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From 29 May 2022, the Singapore authority ICA no longer issues physical birth certificates. Digital birth certificates will be issued only for births that are registered from 29 May 2022. You will have to download the digital birth certificate of your child at ICA's e-Service within 90 days. You are advised to save your child’s digital birth certificate in your personal device for future retrieval.
In case you no longer have the digital birth act, you must apply for the birth extract. It is a certified true copy of a birth certificate that replaces a lost or damaged birth certificate. You will receive a digital birth extract if a digital birth certificate was earlier issued in respect of the birth record. Otherwise, you will receive the extract in hardcopy by registered mail.
To register a Belgian child, born in Singapore within marriage and the marriage is registered in the Belgian national registry, the following documents are required:
- original of the “Notification of live birth” (document issued by the hospital immediately after birth),
- copy of passport of both parents,
- copy of any other passport of the child, should it also have another nationality,
- registration form minor, duly completed, dated and signed. Both parents sign the form for the minor,
- printed download of the digital birth certificate/original extract of the birth certificate legalized with apostille, issued less than 1 year ago.
Kindly contact us via email in the following cases:
- You are Belgian but not registered at our Embassy.
- You are Belgian but not born in Belgium.
- Your child is not born in Singapore.
- You are not married.
- Your marriage is not registered.
The procedure to obtain a legalized digital birth act / original birth extract is as follows:
Step 1
- For birth registered from 29 May 2022 only: download the digital birth act at ICA's e-Service.
- In the other cases mentioned here below, apply for a non-laminated “Birth Extract” (Certified True Copy of Birth Certificate) at ICA's e-Service.
- birth before 29 May 2022 OR
- when you have lost the download of the digital birth act OR
- your digital birth / birth extract act was issued more than 1 year ago.
Please ensure that the birth extract has this heading :
** The original Birth certificates issued before 29 May 2022 are for your own records, please keep it in a safe place.**
** When your birth certificate is laminated, you will first need to apply for a new certificate, non-laminated version. We do not accept (photo)copied documents with the apostille affixed onto.**
Step 2
The digital birth act / birth extract needs to be legalized with apostille by Singapore Academy of Law (SAL). Please check with SAL how to obtain the apostille.
Singapore Academy of Law
1 Coleman Street #08-06
The Adelphi
Singapore 179803
Tel.: +65 6332 4388
E-mail: enquiries@sal.org.sg
Your document is now ready to be used by the Belgian authorities. Further legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore or the Belgian Embassy is not required.
Step 3
The Embassy will register your child in the Belgian Population Register. The processing time is approximately 2 working days. After registration is completed, all original documents will be returned to you. A copy will be kept in your file. Upon registration of your newborn, a passport application can be submitted at the same time. More information about passport applications can be found on our passport page.
The Embassy strongly advises you to transcribe the birth certificate in the Civil Status Registers in Belgium. This will allow you to, in the future, apply for an extract of the birth certificate at your commune in Belgium. When transcription was not done, the extract will always need to be obtained from the Singaporean Registry of Births and Deaths, which can be difficult after leaving Singapore. More information can be found on this page. Documents used to transcribe your certificate in the Civil Status Registers need to be submitted within 6 months after issue date.
