Registering a birth and acknowledging parentage of a child in the United Kingdom

If your child is born in the UK, you must register the birth at the Local Register Office according to the applicable rules. It is not possible to register the birth of your child at the Dutch embassy.

• Find out more about registering a birth in England and Wales
• Find out more about registering a birth in Scotland
• Find out more about registering a birth in Northern Ireland

If you live outside the Netherlands, you can have the birth certificate from the UK 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).

In the UK, acknowledgement of parentage is linked to parental responsibility. As the child’s mother, you automatically have parental responsibility for your child from the moment they are born.

As the father, you usually have parental responsibility if:

• you are married to the child’s mother, or
• your name is listed on the child’s birth certificate (after a certain date, depending on what part of the UK the child was born in). As the father, you can have your name added to the birth certificate.

Find out more about adding a father’s name to a birth certificate

If you do not automatically have parental responsibility for your child, you can apply for it.

Find out more about applying for parental responsibility in the UK

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