Three authorities, three separate jobs
When a baby is born in China to foreign parents, no single office handles everything. The birth itself, the child's nationality, and the child's lawful stay in China each fall to a different authority. Treat them as parallel tracks that begin at the same moment, not as one procedure.
The hospital's own paperwork
The hospital where the birth takes place issues its own birth-related documents. These are the provider's own records and forms, and they are the starting point for what comes next. Hospital paperwork is not a registration of the child with any immigration authority, and the hospital does not complete the child's stay or residence registration. The hospital answers questions about its own documentation; it does not answer questions about nationality or lawful stay.
The child's nationality and passport
Do not assume that birth in China, or the parents' passports alone, settles the child's nationality. China's Nationality Law, Articles 4 and 6 sets Chinese-nationality rules for children born in China, including specified cases involving a Chinese parent and parents who are stateless or of uncertain nationality. The parents should ask their own embassy or consulate about that country's citizenship and passport process, and seek an official Chinese nationality determination where the facts raise a question. The consulate handles its own country's documents; it cannot determine Chinese nationality.
Stay or residence registration with the exit-entry administration
The parents or guardians must register the child's stay or residence with the local public security bureau's exit and entry administration. According to the National Immigration Administration, for a foreign infant born in China this registration is completed with the child's birth certificate at the entry and exit administration of the local public security bureau at or above county level, and it must be done within 60 days of the birth.
The 60-day requirement is stated in Article 40 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, not merely in a reference guide. Ask the local exit-entry administration which documents and appointment route it requires for the infant; seek clarification early if nationality or documentation is uncertain.
The NIA's service guide on residence permits describes the general residence-permit track and lists the accepting offices as the exit and entry departments of public security organs at prefecture level and above, while noting that county-level offices are authorised in some instances. The practical point is that residence and stay questions go to exit-entry authorities, not to the hospital and not to the consulate.
Which authority answers which question
- Hospital: the birth record and the hospital's own documentation.
- Parents' embassy or consulate in China: its country's citizenship and passport rules, and any consular registration. Chinese authorities answer questions about Chinese nationality.
- Local public security bureau exit and entry administration: the child's stay or residence registration and any residence permit step.
When the ordinary path stalls
The sequence can stall when a parent assumes one authority has finished another's job. The hospital's paperwork does not register the child's stay. The consulate does not register the child in China. If required documents or nationality are unclear, contact the local exit-entry administration early and ask which authority can resolve the status question before the 60-day statutory window expires.
Where Expat China's general settling-in overview would help you place this step inside the wider move, the on-site web chat can point you back to the right authority rather than to a commercial service.
One practical check: keep the birth documents, contact the relevant consulate about its passport process, resolve any nationality question with the competent authority, and treat exit-entry registration as its own time-sensitive task.