Real English name on household registration/passport. Need advice

I recently registered my child’s household registration. I am now looking to get an English version of the 戶口名捕. However, when I went to the office, they told me that I could not use the child’s real English name, but instead had to use the pinyin equivalent of the Chinese name, which I don’t want to do, as then my child will have to use a pinyin name on their British passport as well. I know there is a law about minorities being able to use real names rather than pinyin ones, can someone send me the law in Chinese, and English if possible? Many thanks

Name Act:

Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act:

Good luck, this is not easy to do and you may end up in a bureaucratic loop between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Household Registration Office. Advice: be very, very nice to the household registration office, and very, very well prepared for the Bureau of Consular Affairs :slight_smile:

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Do they provide an English version?

Yes, they do, although I believe it is called a transcript rather than a certificate.

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aka 戶籍謄本

Of interest may also be these proposed changes to the regulations from a couple weeks ago, many of which relate to foreign names:

https://www.boca.gov.tw/cp-211-5966-822cb-1.html (ZH only)

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This is hard to do afterwards. But fairly easy when initially registering the newborn at the HHR office. Make sure the hospital will put the English name on the birth certificate.

There are threads discussing this issue:

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As for passport,

the current law says
第十四條護照外文姓名之記載方式如下
申請人首次申請護照時,已有英文字母拼寫之外文姓名,載於下列文件者,得優先採用:
(三) 國內外醫院所核發之出生證明。

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Hi Tando, do you have a link to this law on the government website? I am about to apply for a Taiwan passport for my daughter and luckily I have an English birth certificate with a real English name.

By 國內外 do they mean both at home or abroad?

My daughters English BC was issued in Taiwan.

Hi, fifieldt posted links to the law in his first reply to this thread, Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act. His post has links to both of English and Chinese versions.

It is Article 14.

A baby cannot be delivered at two hospitals, so I’m sure it means at home or abroad.

Sorry, I meant “or” not “and”, fixed it now :laughing:.

To be fair though. It is possible to get two birth certificates from different countries in certain cases. For example, despite my daughter being born in Taiwan, as she is a British citizen by descent I could also apply for a British consular birth certificate. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe German nationals can also apply for this.

The thing is, that these two are totally different documents. What’s called a birth certificate here is a birth report in Germany. The birth certificate in Germany is your most important document as it legally proves who you are. Passports and ID cards depend on the birth certificate in german law AFAIK.

I made a post about this which covers everything you will need to know about registering an English name. If you have any problems you can message me and I’ll try to help.

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