And most foreigners won't have known about this because in the experience of my Scottish friend his wife/mothe-in-law dealt with it. He only found out because he asked!

Thanks Hotwater, this is what we will do. I was also thinking that for some mixed families the mother/in-laws may handle the pre-delivery paperwork without the father even knowing about it.

Hukou (family registration) is in her hometown. If your wife's hometown is NOT a capital city (aka it's rural) - you'll need to go to the capital city of her province to register your marriage. Baby's hukou can then be added at her hometown's PSB.

If you have the baby in Kunming - the hospital should have already instructed you to go to the Panlong (or wuhua or where you live) main hospital to get your baby permission go give birth book thing. We did ours in Paneling - since that's where we live. It was troublesome, but not difficult to do - requires two trips. The first is to fill out the hospital forms (you MAY need some paperwork from your maternity care hospital). You then go back a week or so later to pick up your permission to have a baby book.

Ignore foreigner comments about mixed couples not having to do this. Your wife is Chinese and must obey Chinese law - regardless of the nationality or citizenship of the child.

It sounds as though you want the baby dual citizen (as our children will be), so you'll need to register both in your wife's hometown and with your embassy. I didn't need my wife to get our baby's US birth certificate - but I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MUST bring my wife to get a US passport. The USA tries to protect families and infants from parental kidnappings...so troublesome - but in a rare moment of grace - kudos to the US State Department for a good and fair policy!

And know this - ALL children born to Chinese nationals are Chinese citizens - however NOT all children born to mixed relationships/marriages may be able to secure a Hukou. You must still follow all the government procedures for normal citizens. China's rather bureaucratic in that respect - so follow the rules that apply to domestic couples.

And in case you're interested - you better add your wife to your local residence permit at the PSB...

Thank you laotou, this has been my understanding too.

She's my wife (in the strictest definition), meaning we are already married.

Yes, we plan to have the baby in Kunming, but we have not yet been to any hospitals, so we have received no instructions from any authority. That's something to do next week.

I don't know why it sounded that I want the baby to have dual citizenship. I tried to be clear that the baby will be 100% Chinese, so I don't even want to discuss the passport implications :)

About your last comment:

If I was working in Kunming and had my residence permit attached to that work, I could indeed add my wife to this permit. However, our situation is the opposite, as I have residence permit through marriage to her and I'm not working in Kunming. Without her, my presence in Kunming (or China) would be questionable. So I don't think that I can make her dependent on my RP, which is dependent on her.

since your baby is 100% Chinese it would not need a residence permit just the standard ID card I am guessing

Before a hospital will issue a birth certificate (No matter if its the case of a foreign or Chinese mum) they need to have the official health check up book, you can ask the hospital for the details of where to get this. You give this check up book to your hospital and they use it after the birth to make the birth Certificate, no check up book no birth certificate, so best to get that well before the birth, but you can do it after as well, just means you will wait a while for the birth certificate and its a much bigger hassle.

To get this Health check up book Chinese/Chinese couples needs a 许生证 If they don't have this (This is the permission to have a baby permit that will later also be used to put the baby on the family Hukou.) then the baby will not get a birth certificate.

If you can't get a permission to have a baby then as you are a foreigner you can tell them the baby will be put on your passport and they will give you the health check book )after the basic check up) so you can get the birth certificate, but not chance of a hukou for the baby.

As a baby born to a Chinese mum the kids is automatically Chinese, but if you can't get the Permission to give birth Permit the kid wont get a Hukou or later a Chinese passport. So in your case as you don't want your child to have your passport then you will need to get a 许生证

If you change your mind about getting the baby a foreign passport...then...As a Chinese your baby doesn't need a visa and if you want to take the baby out of China you can get your countries passport for him/her and get an exit permit to allow them out and back in.

@JanJal I agree with everything laotou said. This was my experience when my wife had a baby almost two years ago in Kunming.

@laotou What's the advantage/purpose of adding my wife to my residence permit at the local PSB?

@baiyuxiang
I had to add my wife to my residence, so we could get the Panlong permission to have a kid or something document, that's required by our hospital, so my wife can give birth there.

As for schools - you're kids will still be considered "migrant" kids - so be careful when you try to put them into pre-school, primary school, etc. The schools aren't as noticeably segregated as they used to be - but it's still overtly apparent.

My daughter's class (the bottom of the rung) is full of kids who don't do their homework, a small group ran away to go live in a hotel for a few weeks before the cops finally tracked them down (truancy cops?). I wan't paying close enough attention - so now she's kind of stuck - the first year was really tough on her. The kids in her class behaved like miniature gangsters. Fortunately, she knows her dad will protect her and she's finally made it past that traumatic time in life.

Now on to the next melodrama.

I read news from 2012, that Chinese government had then changed regulations so that migrant workers can get birth permit in the city where they work, not having to go back to their home town. If I understand this news correctly, a proxy in the home town can be used to do the paperwork there.

Link: europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/03/content_15981914.htm

Laotou: if your kid is in school now, I guess the case predates 2012?

@janjal
I have multiple kids. Some predate the 2012 law - but my kids are also US citizens - and I'm a foreign expert - so we are supposed to receive preferential treatment (like VIP). I've never had to use the foreign expert gorilla in the room...yet, but came close when the Panlong school district tried to push my kids into the school designated for migrant kids AND the school head wanted me to pay ¥25k per kid - that's a gorilla moment.

The way he tried to pass off the tuition fee was just all too slimy - so I actually had to go back to the Panlong school district and "encourage" them to try harder to get my kids into at least a normal city school, close to my home. They had me write a letter (basically, so they could blame me for the special treatment) and all was good again.

Although the law is your kids can go to school here - HOW it's practiced and implemented may not be as you envisioned. There's a waiting list and there are definitely higher end schools and classes. Nothing new there.

As for police registration - my wife is my dependent, so we're in reversed roles. I have to register her. Strangely, we didn't do it for our youngest - but the bun in the oven required it. Seems something's new. Same hospital.

Also - to get your kid into pre-school, etc - it will help if you own real estate (as opposed to renting) as preference is given to real-estate owning residents, then to renters, and migrants are on the bottom of that list, for preferential schools, although our gate guard seems to have the system down pat - her kids went to a higher ranked school than mine - but their kids can't go to Kunming City High schools - they have to return home or enroll in trade schools.

AND that brings me to the issue of citizenship benefits. As a Chinese citizen, your future child must compete with every other Chinese student fairly - to get into better high schools and better universities.

As foreign students - they can get preferential treatment - if you pay for it. They don't need super high college entrance exams as they can simply apply as foreign students (with native level Chinese communication schools).

For pre-school - plan at least 1-2 years in advance. Same for primary and middle schools, especially if you live inside the second ring road and want to go to inner-city schools.

As for migrant worker things - dunno about that - we're not in that category. We're just occasionally treated as though we're in that category, by lazy government employees - and that's the same all over the world.