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Chinese birth certificate.

Danmairen (510 posts) • 0

Has anyone else had problems with Chinese birth certificates when applying for a foreign passport? Our son was born in Kunming and the best BC they could come up with (after 3 attempts) was one where you still couldn't make out 2 letter in his name. My embassy can't accept an unreadable BC, which unfortunately makes perfect sense.

Do you guys have perfectly legible birth certificates or what? Were we just unlucky or interacted with halfwits at our hospital?

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

I am not trying to be a smart ass here. So forgive me for offering my 2cents.

Is this BC handwritten, if so, have you specifically asked for a printed one.

Remember that 'bu xing' means nothing here, except perhaps 'I don't know', which no one will admit too.
A tactic I have used before (when dealing with admin muppets) is to ask them, 'if they had this difficulty how would they solve the problem? and who would they speak to?'. Then they can show off how smart, resourceful and knowledgeable of the system they are.

If you keep asking the question, in different ways, to different people, you will usually get the answer.
Sympathize with the inconvenience you are causing them (yes I know) and offer to pay any additional cost. If that doesn't work, a big basket of fruit to the Dr/midwife, as a belated thank you, and enlist their help. Did you remember to give the Dr/midwife a hong bao, after the delivery? If not, that may be the cause of your problem.

Danmairen (510 posts) • 0

Nah, everything was fine with the midwife and the doctors/adm. The problem was fitting a foreign name into the standard birth certificate. Our BC is one of those green ones with everything in Chinese and English, but not enough room for the name. I'm wondering if other foreigners with kids here have/had the same problem. Did you get a standard certificate or is there a special one for foreign names that our hospital just didn't know about or could offer?

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

If it is typed, or handwritten, you could offer to write it in for them. Or get them to change the font size for that field, if they can. I have had the problem where the text box is centre justified and the beginning and end of my name are chopped off. See if that can be manipulated.

I know you won't want this, but consider shortening the English language name if it is a long one. You could always change the name again, by notary/public deed, at home, at a later date.

Danmairen (510 posts) • 0

I don't think using a different font -this is assuming they'd even want to give me a new BC almost 2 years in- would do much since his name covers the male/female field and goes way into the date of birth one as well. My consulate told us to get it notarized and legalized but I guess that also means we have to take another trip back to Kunming (gotta love the bureaucracy here), but I'm not sure that even accomplishes anything. The notary public is supposed to translate the document to English, but is he even allowed to write a name he can not truly make out?

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

Try your local notary public first. They may be able to accommodate you. Is he even allowed to translate something he cannot 100% read? TIC, you can only ask. He/she has probably dealt with poor form filling before.

YuantongsiYuantongsi (717 posts) • 0

We have a fairly long name on our daughters BC, handwritten, but it was no real issue. The Notary in Baoshan St notarized it, then the notarized copy (which was all typed, including her name) was sent to Beijing via the Foreign Affairs Department here for legalization.

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