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| The photo page of a baby's US passport. Image source. |
I wrote this when I was 27 weeks pregnant, but now I have even more feelings about it, now that the US consulate in Chengdu has closed. (In retaliation for the US government forcing the Chinese consulate in Houston to close, because of political reasons I didn't totally follow.) Closed as in, permanently closed- they had to pack up everything and move out, and Chinese authorities took control of the building. It's so NOT COOL how the US president is playing around with provoking China for political reasons, because this stuff affects the actual lives of actual Americans who live in China. When my son was born, I had to take him to the US consulate in Shanghai to apply for his US citizenship and US passport. There must be pregnant American women in Chengdu who are now faced with the problem of how to get their baby's passport and proof of US citizenship. This stuff affects real people.
Vote. Vote Trump out.
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I'm a US citizen, my husband is a Chinese citizen, and we live in Shanghai, China. So... what kind of citizenship will our baby have?
Well from the US side, baby can be a US citizen because I am. We just need to fill out form "FS-240 Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (CRBA)" and baby will get a US passport.
From the China side: Well China doesn't do dual citizenship. But since baby's daddy is Chinese, China considers baby to be a Chinese citizen. So... they're both... but you can't be both... so... how does that work?
Long-term, we want to move to the US, and baby would be better off being a US citizen than a Chinese citizen. But we can't just say "no thank you" to the Chinese citizenship; baby gets it automatically, and it seems to me like it's going to be way more trouble than it's worth.
Because, get this: Baby will not be eligible to get a Chinese visa in their US passport. Because, the reasoning goes, you are a Chinese citizen, it doesn't make sense to issue a Chinese visa. But... when you enter or leave the country, you have to show a Chinese passport or a Chinese visa. Baby can't get a Chinese passport because they'll already have a US passport and you can't have both. So how is this supposed to work?
Well. Instead of a Chinese visa, you apply for an "entry-exit document." This is valid for 3 months and allows you to leave and re-enter China 1 time.
Or, if you're outside of China, you can go to a Chinese embassy and apply for a "travel document", which is valid for 2 years and allows you to enter and leave China as many times as you want.
From the research I've done so far, it seems like it's more of a pain to get these "entry-exit documents" or "travel documents" than it would be to get a visa. Like, both of the parents and the baby have to be present at the immigration office... whereas for a visa, anyone can take your documents and just drop them off there for you.
So let's say we don't want to do all that, and we want to just renounce the Chinese citizenship instead. Wow, yes, that would be much easier, then baby is just a regular US citizen and we don't have to be confused about which rules apply in this *gray area*.
Well... renouncing Chinese citizenship is also a huge pain. I haven't done research to find out what documents we need, but I know we would have to go to my husband's hometown (can't do it in Shanghai because he's not from here) and probably in each city the rules are different (because China), and apparently it can take up to 2 years.
Anyway, Hendrix and I are going to have to figure all this stuff out, for our baby. Baby is too little to understand any of it; we have to do all the work. And we're going to do it, and be successful, and baby won't have to worry about any of this, everything will be fine.
But... our poor child, who needs all this paperwork and bureaucracy, just because they are born as an immigrant. Our little baby, who just wants to live and grow and learn how to be a person, a little bundle of love who doesn't know anything about countries and borders and governments and passports.
Why is everything so complicated, just because baby is born in an immigrant family? I want to say "it's not fair" but I guess it would be more accurate to call this an example of privilege. If you are born as a citizen of the country you live in, and your parents are also citizens, then all of this is easy. I never even had a passport until I was in college; I never needed one before. But here in China we have immigrant moms with their immigrant babies, asking each other "how do I get my baby to open his eyes so we can take a good enough passport photo?" And trying to figure out what paperwork they need so they can take their child to another country to see their grandparents for the first time. And asking each other if it's a good idea to take a 6-week-old baby on a 12-hour flight. All things that you would never even think about if you're a citizen and everyone in your family is a citizen. That's privilege.
We'll handle it. We'll figure everything out. But it kind of sucks how hard this is going to be, just because we are an immigrant family.
----------------------------
Related:
This Is the Stuff That Happens to Us Immigrants
Feminism 101: Privilege
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I'm a US citizen, my husband is a Chinese citizen, and we live in Shanghai, China. So... what kind of citizenship will our baby have?
Well from the US side, baby can be a US citizen because I am. We just need to fill out form "FS-240 Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (CRBA)" and baby will get a US passport.
From the China side: Well China doesn't do dual citizenship. But since baby's daddy is Chinese, China considers baby to be a Chinese citizen. So... they're both... but you can't be both... so... how does that work?
Long-term, we want to move to the US, and baby would be better off being a US citizen than a Chinese citizen. But we can't just say "no thank you" to the Chinese citizenship; baby gets it automatically, and it seems to me like it's going to be way more trouble than it's worth.
Because, get this: Baby will not be eligible to get a Chinese visa in their US passport. Because, the reasoning goes, you are a Chinese citizen, it doesn't make sense to issue a Chinese visa. But... when you enter or leave the country, you have to show a Chinese passport or a Chinese visa. Baby can't get a Chinese passport because they'll already have a US passport and you can't have both. So how is this supposed to work?
Well. Instead of a Chinese visa, you apply for an "entry-exit document." This is valid for 3 months and allows you to leave and re-enter China 1 time.
Or, if you're outside of China, you can go to a Chinese embassy and apply for a "travel document", which is valid for 2 years and allows you to enter and leave China as many times as you want.
From the research I've done so far, it seems like it's more of a pain to get these "entry-exit documents" or "travel documents" than it would be to get a visa. Like, both of the parents and the baby have to be present at the immigration office... whereas for a visa, anyone can take your documents and just drop them off there for you.
So let's say we don't want to do all that, and we want to just renounce the Chinese citizenship instead. Wow, yes, that would be much easier, then baby is just a regular US citizen and we don't have to be confused about which rules apply in this *gray area*.
Well... renouncing Chinese citizenship is also a huge pain. I haven't done research to find out what documents we need, but I know we would have to go to my husband's hometown (can't do it in Shanghai because he's not from here) and probably in each city the rules are different (because China), and apparently it can take up to 2 years.
Anyway, Hendrix and I are going to have to figure all this stuff out, for our baby. Baby is too little to understand any of it; we have to do all the work. And we're going to do it, and be successful, and baby won't have to worry about any of this, everything will be fine.
But... our poor child, who needs all this paperwork and bureaucracy, just because they are born as an immigrant. Our little baby, who just wants to live and grow and learn how to be a person, a little bundle of love who doesn't know anything about countries and borders and governments and passports.
Why is everything so complicated, just because baby is born in an immigrant family? I want to say "it's not fair" but I guess it would be more accurate to call this an example of privilege. If you are born as a citizen of the country you live in, and your parents are also citizens, then all of this is easy. I never even had a passport until I was in college; I never needed one before. But here in China we have immigrant moms with their immigrant babies, asking each other "how do I get my baby to open his eyes so we can take a good enough passport photo?" And trying to figure out what paperwork they need so they can take their child to another country to see their grandparents for the first time. And asking each other if it's a good idea to take a 6-week-old baby on a 12-hour flight. All things that you would never even think about if you're a citizen and everyone in your family is a citizen. That's privilege.
We'll handle it. We'll figure everything out. But it kind of sucks how hard this is going to be, just because we are an immigrant family.
----------------------------
Related:
This Is the Stuff That Happens to Us Immigrants
Feminism 101: Privilege
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