While most countries in the world recommend the same vaccines for kids, there tend to be differences in the schedule. Also, some vaccines are not included in routine immunization programs of countries/regions so expat parents are often faced with having to make a decision regarding their child’s immunization schedule when living abroad.
For me it was a no-brainer – we decided to follow the Chinese vaccination schedule since we’re not planning on moving anytime soon and we want our kids to be protected against diseases that are characteristic of this particular region.
Apart from the initial shots of HepB and BCG that babies in China are given at birth, my kids got all their jabs at our local community health center. Before I get to the documents we needed, here’s the summary of our situation: Both kids were born in Beijing to foreign parents, the only documents we own are our passports, kids had only Chinese birth certificates until the age of 6 months or so, never got any vaccine outside of China and my Chinese is very basic. All this considered, I found the registration process at our health center pretty painless.
Appointments are not required, however other expat parents have had different experiences so I guess it depends on the local health center, or sometimes even on the person you get to do the registration with. There’s a ticketing machine you should get a number from by scanning the code that they’ll stick to your kid’s vaccination record book. Now, with Noel (born 2021) they gave me this green book at the hospital, but with Noa (born 2018), I got it at the vaccination site. When you go there for the first time, just tell someone to get you a number. A guard did it for me, but even if you don’t speak Chinese just show the nurses the birth certificate and they’ll know what you’re there for. So here’s what we needed (both times):
- Chinese birth certificate
- Proof of vaccination from the hospital (HepB and BCG)
- Maternal book (not sure if they actually needed it or just needed my info and couldn’t understand my Chinese)
- Parent’s passport
After handing over the stuff, it took maybe ten minutes to get the code for the little green book, and then we just waited for our number to come up so we could enter the office. No questions asked. Maybe this was because I couldn’t (or they assumed I couldn’t) speak the language, but that was about it. All shots included in the routine immunization schedule have been free and my kids had no reactions to them. You can always opt for the optional vaccines, which include Pneumococcal, chicken pox, Hib, and the EV71 (enterovirus) vaccine. The first dose of Hib costs RMB 123 (in 2021) and the chicken pox vaccine RMB 200. Every time the child gets his/her shot, they schedule you for the next and write down the date in the green book, so you’ll be good off even without any Chinese.
For David Hermanutz, a Canadian dad living in Beijing with his Chinese wife and two children, the process has been pretty easy and simple as well: “My kids have only a Chinese travel ID and no hukou due to family matters. We had the needles at the BDA Yizhuang vaccination clinic with no problems. Shots were free.” However, David’s family is facing another issue: “Currently the kids get PCR tested, but the travel book ID does not appear on my wife’s domestic PCR history. We cannot see their PCR results as they are using their mom’s telephone number and have no ID. Welcome to international marriage.”
Hannah Lee, a Polish mom of a 5-year-old girl, shares her experience: “My baby got all, except the first three vaccines, at the community center. Great and cheap experience if your Chinese is good or you have a Chinese spouse. Nobody speaks English there, so Chinese is a must. All shots were free of charge.” Hannah’s daughter has both Chinese and Polish citizenship, and as for the paperwork they needed to get their child registered, all they needed to provide was the foreign vaccination book, baby’s hukou, mom’s passport, and dad’s ID card. Official translation of vaccines received abroad was not necessary: “My husband translated on site, but it’s not supposed to happen like this. Basically, they just trusted our words. It was an exception, I guess.”
For S Kali, a South African mom of a 5-year-old girl, things got a bit complicated at the beginning: “My daughter was born in South Africa, and the first seven months of her life she lived there. Initially, when we got here, we went to AmCare. They translated all the vaccines that she had got back home and gave me the green vaccination book. She even got two of her vaccines there.”
S Kali was friends with an AmCare nurse who offered to help her get her child registered at a local health center because she was initially denied: “When I went by myself they told me that they can’t register a foreign child (due to me not having her vaccines translated into Chinese, but I didn’t realize that at the time). Now I just go to the clinic, hand the green book, sign what needs to be signed and that’s it. All shots have been free.”
Even though we all know that things can get very complicated very fast, and that these local clinics may have different policies, many parents have said that the registration process for vaccination is simple and smooth and kids have had no side effects. So, if you’re comfortable with not understanding every word that’s being said (unless you’re a fluent Chinese speaker or have a Chinese-speaking spouse/friend), don’t mind waiting in line for a while and don’t need all the extravaganza and crystal chandeliers of private hospitals, then local community health centers seem to be a perfectly safe option that can even save you a good few thousand RMB in the long run.
Images: Sanja Stojkov
