I am a South African male married to a Filipino lady and we just had our second child in Kuwait. When applying for residency they told me that my daughter has to have the same passport as myself which is South African, however with my son (first born) there was no issue that he has a Filipino passport.The reason why we initially got the Filipino passport is because my embassy takes 2 months and even more to obtain a passport thus we want to avoid the hefty fine.Is there anything we could do and will the ministry accept a NOC from my embassy or do I have no choice but to apply and wait for a South African passport for my daughter and start the whole process again? Hope you can help or guide me please.Name withheld Answer: It is not uncommon for two different officials to interpret a rule on the same issue and arrive at different conclusions as in your case. Since you are the one legally permitted to sponsor your child, we will want to agree more with the second official who is demanding that your child must have the same passport as yours.We must point out that our conclusion is premised on the common sense approach and not on any law which we must confess we are not aware of.To prevent future problems we advise that you begin the process to get the South African passport for the child. On the issue of NOC from your embassy you could also try that but remember also that if the official needed an NOC he would have told you about that.