birth certificate for new born - Zurich

Family, Education, Health and Pets
21
This really must depend on the country you are from , unfortunately ..... We are Malaysians and were asked for all the documentation ( marriage cert. , birth cert. etc. ) when we moved to Switzerland . When our son was born , the hospital actually made a preliminary birth certificate , with some key details similar to the birth certificate . Once my wife left the hospital ( a week later ) , I went to our gemeinde to sort out the actual Birth certificate ( 2 weeks max ) and subsequently the B permit ( similar time frame ) . They had all the details from our registration . We were of course asked to then go to the Malaysian Embassy for the passport and show it to the gemeinde within 6 months or risk the cancellation of the B permit . Apart from screwing up my son's name , no other issues .

22
Hi

Trying to register our new born and Stadt Zurich is asking for our birth certificates which we don't have and cannot get (born in India, naturalised as UK citizens for a long time now).

Would anyone have any suggestions? How flexible Stadt is? Unlike Sivam we are not leaving Switzerland.

Thanks

23
Our son was born in Rheinfelden Aargau and they issued the birth certificate in a week.

I'm British my wife's Thai all we supplied was the marriage certificate from Basel.

As to consular birth registration that's entirely optional

ash

24
sorry dutch, no clue. Discuss with stadt people if they can accpet your uk citizenship details

25
Prepare for the argument that India is not Afghanistan. You can surely get your birth certificates.....even if it takes one year.

That is what i heard from my office colleague who is a naturalized UK citizen.

26
You'd think the Scots aren't keeping with the time; I was born in Glasgow so I called them up and received the birth certificates a week later. My husband was born in Rome so he went to the Italian consulate here in Zurich to be told that the only way for him to get his birth certificate is to go to Rome how absurd is that? After Rome he needs to go to Calabria to get our marriage certificate, this is so crazy you have to smile

God bless the Scots.

27
It took us 6 months (yes 6!!!) to get our daughters birth certificate - that too after a LOT of fighting and pleading AND paying 150 Frs to get the BC issued early!!! And now guess what - the lady at the kreisburo promises 'anywhere between 2 weeks to 3 months' for our permit to be extended! Why do we want to extend it? Because the husband is living out of a schengen country for his last project here and we (the kid and I) would like to join him - and as is typical - schengen countries don't issue visas beyond a month before expiry of residence permits....and the struggle continues (

28

Hi Gianna,

Don't waist your time sending your man to Italy. Think what will happen if you have another child? Have to go through all this again? This is absurd. We wrote a letter to Zivilstandsw explaining that for us it is not possible to travel all 4, spending money and time only for 2 papers. They ́ve accepted in the ned , it costed around 60sfr.

Hope it helps,

Tudor

29
Just an update on my post before.... we got the birth certificate after a call to them explaining the situation, follwed by a letter which they favourably decided on. stadt office was very helpful through this.

30
Thanks to you all for dicussing this topic. I think it is important for anyone non-swiss to consider!!

My story: I am BRITSH, always had a BRITISH passport, my partner is British and holds a British passport. Our issue arose due to me being born in SOUTH AFRICA - even though I basically grew up in UK during schooling years.

I was 7.5 months pregnant, my partners (not married to at this time) passport had run out and needed to be re-newed for business. My passport ran out a month later. We go to the British embassy in Zurich where they see I am pregnant. I was told that my baby WILL NOT be eligible for a British passport! You can only imagine our faces!

Basically the ONLY way my child could have a PASSPORT (not eligible for a swiss, a south african or a british!) was to marry my partner - as the child then takes the fathers nationality. However to get married you need to provide the correct papers etc. This involved having to get my BC from Sth Africa - that would take approx 5 months then additional time for processing on top. I was 7.5 months pregnant!

In the end we gotthe papers via the British embassy in the UK (they hold copies) we married and a week later my son was born. Had I not married my partner - I had NEVER ever intended to get married - I would not have been able to leave Switzerland with my child!

I had a terrible time during the first 2.5 months which meant going back to the UK as I had a condition that hasn't been 'recognised' in Switzerland until recent times. Had I not married I would not have been able to do so. Plus my son "slipped through the net" so to speak, and would not have been able to have a passport at all!! NON of my other non-swiss, EU friends had an issue and couldnt believe this can actually happen!!

Let's hope others can be better forewarned/prepared incase.

31

What a strange situation! What year was this? It's not possible that the child would have been left with no citizenship what so ever! Imagine if the father wasn't around? What is the father had left or was married to someone else, etc, would they have left a child with no nationality??

32
Tammyshanker If the child was born after 1st July 2006 then the unmarried father can pass on his nationality and the child would have been eligible to a UK passport.

Was this before that date ?

ash

33
I'm sure there were various contingency plans for certain circumstances however, having not fallen into any such circumstances ourselves (only being born in Sth Africa) that was the situation at that time. I'm sure after a lengthy amount of time it would have been resolved - without having to marry. That wasnt an option at the time due to travel arrangements & an infection after child birth etc where I had to take my baby with me. And seemingly I am not the only person experiencing this as the post after my original mentions that as of 2006 has now been solved.

Always one to "perfect" my timing (not!) it was 2005....glad to hear that this loophole has now been closed.

34
This is an interesting story tammyshanker, thank you for sharing. One would think that international law would've made the process less burdensome.

35
Goodness.. who would have thought getting a BC would be so painfully difficult! So was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I am Australian and my wife is British - married in Australia. We will be expecting our first child in Nov 08. We still live in Australia and will be moving the Lausanne in June. From reading other posts we will apply for our birth certs within 6mths of our baby being born. Aside from that, is there anything I should be aware of? Anything I should apply for before the birth?

Second question to Australian's in Switzerland. Has anyone been successful in getting the Australian Baby Bonus when living in Switzerland? I have talked to the Family Assistance people in Sydney and received 2 opinions. One said I will be able to get the Bonus and the other said I will not be able to. As the bonus is $5000AUD it would be handy to have! The person who said I will not be able to is because the baby will need to be registered in Australia. I then talked to the Register and they said I will be able to register the Baby in Australia if I 'pretend' to live in Australia! What the??! All a bit confusing. urgh

36
Our baby boy was born just a week ago. My wife is an Indian National and we have had the original birth certificate from India translated into English and attested by a Notary from India (and yes, it is less than six months old). Is this enough or does it have to authorised by some higher authority in India?

37
I've read through this post numerous times and found it very interesting and helpful, however I have a couple more questions I'm hoping someone can help with...

Me and my partner are both British and due to give birth in January. We've got everything we need to register the birth and get a British passport, except for a Paternity Declaration, which we've been told we have to get because we're not married.

Has anyone got any experience of having to get one of these? We were told we could go to the British Embassy in Zurich to get one but have now discovered the office has temporarily shut down! Our other option apparantly, is to go to the British Embassy in Berne to get one, which being 8 months pregnant is not something we especially want to do.

Trying to speak to someone in Berne is proving very difficult and frustrating at the moment, so if anyone here has any advice at all it would be welcomed with open arms!

38
You claim your baby bonus through your tax return - so go ahaead and 'prentend' to live in Australia for it. You will then be taxed at Australian rates - so you will lose more than $5k.

I would recommend requesting a new extract of your marriage certificate and birth certificates before the birth. We were asked for these when checking into the hospital.

39
I cna't give you specific advice...but my recommendation is to ask you to speak to Ms.Lingam at the British Embassy in Berne...she is very helpful...good luck and let us know how you get on.

40
For the Indians (by birth) ,

As every other Indian by birth did not have any so had to get it done too.

Getting a birth certificate is not that difficult no matter what nationality you are now. You though have to travel back to India. Go to Registertions of Births/Deaths office (nearest to your city,town or village where you were born); get it done on a stamped paper with or without any proof (depending how much you want to cough up to the bureaucrat sitting there). Get it notorised, restamped for authenticity at the embassy of India at Bern and deposit it. If you still have contacts in India - ask somebody to get it done for you. It is an hours work.

I did it around 6 years ago when my son was born here in Zurich and it worked.