"City of Birth": Put the actual city of birth or what's in my passport?

[jadecheee]

Looking for advice on what to put for "City of birth" in my application.
I was born in Brussels, Belgium, so my city of birth is "Brussels". However, my passport only shows "Place of birth", and it says "Etterbeek", which is a region within the city of Brussels.
Should I write "Brussels, Etterbeek" in my application under "city of birth", so it matches my passport? Or just "Brussels" (note that "Brussels" is not written on my passport so the agent would have to know that Etterbeek is part of Brussels which might lead to confusion)?

 

[Kais767]

You're fine to put Brussels. It's very common for 'place of birth' on passports not to be the city itself.

E.g. US passports only mention the state, Chinese passports mention the province, foreign-born nationals of Singapore/Malaysia list only the country of birth, etc.

 

[santab]

Why dont you just mention Etterbeek?

 

[TedLA]

I don't think it matters. I put the 'place of birth' on my passport when I created my profile and entered the pool, but I changed it to the city when I finally submitted my application after the ITA. The only consequence is that in my GCMS notes it shows application changed from old value to new value. It never raised any concerns to the case analyst or the officer.

 

[Hchadda]

I'd stick with what's written in the passport, unless you're attaching your birth certificate as well then put whatever's on the birth certificate.

 

[Kais767]

Why dont you just mention Etterbeek?

Put whatever is written on your passport. You don't have to provide a birth certificate so your passport is the only place to match it against.

I'd stick with what's written in the passport, unless you're attaching your birth certificate as well then put whatever's on the birth certificate.

This wouldn't be technically correct. If the city of birth is Brussels, just enter Brussels. IRCC knows that 'place of birth' doesn't necessarily mean 'city of birth' on foreign passports. They may be quite silly when it comes to certain things, but picking on place of birth is NOT one of them.

You certainly won't find Americans entering 'California' as the city of birth if born in San Francisco....