Announcement of a birth

Prerequisites

A child was born and you

- are the owners of a hospital or an institution providing obstetric care,
- are the mother of the child and have custody,
- are the father of the child and have custody of the child or
- are another person and were present at the birth or know about it.

As a reporting person you must be over 16 years of age.

Documents required

If the parents are married to each other, you will need the

• Parents’ birth certificates
• Marriage certificate or a certified copy from the marriage register

If the parents are not married to each other, you will need the

• Mother’s birth certificate
• if paternity has already been acknowledged:
• the declaration of paternity recognition and the mother’s declaration of consent
• the father’s birth certificate and
• if applicable, the declaration of care.

The marriage certificate must also be presented if the marriage has since been divorced or the husband has died.
You also need

• the parents’ identity cards, passports or recognised passport replacement documents.

If a midwife was present at a home birth, the certificate of delivery must be presented.

Please note

• Some registry offices only accept acknowledgements of paternity in connection with the birth certificate - an appointment is required for this.
• Declarations of custody can only be made at the youth welfare office or a notary. The youth welfare office or a notary will also accept acknowledgments of paternity.
• Parents can obtain the form for the first name notification at the hospital, on the Internet (child's play for child benefit on hamburg.de) or at the responsible registry office.
• As part of the registration of a birth, parents receive two free certificates for applying for parental allowance and maternity benefit from the health insurance company, in addition to the paid birth certificate for their own records. Another free certificate for applying for child benefit is only issued for births in maternity or midwifery centers.

Deadlines

• You must report the birth of your child to the registry office responsible for the place of birth within one week.
  
  
  
  • The day of birth is not included in the calculation of the notification period.
  
  
  • If your child is stillborn, you must report the birth no later than the third working day after the birth.
  
  

Procedure

Fill out the birth notification.
Please enter the place of birth (town and street with house number) and the date (day and time) of the child's birth.
If your child was born in a hospital or other facility that provides obstetric care, that facility will register the birth for you. You will give the maternity facility the documents required to register the birth.
If the birth took place at home, you must report the birth of the child in writing or in person.
The registry office will check your documents and, if necessary, request further documents and information from you.
The registry office certifies the birth of the child.
You will be asked to pay the birth certificate fees.
Once you have paid the fees, you will receive the child's birth certificates.
If you are unable to provide the registry office with all the documents required for certification, the registry office will include an explanatory note about this in the birth entry. Instead of a birth certificate, you will then be issued with a certified printout from the birth register as your civil status certificate. The birth register printout is also a birth certificate that proves the birth of your child!

In some hospitals, the necessary documents and fees for the certification are requested directly from the parents and sent to the relevant registry office together with the prepared birth notification. The registry office then carries out the certification.

In hospitals that do not do this, the birth notification is sent directly to the registry office. The parents can send the other required documents to the registry office themselves.

Processing time

no

Fees

18.00 EUR for the birth certificate. Each additional certificate in the same processing step costs 8.00 EUR. The birth certificates for parental allowance, child benefit and maternity allowance from the health insurance company are free of charge.

Legal remedies

no

Legal basis

§ 18 ff. Civil Status Act (PStG)

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/pstg/__18.html




§ 31 ff. Civil Status Ordinance (PStV)

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/pstv/__31.html




§ 61 PStG paragraph 1, sentence 3 - Minimum age for application

https://dejure.org/gesetze/PStG/61.html