Birth abroad

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If you live abroad and your child is born there, you can register the birth with the local authorities. Foreign birth certificates are valid in the Netherlands provided they are legalised. If you wish, you can register a foreign birth certificate with the Foreign Documents Department of the municipality of The Hague. Postal address: Dienst Publiekszaken, afdeling Landelijke Taken, Postbus 12620, 2500 DL Den Haag.

If your child is born on board a Dutch seagoing vessel outside the Netherlands, the captain must draw up a temporary birth certificate. He will then send a copy of the birth certificate to the Population Affairs Department of the municipality of the Hague, which will draw up a definitive birth certificate (under Civil Code, Book 1, article 19a, paragraph 2).

On 1 January 2012, the Consular Decree of 22 November 2011 entered into force. See https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2011-660.html. Under this decree, births may be registered at the missions listed in article 2. These missions will also provide copies of the birth certificates concerned. You cannot register these birth certificates with the Foreign Documents Department of the municipality of The Hague because they are Dutch certificates.

Until 31 December 2011, Consular Decree 1981 was in force. See http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003460/geldigheidsdatum_26-12-2011. Birth certificates drawn up under this decree are kept in the records of the missions where they were drawn up. Copies of these birth certificates can still be obtained from these missions or, if a mission has since closed down, from its legal successor.