Having Children in Taiwan ~ Help!

[nibo]

So, I'm looking for some advice. My wife (Canadian) and I (American) got married about a year and a half ago and are currently living and working as English Teachers in Taiwan. We're at that age where we're thinking about starting a family, but don't know if that's a good idea while we're here. Everything we can see says that citizenship is an odd thing to figure out if you're not both on the child's birth certificate. Does anyone know who gets put on a Taiwanese birth certificate? We have a legal Canadian marriage, but would be trying to put two women on a certificate in a country that doesn't have any kind of legal recognition for our marriage. Is that possible?

[piwackit]

I can't say for certain but I can share my experience with you. I'm a birth doula and recently had clients that were in Taiwan for the birth of their second child. They were not married and their first child was born in Bangkok. The father was listed on that birth certificate. After the birth in Taiwan, they presented a document of verification, from the French Embassy, that he was indeed the father. After a lot of calling around it was decided that there was no way he could be listed on the birth certificate as the had no proof of marriage.

You two obviously have a marriage certificate so maybe it'll be different for you.

[EigerMarcus]

My understanding is that you would only be able to have the birth mother listed on the birth certificate in your situation. It is not an issue of whether the Cdn marriage is recognized or not per se but whether you comply with/satisfy the Taiwanese laws and regulations.

This is still a developing area of the law in many countries and parts of the law are still developing and maturing in leading countries: for example, how the law considers donor and surrogacy agreements and waivers now in Canada versus a number of years ago has changed.