It may be necessary to receive a duplicate (replacement) of a birth certificate if the original was lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed. It is provided by law that one can be issued with a renewed birth certificate, i.e. a replacement.
It is especially important for parents of the minors under 14 years old, as a birth certificate is almost the only document of their identification. A duplicate birth certificate can be issued to the parents or adopters regardless of the child’s age. Later, a birth certificate becomes less of an issue since Ukrainian citizens receive their passports at the age of 14.
If a birth certificate was issued when Ukraine was part of other countries, e.g. Romania, Poland, Hungary, a duplicate (replacement) of birth certificate can be issued to an applicant personally or to their representatives authorized by a power of attorney.
There are cases when an applicant has acquired other citizenship and cannot come to Ukraine to apply for a duplicate.
A representative, then, must have:
- a notarized power of attorney with Apostille or legalized in consulate;
- a notarized translation of the power of attorney in Ukrainian.
In order to receive a duplicate (replacement) of a birth certificate, one has to apply to:
- civil registry offices in any region of Ukraine;
- Ukrainian consulate offices, if the applicant is abroad.
The system of the Ukrainian civil registry offices is centralized, that is there is a unified state register of births. Thus, one can apply to any office regardless of the place where the birth certificate was issued originally or current place of residence. However, if one applies for a duplicate (replacement) of the birth certificate at an office other than the original issuing office, the procedure takes a little longer. It is conditioned by the necessity for the civil registry officer to make an inquiry to the original issuing office and issue a duplicate only upon their positive reply.
If entries about the applicant are absent in the unified state register, an inquiry is made to the archives. If a person was born after 1940 and the archives confirm the fact, their information is introduced in the unified state register, and a duplicate (replacement) of the birth certificate is issued afterwards.
It takes usually over a month, while a duplicate (replacement) of the birth certificate without inquiries to the archives is issued within 2-3 days.
ARCHIVES INFORMATION OF BIRTH
A duplicate (replacement) of the birth certificate can be obtained only if the person is alive. Otherwise, an applicant has to apply to the archives directly. The archives offices do not issue birth certificates, thus, they can issue archives information (an archives note) about the inquired person’s birth.
An application for information of birth of the deceased to archives can be submitted by:
- relatives (must have documents proving the family relations);
- a representative authorized by relatives of the deceased through a power of attorney;
- attorney (having the right to render legal aid, submits an application for an information note of birth).
The following information makes it quicker and easier for archives employees to find the necessary information on the deceased:
- exact details of the family’s residence;
- religion/church of the person;
- church attended by the family;
- a copy of any document relevant to the person’s birth
- any other additional information about the person in his/her relatives’ documents.
The procedure of receiving of archives information is as follows:
- application for archives information (an archives note) of the birth;
- payment of fees for archives services;
- receiving of the archives information at archives offices.
Our lawyers can render the following additional services:
- get the archives information translated into a necessary language;
- have the archives information certified with Apostille;
- send the archives information to a client’s address.
Should you need help with these issues you are welcome to contact us!
ukrainian birth certificate