Background

My daughter returned to China this May, and we used that opportunity to apply for her Shanghai hukou. I’m writing down the general process and some important points to keep in mind, in case it helps other parents planning to do the same.

Prerequisites:

  • Neither parent was returning to China, so we authorized the grandmother to register the child’s hukou on our behalf, including updating both parents’ marital status in their hukou booklets from single to married
  • The parents were married in the U.S.; we did not register the marriage in China.
  • This was my daughter’s first trip back to China, and both her U.S. passport and Travel Document were blank with no prior records.

Preparation

Documents to prepare:

What needed to be prepared in the U.S.:

  1. The child’s Travel Document
  2. The child’s U.S. passport (for returning to the U.S.)
  3. Triple authentication for the child’s birth certificate
  4. Triple authentication for the marriage certificate (we were married in the U.S. and did not register the marriage in China)
  5. The parents’ original passports (either the originals, or triple authentication for the full passport, including blank pages)
  6. Triple authentication for the authorization letter (since neither parent was returning to China, we authorized the grandmother to register the child’s hukou on our behalf, including updating both parents’ marital status in their hukou booklets from single to married)

What needed to be prepared in China:

  1. Both parents’ hukou booklets and ID cards
  2. The authorized person’s (grandmother’s) hukou booklet and ID card
  3. Chinese translations of all triple-authenticated documents brought back from the U.S.

Triple authentication and translation in China:

I won’t go into detail on the steps for triple authentication here; you can refer to the article on this site.

One reminder: consular authentication must be handled through the consulate with jurisdiction over the state where the document was issued. Our daughter’s birth certificate was issued in Washington State, and our marriage certificate was issued in Las Vegas. We originally thought we would need to go through San Francisco for one and Los Angeles for the other, but later found out that Las Vegas also falls under the San Francisco consulate’s jurisdiction, which was very fortunate.

After bringing the triple-authenticated documents back to China, before submitting them, you must have them translated by one of the designated translation agencies. There were several options. The agency my father used charged ￥120/page, though I’m not sure whether that is the standard rate.

Can the hukou registration be done if the parents are not present?

Short answer: yes.

My parents asked about this several times at the neighborhood police station, and the final answer they got was that both parents could be absent, but the passports absolutely had to be there—either the original passports, or triple authentication of every page of the full passports. Even worse, I had just renewed my passport, so both the old and new passports would have needed authentication. Anyone who has gone through triple authentication knows the fees are charged per stamp. If every page needs to be stamped, then the first, second, and third authentication steps all cost money. A rough estimate for triple authentication of three full passports would have been about US$1,000–2,000. So in the end, we had no choice but to bring the original passports back to China.

Shanghai’s requirements for hukou registration for babies born abroad

These were the requirements for registering hukou for a child born overseas that we got back from the police station in February 2019. There are probably newer requirements now.

Before and after the application

Which parent’s hukou the child follows:

Either parent is fine—the child can be registered under either parent’s hukou booklet—but you need to go to the police station that handles the relevant household registration. Also, since my husband and I did not register our marriage in China, before applying for the hukou, my mother first had to help us update the marital status in each of our hukou booklets from single to married.

Appointment:

When my parents went to ask for information in February and March of this year, Shanghai’s requirement was that the child had to live in China for at least 3 months before a hukou application could be submitted. My daughter returned to China in early May. After we had gathered all the documents, my father went to the police station again to review everything with the staff and make sure the paperwork was complete, then planned for us to formally apply in August. But one day in June, my father had a sudden thought and went back to ask again, only to find that the requirement to live in China for 3 months before applying had been canceled—the child could apply at any time!!! However, there was now an appointment requirement, and at that time appointments were already booked out to mid-September!!! Fortunately, because my parents had already gone to both the neighborhood police station and the district police station many times for this matter, the staff member clearly remembered them and realized the delay had been caused by the policy change. Taking that into account, he made a special exception and arranged an appointment for them the following week.

This is also a reminder for parents: policies in China can change very quickly, so you really need to keep checking for updates.

On the day of the application

My mother went alone that day. According to her, she stayed in that small room for a full 4 hours, overwhelmed the whole time, signing all kinds of paperwork and writing statements (if even one character was written incorrectly, the whole statement had to be rewritten). And because neither my husband nor I had returned to China, there were many additional authorization statements required, so the workload was especially heavy.

After the application:

After all the procedures are completed, the staff will give you a number that you can use to log into the relevant system and check the status. The official processing time given was 45 business days, but in the end we were notified to pick up the hukou booklet in about 30 days.

Summary:

My parents absolutely deserve the most credit for successfully getting my daughter’s hukou registered this time. To figure out the relevant policy requirements and required documents—especially the question of how to handle the application when the child’s parents were not returning to China—they visited the neighborhood police station and district police station more than 10 times and made countless phone calls to the staff. That was also my biggest takeaway from this experience: you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must go to the police station that handles your own household registration and confirm every requirement clearly. And because policies change quickly, if some time passes before you actually apply, you must go ask again.

Finally, I wish every parent who meets the requirements and wants to register a hukou for their child success.