For those of you who were born overseas, but are now Taiwan nationals. What is the birthplace listed as in your Taiwan passport? Does it say the exact location like it would on your original passport, e.g. London, or does it simply specify the country, e.g. United Kingdom?
According to regulations, just the country.
It just says the country.
Question: What do they write if one was born at sea (in international waters), or on an airplane (in international airspace)?
Interesting. Why do they only write the country for foreign births but write the city if your born in Taiwan. My wife’s passport says born in Taipei.
I would think it would have to be wherever you land since that’s where they will issue you a birth certificate. Could also be the country the plane is registered to, but don’t see how.
It used to be that they would write your “home province” (even if you had never been there–they are inherited patrilineally), much as Japan and Korea do today (their passports give your home of registry, which is not necessarily where you were born–and in Japan you get to pick it). I guess they changed because of domestic political considerations–and they couldn’t just write “Taiwan” for everybody, could they? So they added the cities. Why not add foreign cities? Dunno.
US passports would say “At sea” or “In the air” for those circumstances. Anyway, the Taiwan passport office would have to go by what is written on your official documents.
I sometimes wonder what they would make of someone who naturalizes, and whose original country has allowed them not to have an official gender!
Every country does that?
If born within the borders of the Republic of China, it will be the province-level division. So in “Taiwan” it would be Taiwan, Fuchien, Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, or Kaohsiung.
Someone born in Hsinchu would have Taiwan / 台灣省 listed in their passport. Someone born in Taipei would have Taipei listed because Taipei is a centrally administered municipality on the same level as a province. Someone born in mainland China would have the pre-1949 province listed (e.g. Nanjing instead of Jiangsu, Sichuan instead of Chongqing).
Do people born on Jinmen or Mazu have “Fujian” listed on their passports?
EDIT: No, presumably just “Kinmen” or “Matsu.”
US passports generally give the state/territory followed by a comma and “USA”; and for those born abroad, just the country. However, one can request that the name of the country be replaced by that of the city (typically done when one objects to the country that controls it now). Those born within the USA are not allowed to do this. Since some cities share names with other cities, there is a potential to mislead.
I was born in Canada as a citizen of Italy. My Italian passport says the city and the country.
I was born in Taipei but my US passport used to say born in China
Now it says.born in Taiwan
Much better
The US State Department uses “Taiwan” as the default place name, but will allow applicants born there to substitute either “China” or the name of a specific city. They will not allow “Taiwan, China”, “Taiwan, Republic of China” or “Taiwan ROC”. There were cases in the past of Taiwan-born people having the US record their birthplace as the “People’s Republic of China.”
A similar political kerfuffle surrounds US citizens born in Jerusalem.
Australian passports usually list the town/suburb you were born in rather than the city, because they go by the place of birth listed on your birth certificate.
Interesting, I had presumed that all passports showed country only for foreign births. Well that’s my new thing learned for today.
Canadian passports show city + country. They used to show HK/Macau/Taiwan in the country field, but Beijing started refusing to issue visas to holders of those passports, so now they just show the city.
British passports only show the city/town whether you were born in the UK or abroad.
- A UK citizen born in London would have only “London” listed in their passports, not UK.
- A UK citizen born in Taipei would have only “Taipei” Listen in their passports, not Taiwan.
I know
I didn’t know that. errm I mean I didn’t know that most people didn’t know that… 
That could lead to confusion if someone was born in say Manchester Jamaica, or London Canada, or whatever.
Was thinking the same thing, but what important use do birthplaces listed on passports really have?
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