Registering a birth and acknowledging parentage of a child in France

If your child is born in France, you must register the birth with the French municipality where your child was born. It is not possible to register the birth of your child at the Dutch embassy.

If you live outside the Netherlands, you can have the French birth certificate converted into a Dutch birth certificate at the municipality of The Hague’s Foreign Documents Department. This is not mandatory, but it can be useful if you ever need an extract from the birth certificate in the future. Having the document converted does not take care of your child’s registration in the Non residents Records Database (RNI).

If you live in the Netherlands, you must also register the birth with the municipality where you live, using the foreign birth certificate. Do this as soon as possible once you return to the Netherlands. The municipality will then process your and your child’s details in the Personal Records Database (BRP).

If you are married to the child’s mother and your name is on the child’s birth certificate as the father, you do not have to acknowledge parentage of the child.

If you are the child’s father and you are not married to the child’s mother, even if you are in a civil partnership (PACS), you must acknowledge parentage of the child before or after the birth.

• If as the father you acknowledge parentage of your child before their first birthday, you will automatically be granted parental responsibility.
• If your child is older than 1 when you acknowledge parentage of them, you and your partner can jointly submit a declaration to the court to have you granted parental responsibility.

Find out more about acknowledging parentage in France (in French).

If you live in the Netherlands or if you are Dutch and live abroad, you can always acknowledge parentage in the Netherlands of your child born in France. You can do this at the municipality or a notary. You can also authorise someone to do this in the Netherlands on your behalf. To do this, you must get a notary to draw up a power of attorney. You cannot acknowledge parentage of your child at a Dutch embassy or consulate-general.

Acknowledging parentage does not automatically grant you parental responsibility for your child. Find out more about acknowledging parentage in the Netherlands on Government.nl.