Single-Lgbt
Overseas Surrogacy for Unmarried Children Returning to Taiwan
This article mainly aims to share detailed procedures for partners planning overseas surrogacy, specifically how to obtain a Taiwanese ID number for a child born abroad. Going forward, I will also share more parenting stories here, as the arrival of this child has brought me many new experiences and personal growth outside of work.
Process for Overseas Surrogacy Children Returning to Taiwan:
Apply for the child’s foreign passport
Document authentication at the foreign consulate
Apply for the child’s tourist visa through the consulate
Conduct a parentage (DNA) test in Taiwan
Update vaccination records at the local health center
Register the child at the household registration office
Apply for residency at the National Immigration Agency
Complete household registration
After six months of registration, add the child to health insurance
Additional Note for Couples Seeking Adoption Registration:
Even with legal assistance, here’s a general overview of the process we followed:
Appoint a lawyer
Prepare documents and petitions (birth certificate, biological parents’ consent for adoption, health check reports, employment proof, police clearance, and household registry)
Social worker visit
Court appearance
Wait for judgment and certified judgment documents
Register the adoption at the household registration office
After the Legislative Yuan passed the Implementation Act of Judicial Interpretation No. 748 in 2019, same-sex couples can marry in Taiwan and enjoy the same legal rights as opposite-sex couples. While some legal details, like joint adoption for same-sex couples, remain under development, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to implement same-sex marriage.
Returning to Taiwan: Step-by-Step Process
1. Foreign Passport Application:
After the baby’s initial observation in the hospital, we brought the child home and applied for a passport at the passport center using the birth certificate and parents’ passports. The passport is mailed to the residence once processed.
2. Document Authentication at the Foreign Consulate:
Documents must first be certified by the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Mother’s single status certificate (or proof of never having been married)
Baby’s birth certificate
These documents are translated into English, certified by the foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then translated into Chinese. The English, Chinese, and original documents are then submitted to the consulate for authentication.
Additional documents for consulate authentication include:
Mother’s ID and passport
Child’s foreign passport
Father’s ROC passport
Father’s household registration transcript in Taiwan
Parentage recognition and consent forms
Mother’s Chinese name declaration
Residency consent forms
Certification typically takes about a week.
3. Tourist Visa Application:
The mother applies for the child’s tourist visa at the consulate. As the child is a minor, the mother’s assistance is required. The visa is usually valid for 30–45 days.
4. Parentage (DNA) Test in Taiwan:
After returning to Taiwan, a DNA test is conducted at a certified lab (we used National Taiwan University Hospital), taking about 10 working days.
5. Vaccination Record Update:
Translate the baby’s overseas vaccination pages into Chinese and update them at a local health center.
6. Household Registration:
Register parentage at the local household registration office using consulate-certified documents and DNA test results. The child’s foreign passport name is recorded in the household registry.
7. Residency Application:
Submit all documents to the National Immigration Agency, including:
Residency application form with photo
Health check or vaccination proof
Foreign birth certificate
Passports
Household registration showing parentage recognition
Residency consent forms
After about 10 working days, a residency certificate is issued.
8. Household Registration Completion:
With the residency certificate, complete household registration. For children born overseas, health insurance can be added after six months of registration.
For single parents, this completes the process. For same-sex couples like us, this only completes half of the steps, as additional adoption registration is needed.
Adoption Judgment and Registration
In law, marriage and parent-child relationships are treated separately. Parentage recognition allows a biological father to legally claim his child. However, my partner, having no blood relation to the child, cannot assume legal rights and responsibilities for the child even as a caregiver. Therefore, after completing the household registration for the child, we began the process of adoption registration.
Adoption establishes a legal parent-child relationship without blood relation and requires a court judgment. We enlisted the help of Attorney Chen Hong-Yuan from Ming-Yi Heng-De Law Firm to assist us with the process.
明益恆德 - 陳鴻元律師
Appointing a Lawyer
Because the process involves a court judgment, we engaged Attorney Chen Hong-Yuan to ensure everything went smoothly and to help us organize and prepare the necessary documents. With extensive experience in family law cases, Attorney Chen was very familiar with adoption procedures. Once the power of attorney was signed, he immediately provided us with a checklist of required documents.
Document Preparation and Petition
Required documents included:
Birth certificate
Biological parents’ consent for adoption
Adopter’s health check report, employment certificate, police clearance
Household registration transcript
Most of these documents were relatively straightforward to prepare, requiring visits to a few offices. The most complicated was the biological parents’ consent for adoption, because the birth mother is a foreign national. Although she had come to Taiwan for parentage recognition, this step was overlooked at that time. With the court’s approval, we invited her to Taiwan again to sign the consent at a notary office.
(If the birth mother is in Taiwan during parentage recognition, the adoption consent can be handled simultaneously.)
The petition itself was prepared professionally by Attorney Chen.
Social Worker Home Visit
After submitting the petition, the court coordinates a home visit by a social worker. The visit assesses the home environment for raising the child, observes interactions between the adopters and the child, and interviews all household members to understand the support system. The social worker then prepares a report for the court.
Court Appearance
Once the court schedules the hearing, we attended with our child. The court officer primarily confirmed the intentions of the birth parents and adopters and asked a few simple questions. The experience can vary slightly depending on the officer.
Waiting for Judgment and Certified Judgment
Afterward, we waited for the court judgment to be mailed. Once 10 days passed without objection, we received the certified judgment. With these documents, we completed the adoption registration at the household registration office. At that moment, the child’s record officially showed two fathers!
Originally, we estimated the adoption process would take 8–10 months. However, we submitted the petition in July and completed everything by the end of November. This efficiency was largely thanks to thorough document preparation and Attorney Chen’s high-quality support.
Honestly, the moment the registration was completed at the household registration office was very emotional. Seeing two fathers listed on the child’s record (confirmed that the ID card also reflects both fathers) and successfully adding the child to our company’s health and group insurance felt like a huge milestone. In 2023, we spent a lot of time handling the child’s legal status. Now that the identity issues are resolved, the next focus will likely be on education.
戶口名簿兩個父親
If you have any questions about the detailed process shared above, feel free to leave a comment below, and I will respond as soon as I can!
