Registering a birth in Switzerland

Hi,

Well when our daughter was born in 2011 (in Morges, Vaud) we had to present our "Livret de Famille" as proof of being married, then had to get it officialized through the Vaud commune, which involved adding a page to our livret de famille.

I don't remember it being too much of a hassle to simply register her birth, but to then have to sort out insurance, ID, passport... that was a bit more complicated!

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us


Priscilla
Expat.com Team

Our daughter was born in hospital (February 2013, Olten SO). The hospital took over the registration procedure with the authorities, this seems to be the default procedure in Switzerland.
It requires the following documents of the parents (source: home page of the hospital):
- Swiss: marriage certificate, if married.
- Foreign nationality: if married in Switzerland, marriage certificate (no copy, not older than 6 months) and ID. If married abroad, also a birth certificate (no copy, not older than 6 months).
If not married: ID, birth certificate (no copy, not older than 6 months) and proof of not being married of your country (no copy, not older than 6 months).
Note that foreign documents may require an official translation, depending on the country and language of the document.
The documents will be returned to you when mother and child leave the hospital. A birth certificate and/or an additional page or notition to the family booklet will have been included by the authorities.

Nationality: if (and only if) one or both of the parents are Swiss, the child automatically obtains Swiss citizenship. If one or both parents are not Swiss, the child may (additionally) obtain their citizenship, depending on legislation of the respective country.

If the parents are not married, pay attention to the following:
- the (biological) father can acknowledge that he is the father of the child. This will give the father all rights and duties of a father. It can be done before or after the birth of the child, there is no time limit. This is only possible if the mother is not married to another man.
- the mother has the sole responsibility to raise the child. Mother and father can request the shared responsibility to raise the child at the local council, provided the father has acknowledged the child.
- The child will have the mother's surname if the parents are not married, it will have the father's surname if the parents are married. There may be exceptions to this rule in the case one or both parents do not have Swiss citizenship.

Insurance: when living in Switzerland, the child has to have a health insurance within 3 months after its birth. There is a (mandatory) base insurance and many (non-mandatory) additional insurances. For the base insurance, no questions are asked by the insurance company (they have to accept your child). For the additional insurance, the companies may require additional information. Check this out, and be aware that the earlier you apply for the additional insurance, the easier it is. Particularly, an additional dental insurance may be worthwile.

ID and passport: for Swiss kids (that is: mother and/or father is Swiss), you can easily obtain ID/passport at the local or regional council. Non-Swiss kids (both father and mother are foreigners) usually can obtain a passport at the embassy of their country. Procedures differ from country to country.

Hi Twan,

That's pretty much as I remember it too - as we were married at the time of my daughter's birth and my wife is Swiss, registering the birth was very straightforward (as you said, just needed the livret de famille plus ID).

We organized a Swiss passport and ID card for our daughter within a few weeks of the birth as I wanted to travel to England to show her off to my family (she was 9 weeks old for her first flight!). That wasn't too complicated, but finding out whether we needed to register her with the UK authorities was more difficult...

As I am a British citizen, my daughter automatically qualifies for British citizenship as well, even though she lives in Switzerland. This means she can apply for a British passport and dual nationality.

I haven't yet applied for the British nationality as it seems very complicated - I found out that this needs to be done before she is 5 years old, so I will try to sort it out at the beginning of next year. Finding accurate information on how to do this is pretty complicated, so I will just go and ask someone when I am next in England in December!

Paul