I'd like to thank everyone here for this useful topic and all the posts. It never occurred to me that getting a birth certificate would be so difficult. I am American, husband is Belgian and our first son is due in May. I just contacted my comune office and was told the same, we need to re-request certified copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc., all within 6 months of the birth.

Apparently just to add insult to injury, the leaflets provided to me detailing what documents AMERICANS and BELGIANS need to get a birth certificate in TICINO (remember we speak Italian down here) are printed in GERMAN!

Could you tell me how your marriage did held in Sweden? Did you have to regist your marriage in a Swiss consulate / embassy in Sweden or in the local Swedish community "kommun"?
I ask because we want to get married in Sweden as well. I am an asylum seeker here in Sweden and my boyfriend is Swiss. Does my Swiss boyfriend need to take with him any documents and which, so we could get married here? How does this system work? None of us has ever been married.

aaaaaa ask on a Swedish Forum they will have more up to date info on all the things you and your boyfriend will need. Congratulations for your future marriage and I hope everything goes well.

Just an addendum to my original post. I am due in two weeks and I stopped by the commune office to check that my documents were in order. I highly recommend this additional step. Though I had followed, to the letter, the documentation provided to me which indicated what the necessary documents were, I was told that there were additional things not listed.*

Specifically, my (brand spanking new copy of my) American birth certificate requires an Apostille - this was not mentioned in the documentation provided. I now know that I will need to get an Apostille for every American document, but I had no idea at the time.

Additionally, they rejected one of the required documents for my husband - a certification of "etat civil" provided by the Belgian embassy. They told us to go back to the Belgian embassy and have them change their form! to include our date of marriage. Fortunately, the Belgian embassy has been great about getting our docs and an email on Wednesday produced the new document in our mailbox on Friday, free of charge. They are so great, it makes me really hate dealing with all the separate state agencies in the US!

* Incidentally, if you feel like having a go at someone over the stupidity of these rules, the incomplete documentation they provide, and the fact that it is provided in a foreign language (see my last post) -- I find that being 8 1/2 months pregnant gives you a little leeway to scream at the guy behind the counter without any repercussions.

Oldhand, thank you so much for your uick reply. I think it's better if I ask in a swedesh local community which is responsible for the marriages if they have ever had Swiss-Swedish marriages in their office. I guess it's the best solution.
It's too early to congratulate because we are just preparing for it:-) anyway, you seem to be a very kind person.
I hope soon we'll get married, may be in the beginning of June 2009. We know each other for 5 years and it's time for both of us to make a family and produce our beautiful generation.
We'll see what is going to happen, I'll inform you here if we'll set a date of our marriage

Just saw this now:

For us, English-Colombian couple, no problem with 1st born in 2003.
They accepted our existing paperwork no problem.

But for 2nd born in 2006, big problems
They wanted my wife's birth certificate registered at Swiss Embassy in Bogota. Or they could do it for us, pay 1000 CHF.

I dug my heels in, e-mailed Kofi Annan at the United Nations, claiming DENIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER UN CONVENTION, copied Uster Gemeinde, got my manager to call up directly.

Suddenly all was OK.

Switzerland is a signatory to UN charter to human rights. Every canton is obliged to issue a birth certificate to every child born in Switzerland without any demands from the parents. This is irrespective of nationality, immigration status, whether legally or illegally in Switzerland.

This is the human right of the child.

Swiss authorities repeatedly break this law as most foreigners are very ill informed and the Swiss authorities make advantage of this as part of their institutionalized harassment to decent hard working foreigners.

Anyone having any such difficulty should challenge the local authority if a birth certificate is denied or delayed due to parents birth certificates or any other reasons.

There are many cases where parents have successfully challenged the Births/Deaths Registrar by writing a formal letter stating their legal obligation to issue a birth certificate. Of course these are never published or made available public.

Anyone who is going through the process of identity investigation that costs signification sums of money can ask for the money back.

There are several human rights lawyers in Switzerland who can help you draft a letter or even write a letter on your behalf to the Bern. This will cost you CHF 300. This money is worth spending, as least you will have your human dignity back.

Here is the person you need to write to at the UN:

Navanethem Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

I wish I had read this thread before our twins were born this year. They are now five months old and we still do not have Swiss birth certificates. The main reason is because we waited until after they were born then tried to submit information (two months afterwards) but three weeks later had everything returned asking for birth certificates no older than six months. I would advise everyone to solve this before if possible.

We are currently waiting for my wife BC before we can resend the information to the Zurich authorities. Only then can we apply for child benefits, take the kids out of the country and have them registered with British consulate/attain British passports. It sure is a long trek!

Hi,

Im just about to deliver in 3 weeks in Winterthur and as my husband doesnt speak german i thought to find the address for him to sort out the birth certificate. I called them and found out about all the documents required and it seems that all the posts in this forum about requiring an original birth certificate of both the parents which is less than 6 months old is completely true.

I am just shocked and thinking not to even deliver here anymore. Just to sort out my birth certificate from Saudi Arabia is going to take ages and i think i will be stuck in this country forever. We had our daughter in Dubai and i remember them not asking for anything. I called my mum in germany to find out how it works there and again all the need is just the parents passport.

Whats the issue here in Switzerland or is it just the canton of Zurich? I could not imagine delivering a baby in this country could be so difficult!

I dont know what to do anymore. After reading your thread we have already contacted a lawyer to write to the authorities as a birth certificate is a human right for any child in the world, no matter what nationality, race or place.

With all the stress I am thinking I am going to have the baby any minute.

I would appreciate if anybody can offer any more advice or their experience in this matter?

Thanks, Maria

Dear Maria

I hope sharing my experience will help you.

My wife and I both come from non-EU countries. Before our baby was born this year, we were informed earlier by a friend that there would be some difficulties to obtain a birth certificate. And it was true, here is the link for requirements for each nationality:

http://www.gaz.zh.ch/internet/ji/gz/...dsf/wlehe.html

(all documents are in German, but you can use copy and paste to translate these documents using Google Translate, or Yahoo Translate etc)

My wife was born in China, and later her family emigrated to Australia. This has made the matter worse because China would not reissue a birth certificate for an Australian.

We have pursued 3 ways to solve this problem:

1. First of all, although apparently this "rule" applies to all Cantons, we found out that some Cantons are more "sensible" in interpreting and implementing these rules, for example, Basel Stadt and Luzern. We went to see the officials in these Cantons before the birth, and they looked at my wife's original birth certificate, checked on some systems, and finally said there was no need to get a new birth certificate. This made us almost change our hospital to Luzern (as it was closer compared to Basel).

2. The second way we have pursued is to make my wife's Chinese birth certificate into a legal Australian document through Apostille because Australian papers are more recognized by Swiss authorities, and do not need to go through all the certifications etc. (see the link above for requirements of certifications for each country).

(For more info about Apostille, see wikipedia -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_C...blic_Documents)

In the end, we got an Apostille-affixed paper for my wife's birth certificate but it was not used because we managed to get through via the third way ... (and we did not have to move to a Luzern hospital too)

3. We escalated the matter from Gemeinde to Canton authority level through a friendly, personal and yet not threatening approach. We started off with emailing the officers at the Gemeinde, and she said no, we had to get a new certificate. And then we went to talk to her face to face. Again she said no. After one week, we went back and said that we have tried many ways (contacting Chinese Embassy here, calling friends in China to go to Birth Registry there etc), but could not get the Chinese government to reissue the birth certificate, she went to her boss, and again she said no. And then we asked to talk to her boss to explain our situations. And so she went, but she said her boss did not want to see us, and said that even they said yes, someone at the Canton office would say no. So we took the hint, and asked for the contact for that "someone", and repeated the same process ... It took us almost 1.5 month, and in the end, the "Zivilstandsinspektor" (with his name stated) wrote an email to me granting us an exception!

The lessons that I had learned throughout this experience were:
1. Every Canton may implement the rules differently. (And even the officers at the same Canton may interpret the rules differently, according to one of my Swiss friends) Sometimes you just have to go back again, and meet different officers.
2. There is a way to convince the authority here - through face-to-face discussion, proper reasoning (with evidence), friendly but yet influencing manner. I think if they see that you have really put in effort, and have proposed some alternatives to comply to the rules, they may just accept your alternatives. (I avoid the word "begging" because I don't think this will work, similarly for "threatening" or "other cantons can do this for my friends ...")

My wife's birth certificate was the "major battle" that we had to fight (and win), but along the way I also have managed to take some shortcuts here and there for my own birth certificate, using similar tactics with Swiss Embassy in my country.

Hope this helps. You can see that I avoid using specific details/names so that some of these "routes" may remain viable for others. If you need further info, you are welcome to contact me.

Cheers,
A new parent

I first want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread! It has been a great resource to prepare for the birth of our son.

My husband and I are US citizens, married in the US, etc.- nothing complicated. We have my birth certificate and our marriage certificate certified with the apostille page and are waiting for my husband's to be completed. Georgia (love the state but...) seems to take months to complete anything.

My questions is this. My due date is Jan 3 and about 2.5 months later I need to be in the states as I am supposed to be in a friend's wedding. IF we have all the information/paperwork ready and filled out correctly, about how long does it take to receive the Swiss birth certificate and then after sending everything off to the embassy, receive the US passport? If it matters, I was planning on using the Zürich Consular Agency (since we live in Oerlikon) even though you have to make an appointment unlike in Bern where you can walk in.

I realize obtaining a permit will be one of the more time consuming parts but I have heard that you can get something stating that the infant's residence permit is being processed and you can come back into the country with that.

Any recent experiences that you could share about any of this would be amazing. Thanks!

Hi, we just went through this and I found it to be a head-ache. Even with paperwork submitted it took the Zollikon geminde way over 2 months. I would suggest you bring it in person and meet the case worker. And then just follow up. First they will send you a copy to verify if they have entered the information correctly, then once you submit back then another 2 weeks for the original file. Seriously if you do have the time just do it in person and then follow up. Make it clear that you are planning to go to US and do need the paperwork...It took us only 5 days to receive the US passport...If you need any other info please let me know. Bo

A correction is needed here I think - it cannot apply to the Native Passport,
for that is renewable every five (in some Countries) & 10 years. It must be
valid at the time of renewal of the CH Residence Permit and be valid during the period of the issue of the Residence Permit.

We had a birth certificate related passport delay and had (stupidly) planned to travel quite soon after the birth.

In the end we went to the airport with the birth certificate, but no passport to fly in the Schengen area. No one batted an eyelid at check in, customs or at the plane. We asked on the way back (tempting fate!) and they said that there is no legal reason to travel with a passport in the Schengen area, as long as you have official ID. They specifiy it as a something everyone has from all nationalities.

Nice surprise in the end!

Thank you very much for your reply, Bo. If Im reading correctly, you're saying that it took 2 months for the birth certificate? I wasn't sure if the hospital sends off the paperwork for the certificate or if I am supposed to take it in but if you're saying to take it in mysef then I certaintly will (or send my husband).

As for the passport, did you have to go for an appointment? I just thought the process would take longer than 5 days if they get your photocopies and paperwork in the mail and then call you in and then process things... But 5 days would be awesome!

Thanks so much!
Jessica