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Q: What's the process for having a baby in China?
My wife (a Guangzhou local) and I are expecting and went to the local government office to get a green book in which the hospital is supposed to mark down the baby's progress during check ups, I guess. We went to the office and they said that I needed to get a document from the consulate saying I don't have any other children. When asked why I needed it since I was a foreigner and the 1 Child Policy doesn't apply to me, they said I needed it because the boss said so. Right.
So I went to the consulate and paid $50 for an affidavit that I probably could have forged at home on my own for free and the Consulate General himself told me that he never heard of the government office asking for affidavits before. Paper in hand, I went back to the gov. office and gave it to them. The lady was shocked to see that the paper was in English (DUUUUUUUUUHHHH) and asked us what was on it. I could have shown her a Pizza Hutt menu and she wouldn't have known the difference. She gave us the book and we bounced.
But as we were leaving, my wife overheard the workers shit talking about how some lady came in and argued with them for being a bunch of no good wastes of space and so they sent her to get more documents that they didn't really need. Revenge paperwork as I call it now. Anyone have similar/different experiences?
9 years 46 weeks ago in Family & Kids - China
Damn, you are further ahead than I had hoped when I read the title of your question. Was thinking in the lines of a witty answer starting with the act of coitus. Anyway, since you have successfully mastered that, there is not much left than saying "Congrats on the family expansion"
Actually, I think you could skip the green book altogether. The hospitals will freak out a bit if a woman doesn't have it, but you can play the foreigner card. Having it might make things easier. I have a friend whose wife doesn't have the hukou here. Their kid was born in town, but cannot be registered here as she'd need to go back to her village and sign him onto her hukou. ... so the kid was turned foreigner by some horrible load of paperwork.
Another small tip. You may have read Hulk and others antics about participating in the pre-birth stuff at hospitals. Since you are in GZ, you could consider taking the train to Zhuhai, going to a clinic there, if you want to see your offspring earlier and know the gender.
This all comes back to no rule of law. In other countries there is a clearly laid out process for doing things. Before going to the office I can go to the website and be informed about everything I need. If the person at the window tries to deviate I have legal recourse.
But in china everything comes down to the whim of the gov worker in front of you
This all comes back to no rule of law. In other countries there is a clearly laid out process for doing things. Before going to the office I can go to the website and be informed about everything I need. If the person at the window tries to deviate I have legal recourse.
But in china everything comes down to the whim of the gov worker in front of you
This all comes back to no rule of law. In other countries there is a clearly laid out process for doing things. Before going to the office I can go to the website and be informed about everything I need. If the person at the window tries to deviate I have legal recourse.
But in china everything comes down to the whim of the gov worker in front of you
In Shenzhen I was forced to go to the U.S embassy in GZ to get a letter stating that I swear that: "I don't have any children born in China." After that I had to get it translated into Chinese. This was the only way I could get my wifes insurance going, she worked many hard years for it and without all this stuff it would have been more difficult to get a birth certificate and hukou for the baby.. Yes the whole thing made me feel really guilty for her, all because I'm a foreigner she had to suffer the most stress, go to the police family office to sign tons of paper work. It was hell.
We didn't do much of anything. My wife had the baby, the hospital gave us a birth certificate. We never got a houkou, but nobody seemed to care about that. 1 year later, we got her American passport at the embassy. Now, whenever an official questions us about our baby, we just use her awesome cuteness powers to distract him. problem gone. It's better than guangxi.
Hulk:
I can attest that Xinyuren's baby is super cute! Our cruisers can't repel 可爱 of this magnitude!
xinyuren:
I'm sorry Hulk. you have fallen victim to her supercuteness power. You will be her slave forever. So sorry, she hasn't learned to control it yet.
In my case, also in GZ, we got the baby book no problem.
We waited till after she was 3 months ( we lost one the first time), then she went to the local population control office with her documents, my passport, my temp registration and wedding book. She applied for the baby book and got it no problem.
When the baby was born (in a GZ hospital), the woman asked at the desk if I wanted to register the baby as Chinese or foreign. I said Chinese and I think it cost the standard 9 RMB. We got the birth certificate there and then. Again, I just needed my passport.
ScotsAlan:
Nope. She does not even have one passport yet.
When she gets one it will be Chinese. But we did register her birth at the UK consulate, so if she decides to in the future she can claim UK citizenship. She did not get a UK birth certificate. She got a certificate of " right to claim British citizenship". Or something like that anyway.
China does not recognize dual nationality. It has to be one or the other.
The wife is in the process of applying for her " HK entry passport". The internal book Guangdong people can use to go to HK/ Macau.
ScotsAlan:
Sorry. My answer was wrong. My better half has corrected me.
It seems the baby book office did indeed demand a "certificate of no Chinese children" from me. But my wife argued that it does not apply to foreigners as the baby would be foreign. She also argued that as she had the certificate for herself, and the one child rule being mainly orientated towards women, that she should be issued the baby book.
She got it. And me.... being in total ignorance of such things went and registered the child as Chinese. Silly thing that I am.
It would be interesting to check the book to see if it has a tick box... "for foreign baby only".
One thing for sure though. If another baby comes, it will not be Chinese. The current fine in GZ is 400000 RMB.
Hulk:
I don't agree with you for saying "Chinese," but I upvoted you anyway.
Scandinavian:
@Scots
The UK recognizes that some countries are totalitarian regimes that suppresses its people, thus lets it slide if you apply for UK citizenship as well, It would still violate Chinese law, but your kid would enjoy the benefits of easier travel to some parts of the world where visas are hard for Chinese passport holders to get. Of course, to enjoy the added flexibility of UK passport, the wife would need one too.
ScotsAlan:
Yeah Scan. I hear what you are saying, but the kid can apply for UK citizenship at any time. That's the deal. She is entitled to it and has a bit of paper to prove it.
In the meantime, as she is a Chinese citizen at the moment, it means she gets the same as any other Chinese kid. She can be here without a visa. She will be able to go to a local kindergarden next year. She gets her health jabs without us having to go to an international hospital and so on etc.
I am either very lucky, or very unlucky, in that my Chinese wife is happy being a Chinese citizen. She rather likes it here. And she has been to the UK often enough ( probably about 1.5 years combined over the past 10 years) to know that the UK is not paved in the proverbial gold. We have been together for almost 9 years now, and never once has she demanded I get her a UK passport. We have talked about it of course, but at the moment she really just wants to stay here.
Bugger, how unlucky am I? A Chinese wife who wants to be in China. Beggers belief, so it does.
Compare that to some of the other foreigners I know who married Chinese women. I think the quickest application I have seen so far for a spousal UK visa was the day after the wedding. Another was about 2 months after, another just over a year. I know one couple where the woman divorced the man 2 months after she got her UK passport.
I have never had the intention of being a knight in shining armour, coming here to rescue a delicate dame and whisk her off to where the grass in supposedly greener.
I am happy and content here. Our daughter is happy (admittedly, she know no different), and my wife is happy.
I am even happier that I know my wife married me for who I am, not because I had a UK passport stuck on my forehead with a big neon sign above, screaming out "escape route here".
Hulk:
I applied for my wife's green card immediately after we found out she was pregnant. It took forever to convince her to go to America with me. 1 year after she got her green card, we're still together. She's a great wife, mother and woman.
For me it was, "Get the fuck out of China before the baby is born." I had to try hard to convince my wife to agree with me. No regrets.
RiriRiri:
I just wouldn't have it any other way. China is no place for a child to be delivered or stay.
ScotsAlan:
Yup. The stork that delivered our baby arrived on an e-bike. He said he had been grounded because of the smog 
.
The official at the visa office showed me a law that said a "half-blood" child is free to travel within China with a Chinese ID or with a foreign passport without a visa, until they are 18 years old. At 18, they must choose a nationality. This is what I was told. So my girl can stay in China with just an American passport.
Babies born to one Chinese and one non-Chinese parent
A baby born in China to one Chinese parent and one non-Chinese parent will be automatically considered a Chinese national. China does not recognize dual nationality.
If you want your child to remain a Chinese citizen, you should apply for a hukou, Chinese ID card (shenfenzheng) and (if you’re planning on leaving China) a Chinese passport.
In theory, if you want your baby to be registered as a national of a foreign country, you need to do two things:
- renounce your child’s Chinese citizenship
- apply for the child to have a passport (or be listed on the parent’s passport) for their non-Chinese parent’s country
However, the process for renouncing citizenship is not always clear. We’ve come across many stories from frustrated parents who have gone around in circles of bureaucracy and confusion, ending up none the wiser. Fortunately, people always seem to find a way of sorting out their child’s status (especially important when you want to take your child out of the country), but this often seems to come after hitting several dead ends.
Given that it seems almost impossible to reduce this to a series of steps to follow, we’ll simply provide you with the following pieces of information to prepare you for what you might encounter:
Note that there are many parents who simply try to avoid the step of renouncing their child’s Chinese citizenship, going straight on with applying for their baby to be registered on a foreign passport, and Chinese visa or residence permit. In these cases, some kids end up with passports for both China and a foreign country, allowing them to delay making a final decision until they are 18.
Parents should follow the series of steps listed at the top of this article for having a baby registered with a foreign passport at a foreign embassy or consulate and apply for a Chinese visa or residence permit.
If you want to try having your child’s Chinese citizenship renounced, go to the local Exit-Entry Administration office to ask for advice. It may be possible to have the process completed in the city in which you live. However, you may be advised to go to the PSB in the place where the Chinese parent’s hukou (household registration) is registered.
In some cases, the PSB will issue an “exit-entry” booklet (usually blue in color). Parents have found this allows the parents and child to leave China, then use their foreign passport to enter the country they are traveling to. If this happens, check how many entries and/or exits this is good for, especially if you plan to return to China with your child.
If you do need to return to the Chinese parent’s hometown, have a friend or relative in that place ask the PSB about the situation before you or your partner travel. There are no shortage of stories of Chinese parents visiting the PSB in their hometown (ie. the place their hukou is tied to) only to hit a brick wall.
The most bizarre stories we’ve heard of involve parents who left China temporarily with their child, believing the child’s Chinese citizenship to have been renounced. The parents have then reasoned that, the child now being a foreign national, would logically need to apply for a Chinese visa to return to China. However, the Chinese embassy overseas has then rejected the application, stating that the child was, in fact, still a Chinese citizen. These Catch-22 situations seem to have worked out with the compromise of the embassy typically issuing a travel document for the child (often valid for up to two years) allowing the child to enter China. Still, these stories show just how complex and frustrating this issue can be for parents.
