Your process will be a bit easier as both parents are US citizen, but you should nevertheless get your paperwork prepared as soon as possible. Most things you should get squared away within a month or two, but issuing an SSN in Asia takes 3-9 months currently, so you want to get this done as soon as possible or you will have problems claiming your baby on your taxes.
If you’re talking about ChangGung (spelling?) hospital on Dunhua N. Rd, the answer is probably yes. I know we received an English birth certificate there in February and I don’t recall whether we also received a Chinese one, but seeing as that’s what 99.9% of the parents would be after, that should be no problem.[/quote]
MT anyone else… I have a little birth cert problem
sorry if I seem inchoernt I am really tired at the moment
We had the baby Tuesday morning in Chang Gung Hosptial… she was quite big… 3.7 KG
Both are ok and doing well now… a little anxiuos on Tuesday as mom had a maternal fever when baby was born
I asked about the english birth cert and they said no problem
A Chang gung nurse gave me a template and asked to fill in the baby’s name… i did this and proceeded to get 6 copies made based on the template and chopped or whatever; down at the desk ( its the place you go to get the birth cert done)
At the desk the lady said she cannot issue an english birth cert until such time that the baby is registered in Taiwan. I asked someone further up the food chain than her and that person said… a regualtion ( government or city???) says that the baby must be registered before the hosotial can issue the english birth cert…
WTF???
Is this true? does anyone know?? :help:
I am worried if it is done this way that her english birth cert will not give her english name ‘Saoirse Aine White’ and her father’s surmane will not be White but ‘Bai’ and her name on teh birth cert will be a romanization of her Chinese name… this no doubt will lead to further problems later when trying to register as Saoirse Aine White in Ireland
Babies are great. Don’t expect to sleep much for a long time, but it’s worth it and it just keeps getting better.
Regarding your question, I don’t recall whether the registration is a prerequisite to getting the birth certificate, but I believe that may be true. In any event, we had to go register our daughter in my wife’s home town. If your wife’s a local that should be no problem – it just means you have to come back for the birth certificate later. I believe we had to do so.
TNT. Congratulations! At first I thought you were making up a name along the lines of a slurred “Sorry as I ain’t white” (Saoirse Aine White). Sorry, I am not au fait with the pronounciation of Irish names.
They should give you the English cert at the same time as the Chinese one. There’s no reason not to. I got both at the same time when my son was born. Mind, that was four years ago in Taichung. The English one was based on an American version because I had to say which state I was from. (I’m from England.)
When you get an ROC passport for the little one she’ll have her Chinese name romanized as Bai, but you should be OK when you apply for an Irish passport for her, as long as you can get White on the English berf cert.
Congratulations! You won’t get a decent night’s sleep for 6 months!
When my daughter was born, we got the Chinese and English birth certificates right away. We certainly did not have to wait for her to get registered in the household registration, as we took over a month to do that so she could use mommy’s chinese surname. She was born two years ago in Taipei’s Taiwan Adventist. If it is an actual law, go ask them for the exact name and article of the law. However if your wife is registered in Taipei then it should only require a quick trip to the household registration office to get her registered and then back to the hospital to get the english birth certificate. Probably easier than fighting it.
As for her english name, they did not have any problems letting me choose whatever I wanted. I doubt you’ll have a problem there. And when you get her ROC passport, you can list up to three names in it: Chinese Name in Chinese, Chinese Name Romanized, and an “Also Known As” which can be her English name. Keep in mind that you should specify how you want her name romanized if you don’t want to get some random romanization. If you don’t request an AKA, you won’t get one. The given name in the AKA can be anything. If the surname is different (Bai vs. White) then you need to show her english birth certificate to have the aka with a different surname. (If your wife wants to get an aka with your surname, you need to show a marriage certificate.) If you already have a passport without an aka, you can go back and get a stamp in the amendments section with the english name. My daughter’s ROC passport has her chinese name iin chinese, chinese name romanized the way we asked, and her english name as the aka using my surname instead of her chinese one.
The wife phoned up the Household registration place this morning and they said they had no idea what the hospital were talking about RE: registering the child before getting an English birth cert. They can register her but were mystifed why this had anything to do with getting an English Birth Cert
Anyone who has done this and got the English birth cert in Chang Gung without this BS, do you know off hand the person or “department” in the hosptial you asked for?
As usual with most things in taiwan when they do not do something often then they tend to guess what they should tell us to do or offer their opinion on what to do, without having a clue of the actual rules :loco:
We registered the baby in the household registration… went back to Chang Gung and they issued an English birth cert with english Irish names on it no problem
Still can’t understand this stupid rule… even when I phoned the hospital using the contact information on the website ( that is the English Website for Chang Gung and talked to a speech therapist since nobody else there in the Adminstration Department could speak English…eventhough a contact phone number is given on the English website implying an English service) and she through translation told me that the Adminsitration cannot understand such a rule … but have to enforce it as it comes from hospital management
