Civil status

A newborn child must be registered in the Civil Register for the commune where they are born, within 5 days of their birth.

Typically, it is the father who registers a child's birth. However, the formalities may be carried out by the physician, the midwife, the mother or any other person who witnessed the birth.

Required documents

• To register a child in the civil register, a record of the birth called an 'avis de naissance' must be presented. This document is issued by the midwife.
• For married couples, the family record book or a marriage certificate must also be presented.
• Unmarried people must bring their identity cards and birth certificates.

Procedures

Non-Luxembourgish parents need to declare the child to the commune and then to their own consulates or embassies.

Parents of Portuguese and Cape Verdean nationality must register their child with the consulate before registering them in the civil register.

This is to prevent the child from becoming stateless, or from automatically receiving Luxembourgish nationality.

The civil registrar will provide parents with multiple extracts of the birth certificate, which must be submitted to the following bodies and individuals:

• Your municipal administration
  If the place in which your child was born and where they normally reside are not the same, you also need to register the child with the municipal administration of their place of residence
  
  
• Your employer
  
  
• The Children's Future Fund (Caisse pour l’avenir des enfants - CAE)
  along with the application for family allowance and birth allowance, which you will be given by the civil registrar
  
  
• Your health insurance fund
  to register your child for health insurance, and obtain their social security number