Rules for Surname in Hong Kong

S

Scudder

New member
Today we went to get our baby's birth certificate in HK and they insist that the Baby's surname be the same as the fathers. In India where we come from, the baby's surname is the fathers first name and the fathers surname is usually the middle name of the baby.

To illustrate, if the father's name were to be George Mathew and the baby's first name is Benjamin, then his full name should be Benjamin Mathew George.

However the official aren't allowing any change of surname and insist that it be Mathew i.e. same as the fathers.

We came off w/o completing the registration as this pretty much blindsided us. Does anyone know anyway to tackle this? We saw an old thread that seemed to offer a suggestion and will be going with that unless someone else can offer us some more advice.

http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread157177.html

Continuing with the illustration, we are thinking of just giving in his Given names as Benjamin Mathew but then again the immigration officials said the name would be MATHEW, Benjamin Mathew.

However with reference to the previous thread, looks like we can take the birth certificate and then get a passport with the name we want and then apply for a visa which should give us the name we want...

Anyone who has faced this situation before, please do help. thanks a lot!
 
Hi - May I add a related question to this thread.

As father, my last name is triple-barrelled (i.e. ABC-DEF-GHI) due to the cultural norm where my parents come from.

I want my son (to be born next month) to have his last name simplified to just the first part of my last name (i.e. ABC)

I've called HK Immigration with the expected "no, no, no"s described in other threads on Geobaby. I am also checking with local lawyers, but no solutions yet.

I'm sure there is a way. But right now, the only process I can find is the baby's birth certificate takes my last name per the usual process, and after this I apply for a legal name change for the baby.

Anyone who has prior experience of another way, please share!

Thanks v much.
 
Very simple. you can use the alias option in the birth certificate and get the passport done with whatever last name you want.
 
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