Register your baby's birth in Spain
For a birth in a hospital, the hospital sends the birth declaration to the Registro Civil (civil registry). Your part is to bring your ID, sign the declaration and choose the name and surname order.
For: Parents of a baby born in a Spanish hospital or clinic, foreign or Spanish, who need the birth entered in the Registro Civil.
Last checked
- Time
- The hospital must communicate the birth to the Registro Civil within 72 hours. Ley 20/2011 del Registro Civil, arts. 44 to 47 (BOE)
What you need
Steps
Tell the hospital staff you want the birth registered, and bring both parents' ID.
The Ministry page does not say what it wants from foreign parents, so ask the hospital which ID it accepts from you.
Ministry of Justice: birth declaration service for health centres
Prove your identity to the health staff who attended the birth.
Give the hospital the marriage proof and your firstborn's birth certificate, if either applies to you.
Ministry of Justice: birth declaration service for health centres
State the baby's name, the order of the surnames and the paternal filiation on the official declaration form.
Sign the declaration the system generates, both parents or the one declarant, as the case requires.
Ministry of Justice: birth declaration service for health centres
Let the hospital send the declaration and the birth report electronically to the Registro Civil of the town where the hospital is.
This is the hospital's job, not yours.
Ministry of Justice: birth declaration service for health centres
If the hospital did not send it in time, or the birth was outside a hospital, declare the birth yourself at the Registro Civil or a consular registry office within 10 days.
Bring the official form and the doctor's medical certificate. After the 10 days, registering needs a ruling in a registry file.
Once the birth is registered, request the baby's birth certificate on the Ministry of Justice electronic office.
With Cl@ve or a digital certificate the certificate can be issued on the spot. Otherwise it comes by post.
Done when: The birth is entered in the Registro Civil and you hold the baby's birth certificate.
Common mistakes
- Letting the 10 days pass when the hospital did not send the declaration. After that, registration needs a ruling in a registry file. Ley 20/2011 del Registro Civil, arts. 44 to 47 (BOE)
What varies
The online birth declaration only works for hospital births and for registry offices that already use the new Ley 20/2011 system, which is rolling out in stages, so the hospital may handle it differently. Ask the hospital what it wants from you. No official page we could read states a fee for registering the birth.
This page is general information, not legal advice.