The Spanish birth certificate (Certificado de nacimiento) is a document issued by the Registrar or acting Registrar of the corresponding Civil Register (Registro civil) or Consular Register (Registro consular) which certifies the birth, the date it occurred, as well as the gender and, when appropriate the time of the birth and the relationship of the registered individual. Digital birth certificates can also be issued with a digital stamp from the Department of Registries and Notaries (Dirección general del Registro y Notariado) based on the data found in the central database of the people registered in the Civil Registers.
1. Types of Spanish Birth Certificates
EXTRACT (Extracto): it is a summary of the information related to birth. There are three versions, namely:
- ORDINARY (Ordinario): issued by Civil Registers of Autonomous Communities in which Spanish is the only official language.
- INTERNATIONAL OR MULTILINGUAL (Multilingüe): these are issued and valid in the official languages of the countries that ratified the Vienna Convention of 8th September 1976: Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Poland, Montenegro, Moldova, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria).
- BILINGUAL (Bilingüe): issued by Registers of Autonomous Communities with a second official language. Issued in both languages.
LITERAL (Literal): literal copy of the registration of birth containing all the data to the birth itself. NEGATIVE (Negativo): it certifies that the individual is not registered in the Civil Register CERTIFICATION (Certificación): certification with a Digital Stamp from the Department of Registers and Notaries (only entries made since 1950).
2. Who can request a birth certificate?
Anybody that requests a birth certificate is assumed has a legitimate interest. Nevertheless, no information will be provided in the following cases without special authorization:
- ADOPTION: or unknown kinship or details that reveal said circumstances, and the change of a founding surname or other similar or inappropriate ones.
- SEX CHANGE: authorization in these cases is granted by the responsible Judge, and only to those who certify legitimate interest and a well-founded reason for requesting it.
- SURNAME CHANGES authorized in cases of gender violence, or necessitated by the urgency of the situation.
