Quick reference · AuthoritiesRegisteringyour baby
6 min read · Last updated September 2026 · Written and reviewed by Emma, Birth & Mother
On this page
01
What happens, and in what order
The paperwork after a birth is a chain. Most of it needs the document before it, so out of order it simply waits, and in order it moves faster than you would think while you are holding a newborn.
The hospital, or your midwife (Hebamme) at a birth outside one, sends notice of the birth to the register office (Standesamt). You register the birth there and come away with the birth certificate (Geburtsurkunde), usually as several certified copies. Everything after that asks for one of those copies: your baby on a health insurance policy, child benefit, parental allowance, your baby registered at your address.
There is a deadline for registering the birth and it is a short one. The hospital or your register office will tell you the date that applies to you, and someone else can go in your place if you are still recovering.
02
The parts you can do before the birth
Some of the chain can be finished while you are still pregnant, which is worth knowing, because the first weeks with a baby are not the weeks for queueing at an office.
- If you are not married to each other, the acknowledgement of fatherhood (Vaterschaftsanerkennung) and, if you want it, the joint custody declaration (Sorgeerklärung) can both be made during pregnancy. Made in advance, they can be on record from the start.
- Your register office will ask for your baby's name when you register the birth. Which surnames are open to your family depends on your own circumstances, and the office will talk it through with you before the day.
- Ask your hospital or your midwife what they send to the register office and what you carry there yourself. It differs from place to place.
- Ask your register office for its list of documents. Most publish one, and it saves a second appointment.
03
The register office, and the certificate
The certificate is the document the rest of the chain is built on, so the useful question at the counter is how many copies you should take away with you. Different offices each keep one, and going back for another is an appointment you do not want in your first month.
Ask which copies you need for which claim, and which of them are issued to you free of charge for those claims. Your register office answers both, and the answer is theirs to give rather than mine.
04
What the certificate unlocks
With a copy of the certificate in hand, the rest can be done in any order that suits your household. Each one belongs to an office of its own, and each office is the authority on its own part:
The register office
Standesamt
Registers the birth and issues the birth certificate (Geburtsurkunde). It is the office for the district where your baby was born, which is not always the district you live in. Its own page lists what to bring and how to make the appointment.
The youth welfare office
Jugendamt
Takes the acknowledgement of fatherhood and the joint custody declaration, free of charge, before or after the birth. A register office, a notary and the local court can take them too.
The citizens' office
Bürgeramt or Einwohnermeldeamt
In many municipalities your baby is added to your address automatically once the birth is registered, and nothing is asked of you. Your citizens' office will confirm whether that is so where you live.
Your health insurer
Krankenkasse
Adds your baby to a policy. They will tell you which certificate copy they need and by when.
The family benefits office and the parental allowance office
Familienkasse, Elterngeldstelle
Child benefit and parental allowance are claimed here, each with a certificate copy of its own.
Your tax identification number for the baby (Steuer-Identifikationsnummer) arrives by post on its own, without an application. Child benefit and parental allowance have a page of their own here: Benefits and entitlements.
05
If you are not married
Nothing about this is unusual here, and no office will treat it as such. Two separate things are worth knowing apart from each other, because they are often spoken of as one:
- The acknowledgement of fatherhood (Vaterschaftsanerkennung) records who the father is. It needs the mother's agreement, and it is what puts him on the certificate.
- The joint custody declaration (Sorgeerklärung) is the separate step that gives both parents legal custody. Where no declaration is made, the offices work from custody sitting with the mother alone, and the two of you can change that whenever you decide to.
Both are free at the youth welfare office (Jugendamt), and the staff there take families through this every day. They will also tell you what to bring and whether you both need to be present.
06
If you are not German citizens
Your baby is registered in exactly the same way. What comes on top is the paperwork that belongs to your own country and to your family's residence, and both are worth starting early because appointments can be slow:
- Your embassy or consulate can tell you whether the birth should be reported to them, and what your baby needs in order to hold your country's passport.
- The foreigners' authority (Ausländerbehörde) is the office for your baby's residence status, where the family's status makes one necessary.
- Some register offices ask for your own documents to be translated by a sworn translator, and will name which ones. Ask before the appointment rather than at it.
If the appointment will be held in German and that is not the language you feel safest in, you are allowed to bring someone with you who speaks both. Nobody expects you to do an office appointment in a second language while you are three weeks postpartum.
07
Who actually helps
Four places hold the current, official answers. Everything on this page is here so that you know which of them to ask.
- familienportal.de, the federal family portal, available in English: the whole chain in order, kept current by the ministry that runs it.
- Your own register office (Standesamt), for the appointment, the document list, and the certificate copies.
- Your youth welfare office (Jugendamt), for the acknowledgement of fatherhood and the custody declaration, free of charge.
- Your health insurer (Krankenkasse), for adding your baby and for what they need in order to do it.
- Ask the hospital or your midwife what they send to the register office, and what you take yourself
- Ask your register office for its document list, and for the appointment, before the birth
- If you are not married, ask the Jugendamt about the acknowledgement and the custody declaration
- Ask how many certificate copies to take, and which are free for which claim
- Ask your Krankenkasse what they need in order to add your baby
- If you are not German citizens, ask your embassy and the Ausländerbehörde early
- If the appointment will be in German, arrange for someone to come with you
A gentle note
This page points you to the right counter and no further. I do not fill in forms, speak to offices, or hold any authority over what they decide, and what each office asks for differs from district to district. The word that counts for your family is your own register office's, and familienportal.de keeps the current official picture in English.
Alongside you
What I can do in the weeks around this
Not the forms. What I can do is the part around them: helping you get the list made while you are still pregnant, so that the weeks after your birth are yours to spend in bed with your baby rather than in a waiting room.