Documents You Need Notarised When Registering a Birth Overseas

"Registering a birth overseas" usually means one of two things, and they need quite different paperwork:

• Your child was born in Australia, and you want to register the birth with your own country — through its embassy or consulate here — so the child is recorded as its citizen and can get its passport.
• Your child was born abroad, and you are an Australian citizen who wants the child recognised as Australian.

The first is the common case and the main subject of this page. The second is covered briefly at the end. In neither does a notary do much, which is worth knowing before you book one.

Step one: register the birth in Australia and get the right certificate

Nothing happens with a foreign consulate until the birth is registered with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the state or territory where the child was born. The hospital or midwife provides the notification, and parents complete the registration themselves, usually within a set period.

Then order the full birth certificate — the standard certificate that names both parents. Three documents are commonly confused with it:

• the hospital's birth record or discharge papers
• the registry's acknowledgement that the registration was received
• a commemorative certificate: DFAT will legalise one, but consulates generally expect the standard certificate, and some commemorative versions leave out parents' details

None of these will satisfy a consulate. Order the standard certificate, and consider ordering two.

Step two: get the consulate's list — and its deadline

Every country sets its own requirements, and many set a time limit for registering a birth abroad, with a longer or harder process after it passes. Find your consulate's current instructions early, ideally before the birth.

Typical requirements include:

• the child's full birth certificate
• both parents' passports, and sometimes proof of the parent's citizenship
• the parents' marriage certificate, if they are married
• an application form, and passport photos of the child
• sometimes an appointment attended by both parents and the baby

Step three: authenticate the birth certificate, probably without a notary

Although the consulate is in Australia, it applies its own country's rules, and many want the Australian birth certificate apostilled or authenticated by DFAT before they will accept it.

A registry birth certificate is a public document, and DFAT may be able to apostille or authenticate the original directly, without a notary. Confirm with DFAT. If it can, the route is simply registry, DFAT, consulate. Our birth certificate page sets out both routes, including when a notarised copy is better.

Whether your country is an apostille member must be checked against the HCCH status table on the day. If it is not, DFAT authenticates the certificate and the consulate then legalises it.

The consulate also decides whose translation it accepts. Many translate or check documents themselves; ask before paying for one here.

Where a notary may genuinely be needed

A parent who cannot attend. If the consulate wants both parents to consent to the registration or the child's first passport, and one parent cannot attend — working interstate, overseas, or not in contact — that parent's signed consent may need to be witnessed by a notary. If they are overseas, they sign before a notary where they are.

Acknowledgement of paternity. Where the parents are not married, some countries require the father to formally acknowledge the child before he can be recorded, or before citizenship passes through him. Some accept that acknowledgement signed before a notary; others require it before the consul. Ask which.

Names. Naming conventions differ. A country may require a particular surname structure, or a joint declaration by both parents choosing the child's name, and the Australian certificate may not match what its register expects. If a declaration is needed, ask whether the consulate takes it at the appointment or wants it notarised in advance.

Keeping the original. If you need the original birth certificate for something else at the same time, a notarised copy, then authenticated, may be accepted instead.

Afterwards: the child's passport and your records

Once the birth is registered, the child can usually be issued that country's passport. Keep the consulate's registration certificate with the Australian birth certificate; you will need both again, particularly if the child later claims that citizenship as an adult. Our page on applying for dual citizenship covers claims made later by descent.

Whether holding that citizenship affects anything in Australia, and whether that country permits dual nationality, are questions to check with both governments.

If your child was born overseas and you are Australian

A child born abroad to an Australian parent may be eligible for Australian citizenship by descent, applied for through the Department of Home Affairs. The key document is the foreign birth certificate, which is authenticated in the country that issued it, if at all. An Australian notary cannot vouch for it. Home Affairs generally accepts certified copies from an authorised person, and a translation by a NAATI-credentialled translator where one is needed in Australia.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Justice of the Peace certify the birth certificate for the consulate? No. A foreign consulate applies its own country's rules, and a JP's certification cannot be apostilled.

Do I need the long or short birth certificate? The full one naming both parents. A consulate needs the parentage, because citizenship passes through it.

We missed the consulate's deadline. Is it too late? Usually not, but the process often becomes longer. Ask the consulate what applies now.