How to Register a Birth in Spain
First things first, congratulations! If you are reading this then either you or a family member or a friend is having a baby. Whether it’s the first or one of many, it’s always an exciting time. What isn’t exciting, however, is paperwork, and babies come with a surprising amount.
Top of the list is the fact that you have to register a birth. Now, bearing in mind how complicated things can be here, doing this is one of the easier processes in Spain, with very little red tape in comparison to other procedures. But to get you through the process even quicker, I’ve put together a breakdown of all you need to know allowing you more time to focus on your precious new addition.
Where to Register a Birth in Spain
So to get started, it pays to be aware of if your hospital has the facility to register births.
Some hospitals do, meaning that parents can avoid having to make a trip to the Civil Registry. However, if you and your partner are foreign nationals, or you want the birth to be included in your Libro de Familia, you will have no choice but to go to the civil registry.
When registered in the hospital, you should receive confirmation of the registration via post or email within 7 days, and that’s it!
If it can’t be done in the hospital, however, then a trip to your municipal civil registry office is in order.
You can choose to do this in the municipality of where the birth happened, or where the parents live and are empadronado. Click here to find out where yours is and here to book an appointment.
So who needs to make the trip?
Well, if you are married then according to the government website a family member can go in your place. That’s good to know if, for complications at the hospital, you and your partner are incapable of going in the allotted time.
On the other hand, from the couple, only one of you needs to make the trip. If you are going solo though I would bring your marriage certificate to your appointment if not married to a Spaniard, and don’t have a libro de familia.
Depending on funcionario (civil servant) you get, they may not accept your marriage certificate if it has not been officially translated by a traductor jurado. Saying this though, if you are planning on living in Spain for the long haul, I would suggest getting this done anyway. In a land where the more papers you have the better, you are going to need it done at some point in the future, if not now.
If not married, you will both need to be present to make the registration. In addition, if one of the parents is divorced or legally separated you will need to bring evidence that it has legal recognition.
How Soon Do You Need to Register a Birth in Spain?
Under perfect circumstances, you should register the birth within the first 10 days of a baby’s arrival. However, if due to circumstances (eg. a prolonged stay in hospital or other complications) you cannot do it within this time, there is no reason to panic.
As long as you can justify the delay, the maximum time allowed is 30 days. Any delay beyond this time will require you to go in person to the Civil Registry
What Documents Do You Need to Bring to Your Appointment?
After time scouring for information, one thing is clear.
There is no clear direction on what is necessary and what isn’t.
Following the government website you only need two things, your ID’s and the medical report. But you soon realize that the hospital will give you a ton of documents and say you need to bring them too.
So my advice is simple.
Bring everything.
The documents they will give you in the hospital are these:
- Birth medical report (Parte médico del Nacimiento)
- Registration Application Form (Cuestionario Para la Declaración de Nacimiento en el Registro Civil) – Yellow document
- Census document (Hoja de datos para el Instituto Nacional de Estadística)
- The mother’s discharge document received from the hospital (Alta hospitalaria)
- A certificate confirming that the baby wasn’t registered at the hospital
In addition to this you will need to bring:
- ID’s of both parents, photocopy’s and originals
- Libro de Familia (if you have one)
One important thing to make sure of before leaving the hospital is that the information written by the doctor on their medical report is correct, including your names. Trust me, you don’t want to have to make a return trip to the hospital for the sake of a misplaced letter!
Now the yellow registration form will need to be filled in by you. Follow these tips to get it right the first time:
- Fill out the document in CAPITAL LETTERS
- For LUGAR (5) put the hospital name and the city
- When putting in the details of the parents (6) they request the names of your parents (hijo/hija de…). Put your father’s name first. If you make a mistake just cross it out
- If your partner is a Spaniard then under OBSERVACIONES (12) you should clarify that you have agreed as parents about the order of your child’s surname. You can write something like:“LOS PADRES DE MUTUO ACUERDO DECIDIMOS QUE EL ORDEN DE APPELLIDOS SEA: The order of your child’s surnames”
- Under DECLARANTE (12) write “LOS PADRES”
- You will both need to sign it
You Thought That Was It...
And there you go! Wasn’t too painful was it?
Hopefully, this run-through of how to register a birth has proven useful for you. Forewarned is definitely forearmed in this sunkissed peninsular, so having a little bit of knowledge about what to do when your little one is here should make the process a little easier.
But alas, there is no rest for the wicked. Next, you need to think about registering them at the doctor’s clinic, getting them empadronado and their social security number. For that reason we will be sure to cover them all at some point on the TFT blog.
But for now, have a coffee, rest up when your little one gives you a chance, and pencil when you think you might be able to get around to them while you are on parental leave.