I am a British citizen and my partner and myself have just had a child born in Taiwan. My partner is Taiwanese and we have been living in Australia for last two years. We are not married but plan to do so over the next year. I am not on my daughters birth certificate as apparently unmarried fathers cannot put their name on the birth certificate! I have tried to find the law that states unmarried fathers cannot put their name on birth certificates but I cannot find anything, I’m just going off hearsay and what the doctors and nurses say, no one has given me any hard evidence.
I suspect that this issue will cause a problem in getting a British passport for my daughter! I will call the British embassy in Taipei and ask for direction.
Can anyone give me any advice on my situation?
The father can’t but the mother can is what I hear.
[quote=“DJLyons”]I am a British citizen and my partner and myself have just had a child born in Taiwan. My partner is Taiwanese and we have been living in Australia for last two years. We are not married but plan to do so over the next year. I am not on my daughters birth certificate as apparently unmarried fathers cannot put their name on the birth certificate! I have tried to find the law that states unmarried fathers cannot put their name on birth certificates but I cannot find anything, I’m just going off hearsay and what the doctors and nurses say, no one has given me any hard evidence.
I suspect that this issue will cause a problem in getting a British passport for my daughter! I will call the British embassy in Taipei and ask for direction.
Can anyone give me any advice on my situation?[/quote]
Previously the British “Embassy” In Taipei stopped dealing with passports, and it became necessary to apply direct to the Hong Kong Embassy. Now it looks like all applications must be done direct to the UK Passport Office, see gov.uk/government/publicati … a-passport.
The problem for you is that before issuing your daughter’s passport, they will likely want to see a birth certificate.
I am not sure how this leaves you, but here is a potentially useful idea: There is a statement that can be signed in front of a Notary in Taiwan in which the mother recognises you as the legitimate father of the child, and this could be used to get you on the Family Registration. The Family Registration document (after legalization and translation) may be acceptable to the British Passport Office.
So you will need to get your partner on board to help you with the Taiwanese paperwork.
Come to think of it- as I recall, the hospital in Taiwan where my first son was born issued us with a an English language birth certificate without asking for any proof of marriage. I might be wrong now, as my ex would have dealt with all of the paperwork. However it’s worth you asking- if you can get an English language birth certificate then your problem is solved. You would obviously not need to have it translated, but the UK authorities still might require that is be legalised in Taiwan (i.e. by the BOCA or whatever organ is responsible for that nowadays).
Thanks for all your input everyone.
My partner and I registered the birth with Taiwanese government today and I completed a form titled “Agreement about acknowledgement, the surname and guardianship for the children out of wedlock” As I understand it this is a sort of statutory declaration claiming my daughter as my own. Its is written in Chinese and English and legalised by the official stamp! I also signed the birth certificate (chinese text) that the hospital gave us however, my name is not written in block capitals it’s only my signature! I was given a birth cert in English my the hospital but, again the fathers name was left blank.
I’m fairly confident that I have done all I can (bar getting married) to document that I’m the father with Taiwanese government although I would imagine that all the documents that I have signed in Taiwan will not been seen as satisfactory evidence in the eyes of the British government as all the docs look pretty easy to forge!
A DNA test is probably the only way to confirm paternity!!
Tommy525 your dead right, "the 50’s!!!