Precious Vinnie was born via an altruistic gestational surrogacy arrangement in Queensland.
In addition to our family and usual occupations (my husband is a professional firefighter on the Gold Coast), my husband and I own and operate a not-for-profit Karate association that teaches kids and adults Kyokushin Karate. Also built on passion, this not for profit provides valuable tools of self-defence, discipline and most importantly, community. It’s a space that developed from being purely about karate, into an organisation that provides for its community by ensuring it supports and provides opportunity to underprivileged children, anti-bullying programs and self defence to women and the elderly.
Both of Sally’s children train at our dojo.
Just after we received a positive pregnancy test for Vinnie, the international Karate organisation we are a part of organised an international karate event that we would participate in. The event was scheduled for four months after Vinnie’s due date. Many members of our Karate community started booking flights and accommodation, Sally and her eldest daughter included – we were all off to Japan for an adventure! We were excited that Vinnie would be here to travel with us all. Vinnie’s ticket was booked as a baby yet to be born.
Vinnie arrived 3 days after Christmas. Together, Sally and I spent 5 days in hospital sharing a room. How lucky we were to be able transition through this 5 day period together and support each other.
After leaving hospital, we started organising birth certificates and Medicare cards. We knew that the turn around time for getting Vinnie a passport would be tight with our due dates to fly.
Once we received Vinnie’s initial birth certificate, we prepared the child passport application online and printed it out. We took the completed form to Australia Post who advised us we needed to complete the B4 – Child born through surrogacy.
In Queensland, post birth counselling is compulsory before an application for a parentage order is made. Our counselling had not been finalised at the time of making our passport application and therefore, we also were unable to file our application for a parentage order – we knew this might impact us, however, we wanted to give the passport office as much time as we could. Because of the nature of our application, we could not apply for an expediated passport or pay an urgent fee.
Our application was accepted and sent off through Australia post in late January 2023 (we were due to travel on 5 April). We had attached our surrogacy agreement, a parenting plan, birth certificate and a statutory declaration from Sally stating that if it helped, she was travelling with us.….. all we could do was wait.
In late March 2023, with the help of our esteemed colleague, Sarah Jefford, we were able to file our application for parentage order but our hearing date wasn’t until 12 May!
At this stage, we hadn’t heard anything from the passport office at all. It had been over 4 weeks.
I called them and was told that the application had gone to a “special team” and that they could not be contacted by telephone or email – huh?
Two weeks later, both Sally and I called the Passport Office again – we were both told the same thing. They could see the application had been received. It had not been processed, it was with a special team – no the team could not be contacted by telephone or email – Sally and I kept making jokes that this “team” must be the equivalent of the CIA or MI16 – having watched too many movies! Who nowadays doesn’t have a telephone or email?!
With one week left until we were due to leave (and now 8 weeks post application being made), we still did not have a passport for Vinnie. We rang again, yep, you guessed it, the application was still with the secret team who could not be contacted by email or telephone.
With two days left until we were due to leave, Sally, Phil and I drove to the passport office in Brisbane (about 1 hour from home). Inside we ventured, ready and armed to do whatever we needed to get Vinnie’s passport. Sally and I decided we would get her to swear another statutory declaration attaching our filed application for parentage order and file it with another B4 form.
We asked for an update – still with the special team. Can you call the special team – they have no phones! Can we file a new application under Sally’s name and pay the urgent fee? No you cannot because the system already has an application. How do we get the passport? You have to wait. You do realise we can’t leave a newborn behind? Sorry, that’s the best I can do – slowly by slowly crept the security guard in behind us. Any trouble? No sir, we just want our passport..
To say we were upset was an understatement. We drove home, whilst I tried to work out how to get a credit for my plane ticket – hoping that the passport would arrive.
We had just arrived home from Brisbane when – we got a phone call – turns out the secret team does have a phone!!! 15 minutes later – we received an email! Vinnie’s passport would be ready for collection from Brisbane the following day.
So – secret passport team, we now have your telephone number and your email! In case anyone has the same trouble we did – here it is!
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Ph: +61 07 3234 7645
Email: complexcases.returns@dfat.gov.au
Australian Passport Office Call Centre: 131 232
We picked up Vinnie’s passport the day before we all left for Japan. We had a wonderful time together, and Vinnie got to experience some of Japan’s greatest tour attractions.
On our flight home, our flight was held for 45 minutes because there was too many people on the plane, an extra person. We went through new boarding pass counts, 3 manual counts until they realised, little Vinnie, sleeping on his Daddy’s lap was the unknown extra passenger. Even though they had scanned his boarding pass – they had forgot to count him. None the wiser he had held up a plane, we knew our Vinnie had a way of making sure the world knew he was here.
