Registering a birth in China

It depends on where you are going to deliver a baby. Normally, if the pregnant woman choose to deliver a baby in a chinese public hospital, the doctors will give you the birth certificate afer the discharge, but it's written in Chinese of course.

It is relatively simple compared to most paper work in China. After the birth, the doctors take you to an office where you enter the parents names and child's names into a computer system. They check it carefully and then print the certificate.

The certificate has Chinese and English titles and descriptions. Your name (and if you want the child's name) will be written in English but all other fields are in Chinese.

The complicated bit comes after. You have to decide whither you want the child to grow up with Chinese citizenship or you home country. It will depend on all sorts of things what options are available or not available - such as you and your wife's nationality, your place of birth, your marital status, the laws of your home country and so on and so on. This can soon get complex.