Final Word from Thursday, April 26, 2007
President Klaus signed a law yesterday for removing the requirement put in place by ČSSD that children up to age 10 have their own passport. For many of the growing number of Czech expats, this comes too late. A major problem for Czechs working abroad arises when a child is born. To obtain a passport, the foreign birth certificate needs to be translated and sent to the Czech interior ministry for confirmation. So far, so good, but there's a huge backlog in the physical issuance of the Czech birth certificate, because of the large number of requests since ČSSD put in place the passport requirement. Without the Czech birth certificate, no passport can be issued, and the newborn can't travel abroad to the next posting (unless it's back to the CR). There's currently no way around this, other than returning home in time for the birth. This might not be an option if you're stationed in Beijing.[Czech Republic Václav China expatriates]