The new baby paperwork

Here is a sign of us starting to properly blending in to Irish culture...

This morning we have registered Aoife's birth; more than six weeks after she was born. Dutch people will probably react in the following way: "What, 6 weeks??!!! We have to do that within 3 working days following the birth of a baby!" Well, here in Ireland you have 3 months to get that done. When Sophia was born, we were still behaving in a more Dutch fashion and registered her within 3 weeks of her birth. Important to know is that being registered automatically kicks off the procedure for receiving Child Benefit, which currently is €130.- per month per child. When Aoife was born it was still €140.- per month; but the December 2012 budget brought a change to the Child Benefit amounts, so her 'pay' was cut when she was not even 2 weeks old. It will be interesting to see what will happen to Child Benefit in the next years, as the Government is planning (necessary) changes to Welfare payments - Child benefit may become taxed in the future, or the amount may become means tested. Time will tell.

So, what nationality do Sophia and Aoife have?
Many people have asked me this question in the last couple of weeks. Both girls have the Dutch nationality, because they are born to parents with the Dutch nationality. If they want to, they can apply for the Irish nationality. At this stage, it would even be possible to have both the Irish and the Dutch nationality as dual citizenship is possible in Ireland. At this stage we don't see the benefits of that, so we just stay Dutch - it's absolutely no issue to be Dutch in Ireland - thank you all, Irish people! It is great they have 'Dublin' on their birth certification as their place of birth.

Just to illustrate why it's no problem to be Dutch around here - they even let Sinterklaas and his black helper fly into Dublin airport, for a visit to the children in Ireland who believe in him... lovely!

Another important reason to get the Birth Certification, is to be able to apply for a passport. We will obviously get a Dutch passport for Aoife, for which you cannot just go to the Embassy, fill out papers and get the document. The procedure is a bit more complicated, as Aoife's Irish birth cert needs to be legalised - it needs to get an Apostille stamp - before it is valid for the application for a Dutch passport. So, a trip to the Irish department of Foreign Affairs is in the calendar. Then, you need to get a passport photo taken. Travelling friends with young children will most likely agree with me - having a photo taken of a new baby - a photo that meets the requirements of a Dutch passport - is a very interesting challenge; your baby needs to be awake and willing to look into the camera at the moment you are having its photo taken - a true art for photographers! There are different requirements for a Dutch passport photo than for an Irish passport photo; and from experience (when we learned about all this when going through the same process for Sophia 2.5 years ago) we know it is best to go to the photo shop across the street from the Dutch Embassy in Dublin - as they are familiar with these peculiarities. Last but not least, it is not possible to just show up at the embassy to apply for the document - no, you need to make an appointment. So, one needs to be organised.

As with so many things, the second time is much easier, so hopefully we will be able to get all this 'sorted' and travel with the two girls. I'm planning to go to the Netherlands in February, so we have a goal in mind!

Finishing off with a few pictures of the new addition... she's thriving!