HK passport for baby (Chinese descendent)

[Sophie8uk]

Not sure the original post is showing up properly so reposting here:
Our baby will be born in HK to parents with British citizenship. The baby will be 1/4 Chinese by ethnicity (grandmother is Chinese). Per the Nationality Law, if a person is born in HK and has Chinese descent, they are considered a Chinese national - believe this should make her eligible for a Hong Kong passport. Has anyone successfully done this and if so what was the process? Do you have to show any proof of Chinese descent at birth certificate/registration stage or only at HK passport application stage? Appreciate any help on this! Thanks

[waiming]

Yes we had exactly this situation. The assessment is made at the time you register the birth.

When we registered our baby's birth, we proved her 1/4 Chinese ethnicity by presenting the parent's birth certificate and the grandparent's HKSAR passport.

The situation was rare enough that the staff member had to make telephone calls to verify the rules.

In the end, the baby was verified to be a Chinese citizen and HK permanent resident (even though neither parent was a Chinese citizen nor a HK permanent resident). It says so on the birth certificate: "permanent resident status established under paragraph 2(a)" (where 2(a) means Chinese citizen born in Hong Kong).

Once you have a birth certificate that is so endorsed, you can then use it to get a HKSAR passport.

If the grandmother is not a Chinese citizen (or you cannot prove that she is), you'll have to try to use other evidence of her ethnicity ... photographs, a Chinese name, evidence of the grandmother's ancestry etc. Or if she's alive and in Hong Kong, you could perhaps bring her with you when you register the birth (that was our backup strategy since in our case the grandparent looks and sounds obviously Chinese).

Hope that helps!

[Sophie8uk]

@waiming Thank you so much - that is super helpful! We'll have all the docs prepared when we go to register her birth then