I’m in the midst of filling out my Canadian passport application and I’m stumped on the following question:
“Place of Birth” “City” “Country”
On January 1, 1993 the Czech Republic and Slovakia emerged as independent nations.
Since the country I was born in does not exist anymore, what do I write on my passport application where it asks me “what country and city were you born in?”
Is it correct to write the currnet country name? Do I write the old name? Are both correct?
Sorry for the stupid question, but this one has me stumped.
I believe you put down "Czechoslovakia ". The application wants to know where you were born, not what is there now. You were born into the legal entity known as Czechoslovakia, and nowhere else. If it doesn’t exist now, that does not affect the nature of the question “where were you born?”.
In agreement with the others. A relative of mine was born in Enfield, when it was outside London, part of Middlesex. Now Enfield is part of North London, overtaken by the sprawl – but to her dying day, she put down that she came from Enfield, Middlesex, not Enfield, London.
It depends in many cases on what the place was called, rather than the way it is now.
I think if I were you, I’d call immigration and settle the question for sure. I don’t agree with the others. The immigration people are likely going to want to do background checks. What happens when you get a 23-year-old immigration worker that doesn’t recognize Czechoslavakia, and can’t find it in the atlas?
For that matter, there’s got to be an Asian Indian on this board. Do you all write Mumbai or Bombay? How about our African friends? Were you born in name-of-this-week or name-of-last-week?
Don’t get me started on :mad: Mumbai. All the PC lot are insisting that we call it this now as this is its new name and that it is ‘racist’ to refer to it as Bombay as that’s the English imperial name.We don’t refer to Moskva,Munchen or Wien do we?And please call it Peking not Beijing :mad:
I agree with Balthisar, and here’s why. Most of the posters are running on common sense when they suggest going for the old or new name. However, this is government we’re talking about, and government often runs contrary to common sense. I’d hate to wait an extra month for a passport because I did things the sensible way. Check with Immigration.
If you don’t like something, check your facts before trying to dismiss it by calling it PC. ‘Bombay’ isn’t anything to do with the English. And we call it Mumbai now because it was renamed by an act of parliament. And ‘Peking’ is the name used in a different part of China. Which, for use in English, isn’t as silly as ‘Wien’ - it’s more like using ‘Vienne’.
I’d agree that checking with the Passport Office is probably the best thing — better safe than sorry. However, I sincerely hope that there aren’t people without a cursory knowledge of 20th-century history running background checks on passport applicants.
You do whatever a Canadian immigration lawyer says you should do, in this circumstance.
However, as a general rule, not to be construed as legal advice on how to fill out a form in accordance with regulations, I’ve always seen stuff like: “born Aug. 1, 1899, Ljubljana, Austria-Hungarian Empire (now Slovenia)” – i.e., the person was born in the city of Ljubljana, then a part of the Dual Monarchy, now in (and the capital of) Slovenia. So you’d write, “born Sometember 24, 1968, Brno, Czechoslovakia (now Czech. Rep.)” or “born Sometember 24, 1968, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia).”
How about if you were born in a country this one doesn’t recognize? For example, if you fill in “born Sometember 24, 1968, Grozny, Chechen Republic”. (You can find an example of a country we don’t recognize that was claiming independence in 1968 if you must, don’t let my example distract you from my question.)
It’d get returned straight back to you - you were born in the USSR, like it or not. (You could try “Born Belfast, Republic of Ireland” as another example.)
Enfield is still listed as Middlesex in addresses. If you were to mail a letter there, you would still have to put Enfield, Middlesex, rather than Enfield, London.
Even though Middlesex no longer exists as an entity or authority, it still exists in the postal sense (and as a cricket team).
Edmonton and Southgate that became part of the London borough of Enfield in the changes you describe, still have the London part, however.
Thanks for all the helpful replies everyone.
I just got off the phone with the passport office in Ottawa and spoke to a woman with a heavy, heavy French accent who seemed rather unsure of her self.
(judging by her tone and lack of confidence)
She said since it was called Czechoslovakia when I was born there, that’s what I “could put” on the application, and if “they” want to change it, they can.
So to be on the safe side and to prevent delays, I’ll take Polycarp’s advice and state (now Slovakia)
I hate to imagine what happens when the issue of China gets involved. I can see some unfortunate trying to write on his passport application "Born 1940 in Peking (now Beijing), Republic of China (now the People’s Republic of China but the Republic of China is still here it’s just not there anymore).
The US Government does not recognise Taiwan. Interestingly, however, the Agency Formerly Known As INS does. The quotas which apply (or applied - I think they have got rid of them in recent years?) to certain employment-based green card applicants from China do/did not apply to the Taiwanese.
When I was an immigration paralegal, we always filled in “PRC” for country of birth of people born in mainland China. I can’t remember whether we filled in the Taiwaneses’ forms with “Taiwan” or “ROC” (I didn’t have a lot of those clients), but we definitely indicated that they were born there and not in mainland China.
“Balki” is an illegal immigrant from the sovereign island nation of “Caspiar”, located in the Caspian Sea.
While here in the U.S. illegaly, the island nation suffers an earthquake and sinks to the bottom of the sea.
The I.N.S. ( Immigration and Naturalization Service) arrests him and is charged with the duty of deporting him, aka, returning the alien to the borders of his nation.
Since his nation no longer even physically exists, where would the INS deport him?
