Dear Sir
My wife and I are EU citizens who have been teaching overseas for many years and enjoy our summer holidays spent at our house in Cyprus.
Last month my wife gave birth to our third child. Our first two children were born in China but our third was born here in Cyprus.
Having taught in many countries we are both very well versed in the maxim, “Be flexible”. It is usually the school’s way of turning problems such as lack of funding, poor organisational practices or profit before education back on the teacher. However, we have lived long enough to tow the line. As European citizens we always have to jump through many bureaucratic hoops to get work and residence visas especially when we worked in the Middle East and China. Being flexible keeps you sane in these situations, which can sometimes be like living a Kafka novel. What we did not expect was that we would be severely tested to “Be flexible” when trying to get a birth certificate for our newborn here in the EU.
When our first two children were born in China it took two days after they were born to get their birth certificates. In a country like China – and as we are non-Chinese, non-Asians – that is incredibly efficient. In Cyprus our experience was quite the opposite.
The day I went to collect my baby’s birth certificate my neighbour, a Cypriot, very kindly offered to go with me. He even called the office ahead to find out what I would need to bring. Our passports and the birth form (in Greek only but translated for us by our helpful neighbours) were no problem but when I was told I would have to bring my immigration papers I had no idea what my neighbour was talking about. “I’m an EU citizen,” I naively told him.
At the office I was refused my baby’s certificate, as I had not registered for permanent residence status at the immigration office. This did not sound in the spirit of the EU to me but my neighbour obligingly took me across town to the immigration office where I waited in line with immigrants from several non-EU countries. When I explained my situation to the lady at the desk she pleasantly informed me I did not need to register with immigration. Great, but this would not help me get my child’s birth certificate, which was being held on to tighter than a Russian spy!
She suggested I put my baby’s name on my passport but this has not been a legal option since October 2004. For the last six years even newborn babies must have their own passport. She also suggested we get a letter from our embassy to allow us to travel to our home country and get a birth certificate issued there. Does anyone know of an embassy that offers such a service or of any country in the world that will issue a birth certificate to a person born somewhere else?
My neighbour rationalised this by suggesting these laws must be a throw-back to the British occupation but even if so Cyprus has gained independence, become a divided nation, and joined the European Union in the years since. Wouldn’t any of these important historical occasions prompt some revision of laws?
Frustrated, I went home empty handed. My wife telephoned our embassy and explained what had happened. They were incredulous and suggested I return to the office and then telephone them again so that they could explain the relevant aspect of EU law to the belligerent woman in the office. After ringing several ministries and numerous civil service departments my wife was also eventually given the phone number of the Ombudswoman we had recently read about in the paper. She explained the situation to the Ombudswoman and 15 minutes later we were called back. The ombudswoman informed us that there was “no problem”. Getting the certificate would take five minutes.
I’m still not sure what kind of local government office my neighbour took me to originally (they must have something to do with birth certificates as my neighbour has four children of his own) but I learnt that I could go to the district office instead. The woman there, who had spoken to the ombudswoman, asked me if the unhelpful one was “a blondie”. Yes, she was, actually so it became clear that this unhelpful ‘civil servant’ was well known. In five minutes I had my child’s birth certificate, in fact I had two!
I would like to say thank you to the Ombudswoman for resolving a ludicrous catch-22 that should never have been and would like to remind the ‘blondie’ in the office that her country is now in the EU even though she may never see herself as European.
Yours faithfully
Paul Grundy
Livadia
Larnaca
