Just when we were having great speedy results when applying for Citizenship and Passports for clients doing surrogacy in Ukraine along came the Australian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The WORST, RUDEST and SLOWEST service for issuing an emergency passport. I have been lodging Citizenship Applications and helping with Passport applications in surrogacy cases since 2012 and Ankara takes the prize as the worst Australian Embassy for consular assistance. My client was of Greek heritage so not sure if that was a factor but it is the only occasion on which an Emergency passport for a child born through surrogacy has taken longer than 48 hours.
Georgia is unique among our surrogacy destinations in that there is no Australian embassy in the country. One of the parents must therefore travel outside of Georgia to lodge the passport application. The Australian Embassy in Ankara is responsible for processing Australian citizenship applications and they are friendly and efficient. So despite the obvious convenience of lodging a passport application at the same embassy we are currently recommending that Intended Parents travel to Athens, Warsaw or Tel Aviv to lodge their passport applications. Our experiences with these Embassies have been positive with efficient and quick processing from sympathetic consular officers.
