Can I just thank all the posters on this thread for their useful advice and suggestions. I appreciate it.

@Tonyaod Thanks for the info. I don't need to register his birth, Because with Ireland its only if I was an Irish citizen born outside of Ireland.

It will probably take 2 or 3 months until he gets his passport. So hopefully it won't be too complicated "as usual" when I need to organize it.

And again thanks, very useful thread.

Having citizenship to another country and getting a passport for that country are two different things. If you should wish to leave China with your son on a foreign passport then you will have to renounce his Chinese citizenship and get the necessary exit stamps in his new passport.

I have to agree with blobbles as regards the strengths and weaknesses of the western and eastern schooling systems, which is in part why we decided to combine the two.

One interesting phenomenon that I have observed is that children raised in monolingual english speaking countries will usually not be interested in learning mandarin, even with their parents being Chinese immigrants who spoke mandarin at home.

I can't help but feel that parents in our situation are doing their children a disservice, by not allowing them to spend as much of their early years here in China as practicable.

Hi everyone,

Question: When applying for your son/daughter's US passport initially, do you need to leave the original documents with the consulate in Chengdu while its being processed? I ask because there's a notice on the website about having to stay in Chengdu to wait for the passport. Also, my visa will run out soon so I need to know if I need to leave my US passport at the consulate or if I can just apply then take off? Thanks!

@lummerlaoshi
IF you GO to Chengdu - they can return your passport after making an on-site copy of it. To speed things up, you can bring a copy with you, and they can then use YOUR copy after physical verification.

You will need to leave either originals or original certified docs with the consulate on most other things. I don't like giving the embassy my originals, although they've NEVER lost anything per se - but why tempt fate?

If you're mailing - they'll usually return YOUR passport quickly - but you must give special instructions. However all things are subject to consular and state department whim - so best to check directly with them via email (so you also have debatably tangible proof or evidence of their instructions). You'll have to prepay the EMS return via credit card - so hope you have one of those things.

I forget the consulate's address - but it's buried inside one of the forums. PM me if you can't find it.

Thanks!