Registration of a Child’s Birth in a Foreign Country
If a child is born abroad and the birth is registered there, the birth does not need to be re-registered in Estonia. However, a birth document from a foreign country must be submitted to the local government of the county centre (Tallinn Vital Statistics Department in Tallinn ) or the Estonian foreign mission for registration in the population register within 30 days from the registration of the birth in a foreign country. An original document that is legalised or confirmed with a certificate (apostille) must be submitted unless the law provides otherwise. The documents must be in Estonian or, in the case of documents in a foreign language, translated into Estonian, Russian or English unless the document is in Russian or English already. The translation must be made by a sworn translator, or if there is no sworn translator in a specific country and there is no sworn translator of the corresponding language in Estonia, the translation may be made by an official translator of a foreign country.
If a child is born in a foreign country and stays there
In a foreign country, the birth of a child must be registered in the relevant office of the foreign country (either the registry office or another competent institution), where the child’s birth certificate is issued based on the medical birth certificate obtained from the hospital. The certificate contains the child’s name and parents’ information.
If you are an Estonian citizen living in an EU country, you have to apply for a passport or an ID card for your child. With these documents, it is possible to travel with the child, including coming to Estonia.
If you have had the details of the child’s birth certificate entered into the Estonian population register at an Estonian embassy (i.e. made a data collection), you can apply for a passport or an ID card for the child conveniently at the self-service of the Police and Border Guard Board.
You can also apply for an ID card and passport at the Estonian embassy , where you can also apply for registering the child’s permanent residence in a foreign country. The application must be signed by both custodial parents or a written consent form from the other parent must be included. You can find additional information about registering a residence abroad on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From the age of 12, a child must provide fingerprints at an Estonian embassy when applying for a passport or an ID card.
If the child’s data has not been previously entered in the Estonian population register, this is done after submitting a passport and/or an ID card application and is generally organised by the Police and Border Guard Board. The child then receives an Estonian personal identification code.
If one of the child’s parents is an Estonian citizen and the other is a citizen of another country
A child is considered an Estonian citizen if at least one of his/her parents is an Estonian citizen. If the other parent of the child is a citizen of another country, the child may also acquire citizenship of another country, depending on the laws of the other country, and the child then has dual citizenship. Some countries grant their citizenship to a child born in their territory whose parents themselves may not be citizens of the country of birth (e.g. USA). In this case, the child may have multiple citizenships at birth (that of the country of birth, that of the Estonian citizen parent, and that of the other parent who is a citizen of another country). The child’s parents can choose and decide which country’s travel document or documents (passports) to request for the child.
It must be taken into account that by applying for a travel document, the child’s citizenship of one or another country is confirmed, and this entails the usual rights and obligations of a citizen towards the respective country (e.g. the right to participate in elections, the obligation of young men to serve in the defense forces, etc.). It should also be taken into account that, according to international practice, Estonia cannot offer consular protection to a dual citizen who lives in the country of his/her second citizenship (e.g. an Estonian-US dual citizen who lives in the US cannot receive protection from the US authorities from the Estonian embassy, honorary consul or embassy of a member state of the European Union).
If the child is born in a foreign country, but the family lives permanently in Estonia
If a child was born unexpectedly during a trip abroad and you want to return to Estonia with him/her as soon as possible, you can apply for a return certificate for the child to travel to Estonia from the nearest Estonian embassy or honorary consul . For this, one of the parents needs to go to the embassy or honorary consul (the document is not issued by mail) and submit:
- an application that you can fill out on the spot;
- duly certified birth certificate of the child (with an apostille or legalised in the country of residence) and, if necessary, its translation by a sworn translator (if the document itself is not in English or Russian);
- 2 colour document photos of the child measuring 40×50 mm;
- simple written consent of the child’s other parent for issuing a certificate of return to the child.
The consul usually decides on issuing a return certificate within three working days, in exceptional cases, it may take up to 15 working days to make a decision. If possible, the birth of the child is immediately entered in the Estonian population register at the embassy, and a personal identification code is created for the child.
A certificate of return can be issued as a primary travel document for a child up to one-year-old, but if it is planned to live abroad with the child for some time after birth, it is recommended to apply for a passport or an ID card immediately. Based on these documents, the child can apply for a residence permit or register his/her right of residence in the country of stay belonging to the European Union, but this cannot be done based on the return certificate. Based on a passport, it is possible to travel with a child all over the world, based on an ID card, it is possible to travel in countries belonging to the European Union. You can only travel directly back to Estonia with a return certificate, the document is taken away by the border guard when crossing the Estonian border.
If the child was born in a foreign country, the birth is unregistered in a foreign country and at least one parent is either an Estonian citizen or a resident of Estonia, it is possible to register the birth in Estonia based on a medical birth certificate issued by a hospital in the foreign country of the child’s birth. The hospital document is subject to all the same requirements as other foreign documents. Read more about the necessary documents here.
However, it should be noted that the child must remain in the foreign country with the other parent until the parent who registered the birth in Estonia has applied for a passport or ID card for the child in Estonia and taken it to the foreign country, or, had it sent to an Estonian embassy or honorary consul in the foreign country.
Alternatively, instead of issuing a passport or an ID card, parents can apply for a return certificate for the child, with which the child can travel to Estonia with the parent. A child cannot have two documents (a passport or an ID card and a certificate of return) at the same time, i.e. parents have to choose favour of one or the other document. Estonian embassies do not document the child of an Estonian resident who is a citizen of a foreign country. To obtain a travel document, parents who are residents of Estonia and wish to register the birth of a child in Estonia must contact the embassy of their country of citizenship to obtain a travel document for the child.
For example, Russian or Indian citizens who are residents of Estonia and have a child born in Finland must contact the embassy of their country of citizenship in Estonia or Finland to obtain a travel document for the child to register the child’s birth in Estonia. If there are no embassies of the countries of citizenship in Estonia or Finland, they must contact the country where the embassy exists.
If the child of parents with unspecified citizenship living in Estonia was born in a foreign country
The birth of a child born abroad to parents of unspecified citizenship living in Estonia must also be registered in the relevant office of the foreign country (a registry office or other competent institution), where the child’s birth certificate is issued with the child’s name and parents’ information.
In most countries, the birth certificate must be certified with an apostille or legalised (in countries where certification with an apostille is not used) and have a translation done by a sworn translator (if the document itself is not in English or Russian).
For a child up to one-year-old, a return permit is issued by the Estonian embassy or honorary consul in the country where the child is staying . You can get more detailed information by calling the 24/7 hotline (+372) 5301 9999 of the consular assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or writing to the online consul on Facebook.
Upon arrival in Estonia, parents must apply to the Police and Border Guard Board to apply for Estonian citizenship documents for their child, or by submitting a separate application for a foreigner’s passport and residence permit. You can find the list of documents required for applying and the options for applying on the website of the Police and Border Guard Board.
Which operations carry charges?
If the parents live in a foreign country, it is necessary to find out from the local social security institution which services the family needs to pay for themselves (hospital costs for the mother and child, etc.) and for which ones it does not. In the case of giving birth during a trip abroad, it should be taken into account that giving birth abroad is not usually covered by travel insurance. The child’s parents have to pay the hospital and other bills themselves (including buying a plane/transport ticket for the child). In both cases – both when the family lives abroad and when the birth took place while traveling abroad and the family lives permanently in Estonia – the family itself must pay the state fees or service fees charged for obtaining, translating and confirming foreign birth documents. If necessary, you can ask for advice by calling the 24/7 hotline of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (+372) 5301 9999 or writing to the online consul on Facebook .
If the child was not entered into the population register
If an entry in the Estonian population register was not made for some reason (e.g. honorary consuls of Estonia cannot do this), upon arrival in Estonia, a properly certified birth certificate of the child must be presented to the local government (a legalised document or a document with an apostille. The birth certificate has to be legalised either at an Estonian embassy or the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and a translation of the birth certificate by a sworn translator (if the document itself is not in English or Russian). If there is no sworn translator in a specific country and there is no sworn translator of the corresponding language in Estonia, the translation may be made by an official translator of a foreign country. The child’s data will then be entered into the population register and the child will receive an Estonian personal identification code.
How and where can documents be apostilled or legalised?
Documents can be apostilled in a competent authority of a foreign country. Documents can be legalised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the foreign mission of the foreign country where the documents were issued, and also at the Estonian foreign mission or the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, legalised documents of foreign embassies located on the territory of Estonia do not need to be legalised in the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
You can find information about which documents do not need to be apostilled or legalised on the Ministry of the Interior website. You can find more information about document legalisation on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Here, you will also find application forms, bank details and reference numbers needed to pay the state fee of 30 euros.