We had a kid in Zollikerberg Spital (super hospital, great experience, would totally recommend it) and yesterday we received the kid's birth certificate. We also got back our marriage certificate.. BUT, they did not send us back me & my wife's birth certificates. Is that normal, or an oversight?
thanks
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Congratulations
Swiss and German certificates are simple stamped copies of register entries, they are cheap and have a shelf life.
If the hospital insist on keeping your certificates, explain they are expensive and difficult to get as they are surposed to last a lifetime, and if they need one for their records, then please photocopy them and give the originals back.
Give them a call, they are probably tucked in someone's "pending" tray.
Ho hum.
Just sucks cuz we're canadian and we have to deal with a mountain of shit with the canadian embassy to get him his passport -- because we don't know a swiss medical doctor for 2 years (or dentist or police officer) so we have to go get a bunch of crap notarized and blah blah blech. It's a nightmare, and I was just hoping that only one country would be difficult :P
When we were gathering paper work to get our baby registered it said we had to have a copy of our birth certificates that were less than 6 months old so we had to order and ay for these from the UK. They wouldn't accept our original birth certificates - no ide the logic behind this. But we still got the copies back
We had to reorder our birth certs for the 6month rule too (SUCH A STUPID RULE). For my UK birth certificate I don't really care, it was suuper easy and cheap, did it on the internet. But for my wife's birth certificate from Quebec, it was as complicated as you'd expect - Canadian over-beauocracy compounded by French-style backwardness, and expensive to boot... so that's the one we want back. Good Lord, please let me never ever have to deal with Quebec ever again, for anything. Please. Seriously if I ever get married again, all women born in Quebec are automatically disqualified.
Now i'm drowning in a sea of paperwork trying to get my son citizenship (any will do but canadian is what he'll get). Today we tried to do photos (70CHF! hope they work), loads of fun with a 4-week-old with zero neck control... tomorrow I have to go spend hours in the notary office because thanks to stupid @#$@ing canadian passport rules, I have to have his application guaranteed -- and there's no medical doctor or lawyer or judge or mayor in Zurich that has known me for 2+ years... oh and this will cost another 60CHF or so. Hate hate hate.
I'm just kranky because i have a cold.
No wonder you are grumpy!
But anyway we didn't opt in for anything regards 30CHF to send them back we just got them back
I will double check with my husband though later as he sorted it all out but I am pretty sure we didn't have to pay 30CHF to have OUR birth certificates returned, that's just crazy they are your birth certificates for crying out loud
Wrong - they were going to be stored in the archives. We had to pay a similar amount per document for them to walk to the photocopier and make copies right there and then in front of us, then sign and stamp them... Grrrrr!
grr.
I got photos of my one month old at the local photo shop in Stäfa. It took ages because he said the babies eyes had to be open and mouth closed. It took a while but still only cost 30CHF.
And then you have to go through the whole photo trauma again for the B-permit. You can't use your photos because they want to do the new biometric ones.
I sent all the required documents via registered post to the Australian Embassy in London to get the Citizenship certificate. They all came back to me OK. For the passport application I did a drive to the Australian Embassy in Geneva (from Zürich) because they have to see you in person. That was a long day with a 6wk old baby in the car, heavy fog on the way down and peak hour traffic home.
Now I have to take the B-permit, passport and insurance papers to our local Gemeinde so they can note that everything has been completed.
It seems like a headache when you start and I wish I had a simple checklist for both non-EU parents like: at 7-8 months pregnant: get new birth certificates of parents and marriage certificate (these cannot be more than 6 months old at step 2); at birth: apply for 'international' birth certificate through hospital or with local Gemeinde, ensure you get your original certificates back; at 2-4 weeks: get passport photo of baby with eyes open, mouth closed (or as close as you can get); and contact insurance company for new cover at 3-5 weeks: book in appointment for B-permit based on letter from Gemeinde (another photo op for baby to have eyes open, mouth closed and looking at small camera in ceiling. Tip: take a squeaky toy or rattle) (use certificates from step 1) at 4 weeks: have first appointment with your new Kinderartz with baby birth book given to you by the hospital at 4-6 weeks: apply for Citizenship of your home country (your baby is not a citizen in Switzerland) (get Ob/Gyn to be guarantor) at 6-8 weeks: apply for Passport of your home country (get Kinderartz to be guarantor) at 8-12 weeks: take babies new B-permit, passport and basic insurance letter to Gemeinde (must be done by 3 months)
In such cases I write an email or letter to the management and explain why I think this is not correct. Most of the times they are quite reasonable and offer an arrangement of fee cancellation or explain their actions in a more logical way, than some administrative clerk is capable of.
Congratulations to you and your little one
I've started the process for my kid to get canadian citizenship (& passport), but I haven't done the B-permit thing ... guess I should pop down to my gemeindehause and ask what the next steps there are... what's the letter you're talking about? I have the international birth certificate...
Re this part "apply for Passport of your home country (get Kinderartz to be guarantor)" ... well not if you're canadian - thanks to unbelievably stupid process, the kinderartz has to have known ME the dad for 2 years at least. Yeah right! Grrrr
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One thing I forgot on my list is to notify your house rental company, if applicable, that you have an addition to the family. I don't know if it is more to do with insurance or that it is very difficult to kick out a family renting a house, but it is what my local german teacher said to do.
There is a solution. The Canadian govt has a form PPT 132 which is a statutory declaration in lieu of a guarantor. You need to contact your local embassy for a copy of this form. I could not find it online and your govt web site says to do that. See this: http://www.ppt.gc.ca/support/faq.aspx?lang=eng&id=04423
Yeah my home is owned by a single guy who already knows we have the kid Haven't gotten anything from the gemeinde so i'll pop over there on monday and introduce the squirt...
Yeah, I did have to do the PPT 132 but it was a right pain in the rear: the notary looked at it and said "well i can't fill this form out, i'm not allowed, i'll call them and ask what they want" ... and of course even though it was 2pm on a tuesday, the embassy was closed with an answering machine saying "we're open from 1pm to 5pm". Yeah, sure you are... anyways he filled out stuffo n the back, in german. And if the CDN embassy complains about it, they are going to get a boatload of STFU -- i've had it with stupid canadian forms like PPT 132 -- what is the point?! soooo useless.
/sigh, still venting i guess... but thx for your help