Registering a birth and acknowledging parentage of a child in Singapore

If your child is born in Singapore, you must register the birth in Singapore. If you live in the Netherlands, you must also register the birth in the Netherlands. You cannot acknowledge parentage of a child in Singapore, but you can in the Netherlands.

Registering a birth

You must always register the birth of your child in the country where they were born. How you register a birth varies by country. If you live in the Netherlands and your child was born abroad, you must also register the birth in the Netherlands.

If your child is born in Singapore, you must register the birth there. This is done at the hospital. It is not possible to register the birth of your child at the Dutch embassy.

To register the birth you will need to following documents:

both parents’ passports
both parents’ residence permits
marriage certificate (international form or translation)

The hospital will give you:

your child’s birth certificate
a letter from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to apply for a residence permit for your child. You must arrange your child’s residence permit within 42 days of their birth. Find out more about residence permits on the website of Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower.

If you live outside the Netherlands, you can have the Singapore birth certificate converted into a Dutch birth certificate at the municipality of The Hague’s Foreign Documents Department. This is not mandatory, but it can be useful if you ever need an extract from the birth certificate in the future. Having the document converted does not take care of your child’s registration in the Non residents Records Database (RNI).

If you live in the Netherlands, you must also register the birth with the municipality where you live, using the foreign birth certificate. Do this as soon as possible once you return to the Netherlands. The municipality will then process your and your child’s details in the Personal Records Database (BRP).

Before you can use a Singapore birth certificate in the Netherlands you must first have it legalised. Find out how to have a birth certificate legalised.

Other important information

If you have a legalised birth certificate for your child from Singapore, you can apply for a travel document for them. Singapore birth certificates don’t differentiate between surnames and given names. Instead, they give a chain of names. When registering a birth certificate in Singapore, be sure:

that the child’s surname comes at either the beginning or end of the chain of names
that the given names appear in the correct order. They will then appear in the same order in the Dutch travel document.

From 1 January 2024, your child can have both your surname and your partner's surname. Even if your child is born abroad. Would you like to give your child a combined surname and is this not possible in your country of residence? Then go to a municipality in the Netherlands to record the choice of name. You can also authorise someone to do this for you. Read more on the page Which surname can I choose for my child? on Rijksoverheid.nl (information in Dutch).

Acknowledging parentage of a child

You cannot acknowledge parentage of a child in Singapore.

You can acknowledge parentage of your child if you are not automatically the legal parent. By doing so you declare that you are the child’s parent.

If you live in the Netherlands or if you are Dutch and live abroad, you can always acknowledge parentage in the Netherlands of your child born in Singapore. You can do this at the municipality or a notary. You can also authorise someone to do this in the Netherlands on your behalf. To do this, you must get a notary to draw up a power of attorney. You cannot acknowledge parentage of your child at a Dutch embassy or consulate-general.

Acknowledging parentage does not automatically grant you parental responsibility for your child. Acknowledgement of parentage in the Netherlands is legally valid in Singapore, provided the declaration is in English or is an international form.

Find out more about acknowledging parentage in the Netherlands on Government.nl.

If you want to arrange something for your child, you may need their birth certificate or a declaration of acknowledgement of parentage.

More information

Find out more about becoming a parent outside the Netherlands

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