Zippedee do dah, zippedee day, my oh my, what a fabulous day!! All the paperwork has finally been processed and Jamie has been issued with citizenship and his first Australian passport. Despite being born here, Jamie is not eligible to be a Chinese citizen - so for the first month of his life he was technically stateless, as he wasn't yet an Australian either.
It has been a long drawn out affair, with numerous trips over to Puxi where the Australian Consulate offices are. Before we could apply for his passport he had to become an Australian Citizen by Descent. This involved completing a detailed form, and getting a non-related Australian citizen from a prescribed list of professions to declare that they had known him for at least 12 months… given he was only 3 weeks old, that was a little tricky. Obviously happens all the time, but you’d think that an option of knowing from birth would be on the form too! Also photos, evidence of our marriage, evidence that one of us was definitely an Australian, all had to be included too.
One good thing was that his Chinese birth certificate is in both English and Chinese, so a translation wasn’t required! This also meant that we were able to check what was written when it was issued – imagine if we hadn’t been able to read it, and in 10 years time or something had found that they had said he was female, or had reversed the order of Mike and me as Dad and Mum!
Dad and I took Jamie in to apply for his Citizenship at the Visa office where they issue all kinds of visas to Australia, including standard travel or business visas, and although it was relatively quick waiting times, we didn’t feel special to be Australian already, in fact we were told we were in the wrong spot when we showed our Australian Passports!! It was good having Dad with me to apply for Jamie’s citizenship, as when we put in the application he was only 3 weeks old, and it was good to have the help with the pram, and it was great to have been able to leave Ellie with Mum at home.
Picking up the certificate of his citizenship was not as easy, as I went alone on the train, with both kids, so the pram well loaded up!! The good news was that the certificate was there, when they said it would be and there was not too much negotiation required with the pram. Of course, there are no passport applications at the Visa office, so although you would think that other people who had received citizenship would also need to now apply for a passport, we needed to trek on over to the Consulate to collect an application form. No tiny task with a heavy, fully loaded pram, especially when you consider that Shanghai isn’t really wheelchair friendly. Even though I had everything with me, I couldn’t submit the passport application on the same day as again you need to have a photo endorsed and a non-relative complete a section on the form to declare that Jamie is who we say he is!! So home we went, in a taxi - not quite straightforward as the pram didn't fit in the first taxi, so had to transfer kids between taxis and then all the paraphernalia in the middle of a busy driveway. I'm sure the two taxi drivers were thinking Crazy Taitai!!
A few days later, after completing the form, I headed back to the Consulate to submit the form. Fortunately, a friend down the block had offered to mind Ellie while I did it, and fortunately for her, I managed to get Ellie down for a nap (albeit in the pram) before I left! I carried Jamie in the Baby Bjorn, and it was the easiest attempt yet!! There and back on a train, didn’t have to worry about finding down escalators – easy easy easy!! Submitted the form, and was thrilled when they said that it was all fine, and the passport would be ready to be collected in 2 weeks!! I had been convinced that something trivial would cause it to be rejected – when we applied for Ellie’s and my passports back in Australia they were rejected because our witness had signed and gone outside the designated box!!
Then this week, the day Mike finished school for the term we all went into the Consulate to pick up Jamie’s passport!! It was there, waiting for us just like they said!! Now we just have to get his Chinese Visa so he can leave and re-enter China!! The Australian Consulate even acknowledged that we may need a letter from them to apply for his visa to explain how he came to be here without any record of entry – so we got that on the same day!!
Woo hoo!! Jamie is now an Australian with evidence!!
And having his passport means that we have official photo identification for him on his first flight – tomorrow to Beijing!!
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