Howdy y'all
We had a kid in Zollikerberg Spital (super hospital, great experience, would totally recommend it) and yesterday we received the kid's birth certificate. We also got back our marriage certificate.. BUT, they did not send us back me & my wife's birth certificates. Is that normal, or an oversight?

thanks
X

Seems like an oversight to me. Did the hospital apply and send off the paperwork for the kids birth certificate for you? We gave the hospital an envelope with all the paper work in they sent it off and then we got it all back from the stadthaus zurich when we got his certificate back

Congratulations

Chase it up soonest. A problem for British foreigners is that our birth certificates have an embossed seal which results in an expensive but secure certificate.

Swiss and German certificates are simple stamped copies of register entries, they are cheap and have a shelf life.

If the hospital insist on keeping your certificates, explain they are expensive and difficult to get as they are surposed to last a lifetime, and if they need one for their records, then please photocopy them and give the originals back.

Definitely an oversight (or at least a delay, at best). No-one has a right to keep your birth-certificate indefinitely and you shouldn't need to negotiate with the hospital to get them back.

Give them a call, they are probably tucked in someone's "pending" tray.

So I called - turns out I have to pay 30CHF for them to officially copy our birth certificates and then they will send them back to me. Grr, that doesn't feel nice.

Ho hum.

Welcome to Switzerland etc etc

So they were intending on keeping your birth certificates?

When we were gathering paper work to get our baby registered it said we had to have a copy of our birth certificates that were less than 6 months old so we had to order and ay for these from the UK. They wouldn't accept our original birth certificates - no ide the logic behind this. But we still got the copies back

Similar thing for us when we registered paternity before the birth at the zivilstandesamt... The lady started carefully tucking our docs into separate plastic wallets before I thought I'd better ask "you send those back to us, right?"
Wrong - they were going to be stored in the archives. We had to pay a similar amount per document for them to walk to the photocopier and make copies right there and then in front of us, then sign and stamp them... Grrrrr!

yeah. what irks me is that was the fee a total of 30chf, i would be okay to pay it. But for 45chf I could get them reissued from the countries they came from, so paying 60chf unexpectedly is completely annoying.

grr.

I was at the Männedorf Gemeinde with the paperwork for my new baby and I asked for my husband's birth certificate back because it took a couple of months to get it (you thought Quebec was bad - try Queensland Australia). I asked how long they planned to keep the original documents and she said the documents were just going to be filed, so I asked for all my originals back. She simply photocopied them and then gave them back to me.

I got photos of my one month old at the local photo shop in Stäfa. It took ages because he said the babies eyes had to be open and mouth closed. It took a while but still only cost 30CHF.

And then you have to go through the whole photo trauma again for the B-permit. You can't use your photos because they want to do the new biometric ones.

I sent all the required documents via registered post to the Australian Embassy in London to get the Citizenship certificate. They all came back to me OK. For the passport application I did a drive to the Australian Embassy in Geneva (from Zürich) because they have to see you in person. That was a long day with a 6wk old baby in the car, heavy fog on the way down and peak hour traffic home.

Now I have to take the B-permit, passport and insurance papers to our local Gemeinde so they can note that everything has been completed.

It seems like a headache when you start and I wish I had a simple checklist for both non-EU parents like:

1. at 7-8 months pregnant: get new birth certificates of parents and marriage certificate (these cannot be more than 6 months old at step 2);
2. at birth: apply for 'international' birth certificate through hospital or with local Gemeinde, ensure you get your original certificates back;
3. at 2-4 weeks: get passport photo of baby with eyes open, mouth closed (or as close as you can get); and contact insurance company for new cover
4. at 3-5 weeks: book in appointment for B-permit based on letter from Gemeinde (another photo op for baby to have eyes open, mouth closed and looking at small camera in ceiling. Tip: take a squeaky toy or rattle) (use certificates from step 1)
5. at 4 weeks: have first appointment with your new Kinderartz with baby birth book given to you by the hospital
6. at 4-6 weeks: apply for Citizenship of your home country (your baby is not a citizen in Switzerland) (get Ob/Gyn to be guarantor)
7. at 6-8 weeks: apply for Passport of your home country (get Kinderartz to be guarantor)
8. at 8-12 weeks: take babies new B-permit, passport and basic insurance letter to Gemeinde (must be done by 3 months)

Sometimes one becomes an "admin victim" here in Switzerland.

In such cases I write an email or letter to the management and explain why I think this is not correct. Most of the times they are quite reasonable and offer an arrangement of fee cancellation or explain their actions in a more logical way, than some administrative clerk is capable of.

Congratulations to you and your little one

Hey Robyn
I've started the process for my kid to get canadian citizenship (& passport), but I haven't done the B-permit thing ... guess I should pop down to my gemeindehause and ask what the next steps there are... what's the letter you're talking about? I have the international birth certificate...

Re this part "apply for Passport of your home country (get Kinderartz to be guarantor)" ... well not if you're canadian - thanks to unbelievably stupid process, the kinderartz has to have known ME the dad for 2 years at least. Yeah right! Grrrr

X

I got a nice letter from my Gemeinde congratulting me and then listing the things that I need to do. I can't remember if I contacted them first, but if you have not heard from them definitely give them a call. This might impact your tax/child instalments.

One thing I forgot on my list is to notify your house rental company, if applicable, that you have an addition to the family. I don't know if it is more to do with insurance or that it is very difficult to kick out a family renting a house, but it is what my local german teacher said to do.

There is a solution. The Canadian govt has a form PPT 132 which is a statutory declaration in lieu of a guarantor. You need to contact your local embassy for a copy of this form. I could not find it online and your govt web site says to do that. See this: http://www.ppt.gc.ca/support/faq.aspx?lang=eng&id=04423