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Birth Certificate Question

  1. #1
    BabyG is offline Registered User
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    Birth Certificate Question

    Hubby went to the Immigration Dept. yesterday to register our newborn's birth. When he came home, I looked at the certificate and under name: It had my son's first name and middle name only. There was no surname after Daniel Ethan. I called immigration today to double check if there was a mistake or if this was the standard. They said that that is how its done in HK and that the child would automatically take their fathers surname.

    If any of you have their birth registration handy, can you please have a look and tell me if under the heading NAME it only has your child's first and/or middle name? If so, do you think that this will pose a problem in the future in other countries?

    Thank you so much!


  2. #2
    nicolejoy's Avatar
    nicolejoy is offline Registered User
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    Yes, it doesn't state the childs surname on the birth certificate.

    Apparently, it's ok for the child to have either surname (or even hyphenated, I think) on foreign documents, using the HK birth certificate - although for us, we did use the father's surname so didn't run into any problems there. Her Australian citizenship and passport are all in her full name with father's surname. I think there's no problems as long as you use either surname or a hyphenated surname, but I don't have experience with anything other than just father's surname...


  3. #3
    Portia is offline Registered User
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    Yes, that's how the birth certificates for my two children are. I'm not sure why you would need to produce a birth certificate in other countries other than to get a passport, but I can say there was no problem at all with getting a Canadian passport using this format of birth certificate. We used their father's surname for their passports. I would think that your passport would be a more important identification document anyway.


  4. #4
    BabyG is offline Registered User
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    Thank you ladies! I was starting to freak out for a bit. In my country of birth and even in Hubby's they ask for birth certificates for everything. Baptism, getting married etc. etc.


  5. #5
    starbucks2 is offline Registered User
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    Agree with the above, our birth certificates are like that too. My husband and I have different surnames and have given our kids my surname as a middle name and then my husbands as their surname so our certificates are very confusing for people back home as it looks like their surname is the same as mine! So, you can ask for another certificate to be printed which shows all names including the surname. We used the second certificate to apply for the passport so that it was not confusing as to which surname was correct. You could think about having that second certificate printed as well to show all names.


  6. #6
    gpjapan is offline Registered User
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    Hi, from where I come we use husband's first name as the child's surname. I can't use my husband's surname for my child as it would be my fil's name.
    Do you think it is easy to add my husband's first name as child's surname?


  7. #7
    Sazzy is offline Registered User
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    You can also apply for a birth certificate in your home country.


  8. #8
    cassy48 is offline Registered User
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    Mar 2011
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    Maidenhead uk
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    Smile Birth Certificates help required

    Hi, I am trying to get hold of a copy of my son's birth certificate. He was born In The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon many years ago2/2/84. My husband was with the British Army and we had a 2 year tour there. The problem i am having is great dificulty getting a copy of his birth certificate. Is there anybody that would be willing to help me please. I will gladly re-imbuse any costs, If you can help I would be very gratful. Please email if you can help to [email protected].
    Fingers crossed somebody can...


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