Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now what?

Being in another country, Filipinos should take note of the things that must be done to fix the papers of their newborns. Particularly in this country, you should try to accomplish the to-do list so you want have to cram it all on the last few days.

Remember, once the baby is born, your baby has a 42-day Social Visit Pass to stay in Singapore. You need to get it extended or have a valid pass (PR, dependent, etc.) before the 42-day limit expires.

The child's mother will most likely not be able to do this -- or rather would not be able to do anything at this point -- so this is especially for dads out there.

Before you continue, please note that the information below is true as of the first week of September 2010 -- the week when we applied for this as well. Some of the requirements and/or steps below may -- or probably will -- change later on. So please don't complain to me if the information below is no longer true; let me know the details of the changes and I'll change this accordingly.

Anyway, first things first. Once the baby is born, you have to file his/her birth registration right away.


Birth Registration

As per Singapore Law, you have 14 days to register the baby's birth to ICA. This is different from the 42-day limit stated above. Birth registration should be done within 14 days. The immigration status (i.e. Social Visit, Singapore PR, Dependent Pass, etc.) should be done within 42 days.

There are a few things you need to prepare in order to file the baby's Birth Registration:

• Identity card (NRIC, FIN, E-Pass, etc) of both parents;
• Original Copy of the Marriage Certificate, if applicable;
• Notification of Live-Birth - this is the Red duplicate form you get from the hospital/nurse station;
• Registration of Birth Form - to be filled up by YOU; most of the details should be found in all of the three (3) above documents;
• Fee. I forgot exactly how much I paid, but should not exceed SGD 50: ICA fee of SGD 18 + hospital administrative fee, if you registered at one of the hospitals below.

Hospitals where you can register your child's birth include the following:

• East Shore Hospital
• Gleneagles Hospital
• Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital
• Mount Alvernia Hospital
• Mount Elizabeth Hospital
• National University Hospital
• Raffles Hospital
• Singapore General Hospital
• Thomson Medical Centre

You should check out the reverse side of the Notification of Live Birth form for the above information.

After you have successfully registered, you should get the following:

• Notification of Live Birth - updated with the Birth Registration Number;
• Certificate of Registration of Birth (laminated);
• Disembarkation Card (aka White Card) - usually attached with a notice from ICA "Regularisation of the Immigration Status of a Foreign Child Born in Singapore".

The actual processing takes no more than 20 minutes. The waiting time might be longer or shorter, depending on how lucky you are. Anyway, this makes it the easiest step.

Now before you can get to ICA to apply for your child's PR, Dependent Pass, or whatever, he/she needs a valid travel document, i.e., a passport. So our next step is to get...


Philippine Passport
The actual processing is fast. In our case, we finished within 40 minutes -- includes submission of forms, picture-taking, and payments. Of course, in order to achieve that, we had to get an early queue number. Meaning you have to be at the Philippine Embassy before it opens at 9:00 AM. There's just too many people applying for the new passport.

Also, as of this writing, the babies are required to be physically present in the embassy, as their photographs will be taken there as well.

Just some tips that should help:

• Complete all forms and photocopy the required number of copies beforehand. Saves time and money. (Not sure how much the photocopier in the embassy is charging, but I bet it's slightly higher than usual.) Check out the list below.
• Avoid going there on Thursday and Sunday (the end and start of week, respectively) as well as days immediately before and after a public holiday/long weekend. There's even more people there!
• One person (usually the dad) has to be there really early. The baby can arrive later at 9:00 AM when the embassy officially opens. I was there at 7:15, but there was already a queue! Luckily, I was number 4. Within the next half hour or so, there were 10 people behind me.
• Prepare for a long wait. It's up to you how to deal with long waiting times (around 2 hours). Bring something to read, something to play, something to listen to, or something to eat, whatever to keep you sane while you're waiting. The words "painfully slow" come to mind, so watch out! (Of course, if you're happy with just the chit-chats and gossips, just talk with the people in the queue.)
• Once inside, while you process the papers outside, the baby can stay inside the air-conditioned halls of the embassy.
• The windows to look out for are Window 6 (where you submit everything), Window 1 (where the baby's photos are taken), and Window 9 (where you pay). Best to know where they are, as it can be very chaotic when the waiting area is filled up with tons of people.

So what documents do you need exactly? Here's the list:

• Passport Application Form - get form from the Philippine Embassy website;
• Report of Birth - get form from the Philippine Embassy website; submit the form along with 5 photocopies;
• Certificate of Registration of Birth - original for show, 5 photocopies for submission;
• Passports of both parents - original for show, 5 photocopies (of the data pages) for submission;
• Marriage Certificate of parents - original for show, 5 photocopies for submission, if applicable;

Not sure if this is applicable to all, but Report of Birth and all the 5 photocopies should have the left and right footprints of the child on the reverse side of the forms. In our case, the lady on Window 6 asked us to have the footprints imprinted on the forms. They provided us with the inkpad so that's one less thing to worry about.


After the initial submission of the paperwork on Window 6, everything should go on smoothly. The digital passport photo will be taken at the room beside Window 1. After that, you will be provided a letter to be given to ICA (details below). Then, it's off to Window 9 for payment.
 
You should end up with the following:

• Claim stub for the passport. This should also serve as your official receipt with the breakdown of fees. Take note of the Collection Date (approximately 6 weeks from the date of application).
• Certification from Philippine Embassy regarding the Passport processing - as the 6 weeks will most likely eat up the 42-day limit, you will need to submit this to extend your baby's stay in Singapore.

Extension of the 42-Day Limit
Due to the 6 weeks required processing time for your baby's passport, you can apply for an extension of his/her Social Visit Pass. This should give you some more breathing room to process everything.

Here's what you need:

• Certification from Philippine Embassy regarding the Passport processing. See previous section.
• Disembarkation Card (aka white DE Card);
• Certificate of Registration of Birth - original for show, 1 photocopy for submission;
• Passports of both parents - original for show, 1 photocopy (for the data pages) for submission;
• Marriage Certificate of parents - original for show, 1 photocopy for submission;

In order to maximize your baby's stay, wait for the week when the 42 days will lapse before you apply for the extension. We tried applying for the extension a day after submitting the passport requirements. We were advised by the immigration officer in Counter 4 that the extension will overlap with the 42 days; they clarified that the extension will start from the day you applied for it, not on the day after the 42 days have lapsed. So she advised us to just return later when the limit is about to expire before we apply for an extension.


This is as far as we have gone, so far. I'll do another post once we have the passport and applied for the passes in October.


::UPDATE::
Got some new updates, but they're quite long. So, please check my next post on this topic here. For the complete list of posts on this series, please check here.