the child’s non romanized English name, they’ll make you pick an English name which is just a romanization of their Chinese name. Perhaps, if you already got the notarized translation of rhe Chinese birth certificate, the household registration office will accept that as proof of an English name.
You could also just use the romanization of their Chinese name for their official name, but then have an also known as name in their Taiwan passport that has an English name with your surname. When you apply for the passport of your home country, ask them to use that name.
If all this fails, you could just get a romanized English name without your surname, get the passport from the wherever you are from, and then petition the courts to change the child’s name to your surname in your home country.
hey i dont know wether i articulated my self very well, i edited the original post.
yeh form UK
We have a birth certificate with the Chinese name in chinese charatcers and chinese Name in english (theres no option to choose the Enghlish name it can only be the chinese name romanised same like on all the taiwan passports,
im not even on that document.
we were under the impression that if we adopted the child i could add my name to the chinese birth cirtificate as the father, not true.
in order to get passport with my sir name and chosen english name i need a matching births cert,
very annoying
i am not listed on his birth cirtifcate at all , only his mother with his chinese name in chinese characters and his chinese name romanised. we were told adopting him might get my name on the birth cert, that failed. but at least im identified as a legitimate / legal carer of my own child
There isn’t really a proper government issued birth certificate per se, as in the western sense. The hospital can issue a paper and stamp it. Which is easy and common. But whether your country of origin accepts that as official may vary.
The original post has a few issues that I noticed. at least from the Taiwan side. You don’t need to be married for the hospitals certificate. It’s usually literally an A4 print out, it’s not government stamped and kind of meaningless outside of the company (hospital) stamp. You cna argue with them that they must include the father’s name, don’t let them bully you or play dumb. Just tell them to do it and to stop fucking around.
If you want actual governemnt recognition of being the father, I assume the advice you recieved was you need to be on the familys household registration, and be married to the mother to join her family to appear as the father of the child on that family tree. That is slightly different than simply getting the stamped print out from the hospital. Well, completely different.
You mentioned unmarried. I assume that means you are divorced? Taiwanese government needs legal proof you are single and not married if you want to get married here. 1 man, 1 wife. Just how it is. It’s actually easy and simple, but will depend on your nation of citizenship. For Canadians you can go to the embassy, swear to them you are single, they give you the paperwork and bobs your uncle. Done. No need to fly back or request stuff to be sent anymore. This isn’t really a problem with Taiwanese laws, it’s common to need to prove one’s marital status in order to get married. Just give them the paper. If there are issues with this, it’s going to be on the foreign country’s side more often than not.
Marriage, and divorce, in Taiwan is about the easiest thing in the world. Sign and done. Just get your papers setup. Will depend on how troublesome your country is to get these few peices of paper.
I would definitely insist on getting the hospital to print out their paper, stamp it officially with you and the mothers name on the page. Consider notarizing it if you’re worried.
To be fair, he had 9 months to go to HK or even get married online though.
All i can say, is that he can get the kid’s name changed in ghe UK once the kid has a passport. However, he might struggle to get one in the first place when he isnt listed as the father on anything.
Sure. My point is the Taiwan side is easy. The trouble isn’t coming from here. Marriage here is simple. Prove being single, fill out some forms.
If the UK system is a pain in the ass, perhaps the embassy here could help out? Seems pretty insane the UK would require a person to go back there in person when an embassy could just as easily arrange it.
Edit. I’m not from the UK. So can’t comment on that side. But the Taiwan side is relatively straight forward.
Best of luck then. Too bad the UK is that troublesome
The hospital here surely has the record of the birth and probably can still print out the record if it’s not too long ago. So long as the mother is all good and on board to sign, shouldn’t be too hard a thing to get the paper and notarize it.
Ya, i think that is the way forward. Go back to the hospital, request an english birth cert and get them to put the kid’s english name with dad’s surname on it.
Certainly would be my move. I will add, the hospital print out for my child had the English name on it upon request. They didn’t do it the first run, but when requested they had no issue doing so. It also had the Mandarin name, which seems logical.
It’s a hospital layout/letterhead/decision. It’s not a government based thing, hence the “birth certificate” not being that important. But it could be stamped (with the hostlpitals official company stamp) and notarized to perhaps give it at least some kind of use in cases like this. Any foreigner can insist on this. Truly insist, talk to management etc. They just need to open Microsoft Word and change a word or 2. the certificates are that simple, and meaningful.
For future reference, can ask the hospital before giving birth and act accordingly. But frankly, tell them to do it. Ask them before you pay the bill
