00:07 John Daub: Hello everybody, greetings to Tokyo! How you doing? So for the last few days I've been researching, getting all the paperwork needed for Leo to go to the United States Embassy here in Tokyo, which is just a couple hundred meters in this direction. And I wanted to talk to you about the process for anybody who's here registering their baby for their birth and getting the passport. It's kind of a somewhat complicated process. We're joined here by co-reporter Kanae Daub.

00:35 John Daub: We're going to talk to you on the street corner for a few minutes because Leo is getting a little bit hungry. You're American, almost. Six weeks. So they told me that the process in total is going to take about six to eight weeks, but probably quicker because I guess there's not a lot of people applying for passports and whatnot.

00:55 John Daub: All the forms that you need, I'm going to put a link in the description here. You can get them and download them from the U.S. Embassy's site here in Tokyo. There's two forms that you definitely need. One of them is the birth registration and the other one is the passport application.

01:13 John Daub: After that, it's very important to have supplemental information. Kanae had to go and get the koseki tohon (family registry). The koseki tohon, which is the family registration in the ward where it's registered. So it's not even the one that you're living in, but the ward where it's registered. Other supplementary documents included our marriage certificate, also his birth certificate.

01:48 Kanae Daub: The cool thing is that they ask for translations in Japanese.

01:54 John Daub: They want you to translate the forms from Japanese to English, but they actually have templates for you to do that where you just have to fill in what you need to do. So it made it pretty painless. And you didn't need to have it notarized or anything like that.

02:08 John Daub: Now the supplementary information, they want proof that you are actually residing in the United States or have resided for, I think, four or five years. So I had my college transcript. I had my birth certificate with me. I had all these supporting documents. We made copies of everything, but it didn't seem necessary to do that.

02:45 John Daub: Overall, the process took about 40 minutes. We were in and out. We got here five minutes early. We were sitting down and waiting at exactly two o'clock, which was our appointment. After 15 minutes of waiting, they called us up and one woman helped us prepare. A Japanese lady helped us prepare behind the window, make sure all the forms were in order. Then they passed that to an officer and the officer went through all of the supporting documents.

03:14 John Daub: We'd done everything inside of the template in Adobe, so everything was typed out and done really nicely. I think they appreciated that. It expedited the situation. We were in and out in 45 minutes, which is pretty fast.

03:34 John Daub: It's going to take five to six weeks, maybe up to eight weeks for the passport to come. Oh, there was one other thing. You remember, Kanae? While he was getting the milk, the officer told us, please bring Leo up to the window. The three of us had to go up there and we had to raise our right hand and swear that the information provided was the truth. I guess we raised his right hand too. It was pretty much over from there. They gave us back our passports.

04:18 John Daub: We had to bring a letter pack, which is a prepaid envelope from Japan Post. We didn't get the one that requires signatures. We just got the cheap one and that was 370 yen. They have our original documents, the koseki and things like this. They'll put it into the envelope and send it back to us. They don't keep your passport.

04:40 John Daub: But other than that, as soon as he gets his passport and everything, he'll be an American citizen and not have to wait in the lines. We're planning to fly back to New York on December 10th. And we'll be away for a couple of weeks. So we'll have some livestreams. Leo's first trip to America to visit his grandparents.

05:12 John Daub: To get all the paperwork together was actually really hard. But I was surprised we didn't really need all of it. Just follow the checklist. And it should be a pretty painless experience. The couple in front of us didn't have everything organized. So it required a great deal of time. And I think that they were there a lot longer than us. Their interview was a lot longer too.

05:49 John Daub: The one asking me for the time I spent in the United States was really hard. I was lucky I found an old transcript from Ohio State University. That I could prove that I was there for four or five years. I have a degree in economics and English literature. The grades were not that good in some of those biology classes. So I'm just glad they didn't ask for it.

06:15 John Daub: What did you think, Kanae? Do you want to get an American citizenship too?

06:20 Kanae Daub: I don't know. Maybe...

06:22 John Daub: Can I get a green card? I think so. I don't know, but you're living here. I don't think we need the green card. But if you decide to work there maybe it's better to get it. But a cool thing is I have a PIO card for India, Persons of Indian Origin. After two years of marriage you can get a PIO card too. And Leo, yeah, so Leo you can get an Indian PIO card too because your grandma is Indian. She was born in India. So yeah, you'll have access to go to India too. That's kind of cool because the visa for India is pretty tough.

07:10 John Daub: Pretty happy with situation. It's a proud moment when you register become an American citizen. He doesn't even know what just happened. But oh yeah, he's got his US t-shirt on there too. Stars and stripes baby. And when he's 22 years old he has to decide whether he wants American citizenship or Japanese citizenship. That's gonna be really tough. The news report came out about a week ago that said Japan is the strongest passport in the world. Japan and Singapore I believe are the two strongest passports in the world. So he's gonna want to. It's gonna be a tough decision. But US passport's pretty cool too.

07:54 John Daub: So if you have any questions you can leave them in the comments below. Having gone through this process I think it's pretty important for us to share, especially for new parents. You got so many other things to do. One of the last things you need to do is more paperwork.

08:14 John Daub: We're gonna go this direction I think maybe and find some food and then take a cab back. We don't live too far away from here. The US Embassy is in this direction. By the way, if you do come by taxi, don't drop off in front of the gate. The police will come out and start asking questions. US Embassy is pretty intimidating. I had to come here to register our wedding certificate when we got married. She hasn't been here for 10 years. But it's very intimidating to go to the US Embassy because it's just a lot of security. But the staff know that it's intimidating. So I was pretty happy. They're very friendly and had a lot of things to say. And it was a good experience overall.

09:07 John Daub: Thanks so much for the messages. I have a new video just released on the edited video channel. Eric's Drifted Tonight Eat Street Food. It's a pretty cool video. Drop 25 minutes of street food fun. Definitely check that out. If you look at the Instagram, you'll see the link. I'll put it in the description. Leo, say goodbye. You're American. Do you know any patriotic songs?

09:40 John Daub: America, America, God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with hand in your face. That's not the way the founding fathers wanted it to go. Alright everybody, have a good country road. That's a pretty good, that's a very important American patriotic song. Actually, I have an episode on this coming up soon. It's a top secret one. But Country Roads is kind of special here in Japan too.

10:09 John Daub: Alright everybody, leave me your questions and comments below. Thanks so much for watching. And if you have any questions, happy to answer and make this as less painful as possible. But it's an important thing, especially if you have a son and you want to become an American citizen. Thanks everybody, have a good day. Gerardo writes in here, he is going to pay taxes his whole life now. Oh no! I think a little bit more than that, but maybe that's part of it. Gotta support the motherland.