Birth Permit APPROVED !!!

After we first settled in, the first thing we did was to look for a hospital where our little Ong will first see the world. We ran thru quite a few hospitals and finally we settled on one that is not too far away. We set a date and happily we went to register for pre-natal check.

To our horror, we were asked to produce birth permit (准生证）si mi lay eh ???!!! Wa pianz... give birth also must have permit... f#$#$ need to get permit or not ??!!! As we move to other hospitals we were asked for the same thing. Finally we realised the implication of the matter after a kind nurse explained it to us. Without the permit, there will be no pre-natal checks, and after child birth, birth certificate will not be issued... he would be something like a wanderer without identity. Singapore embassy needs birth certificate to register for citizenship.

So as we moved around asking around how to get it done. We got one recommendation. Go back to Juan's hometown and apply from there. Should be the easiest way . So at the first possible moment we went to her hometown at the same time paid her family a visit. Hitting 2 birds with one stone. Happily we went back and went to their town council.

We went to the Birth Planing department where we were asked a few questions. Are you married ? Is your husband from here ? Well... we did not made thru the second question. Oh since you are married away, you should apply from your husband side. ??!! Husband from Singapore nay.. and singapore dun issue birth permit ??!! Well.. it is out of our jurdistiction. And we were sent away. What now ??

We stayed for a few more days before making our way back to shanghai and Juan starting to call all of her friends whom had gave birth in Shanghai before to ask them for clues. And finally we landed one important lead. There is this Non Shanghainese Birth Planning Department in Shanghai and we should make enquiries there. We found that before we can proceed further, we must apply for tempory resident permit for Juan, and to do that we must produce documents that justify her pressence in Shanghai. Once you get that approval, there is this big registration centre where your application is approved and an "ID card" will be issued to you. With that ID Card, we made our way to the Birth Planning Department.

There we got our Birth Permit approved after filling in several forms and answering several questions. We were then issued with a permit and a Pre-natal health check book. The book had to be initialised with an initial medical checkup at an authorised hospital. Purpose is that, armed with the book you can now go to any hospital of our choice for prenatal checks and with the permit, we are authorised legally to give birth and a birth certificate will be issued for the birth.

It had been a time consuming process trying to go thru all this legal web try to get all the documents in place. It feels like playing dungeon and dragon real life, getting all the clues to get the items and finally achieving the mission objective.

Glad all this is over. Now we look forward to a healthy pregnancy and child birth.

p.s. at the Shanghai Birth Control Department, we had a surprised after we went thru the main gate. There is this MIG21(if i am correct) on display. Maybe they are encouraging pple to join the air force ?? hehe...