Guide: How to apply for household registration (hukou) for a newborn

[meishijia]

Yesterday I successfully applied for household registration (hukou) for my newborn daughter. I am British, and my wife is Taiwanese with household registration herself. I did this myself, without my wife being present. For those soon to be in a similar position, then you may find this information helpful or interesting.

My daughter was born at the end of October, and the hospital issued two birth certificates, one in Chinese and one in English. The Chinese birth certificate will look very similar at all hospitals, it is issued by the hospital, not the government but they have to meet certain requirements so they all more or less have the same format and information. Importantly, the Chinese language certificate will not include a printed name.

After you have chosen a Chinese name, you need to write it on the birth certificate in the second cell on the first row, next to the cell that says "新生兒姓名”. Both parents will then need to stamp their seal directly above the chosen name, or sign it with their officially declared Chinese name (that’s the one on your marriage certificate, Taiwan spouse’s household registration certificate, and the child’s birth certificate). This is a good time to mention that if your not married, the fathers name will not be on the birth certificate, the father will not need to sign/stamp anything and will not be able to apply for household registration on behalf of the mother. At the bottom of the birth certificate you will need to confirm the child’s Chinese surname, and the father and mother need to sign to show they agree.

Your hospital may not offer English birth certificates, and if they do, don’t expect them to look professional, or to have all of the information you might expect. Since the English birth certificates aren’t usually used in Taiwan, there are no rules as to what information needs to be included and hospitals usually use whatever format they like. The one main consistency among all hospitals I spoke to is that their English birth certificates all print the English name of the child, which will be extremely useful when applying for foreign passports, as well as getting a real English name on your child’s Taiwanese passport next to their Chinese name. Taiwanese law states that your child can have an English name that is not a transliteration of their registered Chinese name if their English language birth certificate has it listed. My hospital, which I should actually call a clinic printed my daughters real name.

You do not need the English birth certificate to apply for the household registration. As mentioned above, you will only need it later if you want a real English name on the child’s Taiwanese passport, or on the English translation of the household registration certificate, should you decide to get one. Nobody will ask for the child’s English name when applying for their household registration, as most people don’t even have one at all.

Before you go to your local Household Registration Office, you will need to prepare the following things:

• Taiwan spouses household registration certificate (戶口名捕), which is shown at the top of this post

• Foreign spouse’s passport

• Taiwan spouse’s ID card or passport (either OK)

• Taiwan spouses stamp

• Child’s Chinese language birth certificate

At the Household Registration Office, you will need to sign your Chinese name multiple times, on paper and digitally on their tablet, so make sure you can write it. They will also show you all of the child’s details on a piece of paper (in Chinese) which you must sign to confirm there are no errors. If you can’t read Chinese, you can ask them to read it to you, but it would be better to bring someone who can help translate. After I had registered my daughter, speaking only in Chinese for about an hour, and was getting ready to leave, the clerk behind the counter suddenly started speaking to me in almost perfect English, which I wish he had done earlier. If your Chinese isn’t great, ask for an English speaking officer when you arrive. If you are in Taipei or New Taipei City I can almost guarantee that at least one, likely multiple employees there will speak fairly good English.

Upon completing the registration they will likely ask you if you want to apply for any of the economic incentives offered to new parents, and health insurance. I didn’t apply for the incentives yet, but I applied for health insurance, which took five minutes. You don’t need to bring a printed photo, you can upload the photo from your phone when you get home. They will give you a piece of paper which acts as their health insurance card until their real one arrives. The officer told me it will take two weeks for the health insurance card to arrive, but the last time I applied for a new card, it arrived in two days so perhaps it won’t take too long this time. I will update this post when my daughter’s card gets here.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to help!

[meishijia]

I can confirm that it did not take two weeks for the NHI card to come. The card came yesterday, and probably would have came even earlier if we had uploaded the picture straight away, instead of two days after we were able to. There are not many rules for baby pictures on health insurance cards, my daughters picture doesn’t even have a plain white background, it’s pink and white.

[justinram11]

@meishijia

You do not need the English birth certificate to apply for the household registration. As mentioned above, you will only need it later if you want a real English name on the child’s Taiwanese passport, or on the English translation of the household registration certificate, should you decide to get one.

How sure are you about the above? (Congratz by the way! My son is also a week old, so we’ll be looking to do this very soon)

I’ve read in other threads that the English name needs to be on the Hukou (in parenthesis next to his Chinese name) in order to get a passport with his “real” English name (that has no relation to his Chinese name) on it? I’m not sure if that is just specific to the USA though

[meishijia]

100 percent certain.

When you register the Hukou, they won’t ask for any proof of English name, as most parents don’t have any proof of English name. They will also not ask you to pick a transliterated English name. They will only ask for proof of English name, or for you to pick a transliterated English name if you apply for an English Household Registration Transcript, or apply for the child’s first passport. The English name does not need to be anywhere on the Chinese language HRC (戶口名捕).

See my post about registering a ‘real’ English name:

Guide: How to register a 'real' English name for your Taiwanese child

Today I registered my Taiwanese daughters English name, not using a transliteration of her Chinese name, but using a ‘real’ English name. The English surname I registered is also different to the Chinese surname. The Chinese surname matches my wife’s surname, and the English surname matches mine. I hope that in this post I can explain how I did it, as many parents have posted that they were not allowed to do it or met resistance. As far as I know, there are two ways to register an official Engl…

I registered my child’s English name a few days after originally registering the Hukou. I used the hospital issued English birth certificate. I now have an English language Household Registration Transcript with my daughters ‘real’ English name. When I apply for my daughter’s first passport, they will legally have to use the same name as that transcript, and if they refuse then I can also show them the hospital issued English birth certificate, which according to the Passport Act, is also enough to use a non transliterated English name.

https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-144-470-469a7-2.html

[Myn]

Firstly, big thanks to meishijia for assisting me with this process both in forum posts and DMs

I’d just like to touch on one point

@meishijia

Your hospital may not offer English birth certificates

I was in this situation where the hospital (NTUH) refused to provide me with an English birth certificate for my child without showing household registration first.

As a side note, we already have household registration for our child in Chinese but our aim is to get the English translated copy showing her English name

The English translation of household registration of course requires proof of the child’s English name, which would normally be a birth certificate. So you can see the loop we were in

It turns out that it’s the hospital’s policy which is at fault because - of course - how else can you prove the child was born if the hospital that delivered her refuses to provide proof? Speaking to NTUH got us nowhere with this as their policy was absolute and an exemption could not be made

So we spoke to our household registration office which is in Banqiao , New Taipei City. They were hugely sympathetic and were well aware of NTUH’s refusal to change policy, having spoken to them multiple times in the past to try get them to change their policy.

As a work around however they were happy to provide an English translated copy of the household registration, as long as I wrote and signed a promise that I would return later with the proof from NTUH of her English name

I applied on Monday and picked it up Wednesday morning. I can now use this as proof for NTUH to provide an English birth certificate with my child’s English name. In turn this enables me to apply for her passport (both TW and UK) which will include her English name next to her Chinese name, as opposed to just an “also known as” name

[frynick22]

If looking to have 2 names for the child (Chinese and “real” English) we could just do the Chinese Household Registration and English version at the same time, no? Seems like I’d need proof of both names if I want them both on either the Taiwanese or U.S. passport.

[meishijia]

Yes, you can do both during the same visit to the HHRO. First the Chinese version, then the English version. You only need proof for the English version though (ideally a hospital birth certificate with the English name on). For the Chinese version you don’t need proof because you pick the name right there and then when you register the birth at the HHRO.

[meishijia]

@meishijia

ideally a hospital birth certificate with the English name on

This part can really be a challenge though, because some hospitals refuse to give an English birth certificate without the HHRO first issuing the English household registration document, and one of the only ways to get that document with the “real” English name on is to first get the hospital certificate with it on. You can see why it can turn into a dumb loop.

I think your chances of getting the hospital to issue whatever name you want increases if you go to a small clinic. My wife gave birth at 曜生 in Xinzhuang and they gave it without issue. They also have clinics all over Taiwan I believe. Unfortunately giving birth in a clinic rather than a large hospital can result in far from favorable experiences, as I documented here:

Give birth at a big hospital unless you want an unnecessary C section

This morning my wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl, via caesarian section at a clinic in New Taipei City. [signal-2020-10-29-144014] Her due date was October 25th, and we came to clinic to be induced on the 26th, following advice from the doctor not to go too far over 40 weeks, which I don’t personally believe in, but I listened to my wife. Me, my brother and sister were all born at 42 weeks, but that would never be allowed to happen in Taiwan. 48 hours after being induced, my wife had a…

[frynick22]

Appreciate the replies.
Does the baby need to attend household registration?

[springonion]

@frynick22

Does the baby need to attend household registration?

No need…I went to the HHR myself a few days after my wife gave birth and obviously, mom and baby was still at the hospital.

[meishijia]

@frynick22

Does the baby need to attend household registration?

Baby only needs to attend for the passport.

[TaipeiGuy2000]

Did you have to supply any documents as proof, to write down an English name on the birth certificate? Or how do they know you were even married, for example? And did they check last name with your last name?

@meishijia

giving birth in a clinic rather than a large hospital can result in far from favorable experiences

What if the mom wants a c-section, any other unfavorable experiences?

[meishijia]

@TaipeiGuy2000

Did you have to supply any documents as proof, to write down an English name on the birth certificate?

No, just told the clinic what name we wanted

[meishijia]

@TaipeiGuy2000

What if the mom wants a c-section, any other unfavorable experiences?

Not really. If you want a c-section then a clinic might be okay.

[Symokoto]

“Taiwanese law states that your child can have an English name that is not a transliteration of their registered Chinese name if their English language birth certificate has it listed.”

Hello! Really hoping this thread is still active, as my daughter was just born last week and I am experiencing a similar (frustrating ) loop that others have mentioned here.

Unfortunately, it has a few different wrinkles. So far, neither the Hsinchu HR office nor the hospital are willing to budge on providing the other side with an English name. Furthermore, the hospital is claiming that we cannot even give our daughter a proper English name, but only a transliterated one.

I was wondering what TW law you were referring to in the above quote. I’ve looked through the Name Act and Enforcement of the Name Act articles and can’t find anything pertaining to newborns/dual citizen births except the first article.

Hoping for a prompt reply and thanks in advance!

[Argoat]

Sorry to hear your issue. Which hospital/where was the birth?

For our two children the hospital in Taichung did offer an English certificate. It isn’t a full translation of the Chinese language one, in fact it looks more like a school certificate. Might be worth keep stating that, rather than asking for a full translation. Ours had something like:

Hospital Name
Childs Name
Date of Birth
Signature

Maybe you can ask if they have this different format English one.

[Symokoto]

Thanks. I’m making a list of possible alternatives to offer the hospital or HR office, so I can add that suggestion to the one posted earlier here about getting one side to offer a certificate with a signed promise of providing proof in the near future.

I’m still curious about what law was being referred to above, because it would be nice to point to something tangible and say your policy is in conflict with the law here (and strongly suggest a workaround would be best for all parties).

[meishijia]

@Symokoto

So far, neither the Hsinchu HR office nor the hospital are willing to budge on providing the other side with an English name. Furthermore, the hospital is claiming that we cannot even give our daughter a proper English name, but only a transliterated one.

@Myn may be able to share his experience with a similar issue.

[Myn]

@meishijia I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast

But I do recall that in my case neither budged, until we got shirty with the HHR office and they eventually budged. Just don’t give up.

[Symokoto]

I read what Myn posted above about the loop issue and will try asking either side to offer a similar “certificate with signed promise of proof” after this holiday. Fingers crossed one of the sides is receptive to this or the idea of simplified form as mentioned above.