At the appointment, the following documents are required as originals. Please note that all New Zealand documents (such as birth certificates and marriage certificates) must carry a paper-apostille. These can be sent directly to the German Embassy. Information can be found here

Foreign documents (usually not required for English or “international” documents, for example international birth certificates) generally must be translated into German by a recognized translation service. Please note that some German authorities also require translations of English documents.

• Completed application to record an overseas birth in the register of births (please only fill out the first page of the form and do not sign the application yet)
  
  Birth registration - application form in German
  
  There is no English translation; you may refer to the old bilingual application form: Birth registration - application form bilingual
• Your child’s foreign birth certificate, New Zealand birth certificate with apostille
• The parents’ birth certificates, New Zealand birth certificate with apostille
• The parents’ marriage certificate (if applicable), New Zealand marriage certificate with apostille
• The parents’ passports/ID cards

As of May 1, 2025, Germany has a new naming law. For children born after this date, the name in the New Zealand birth certificate can be copied directly into the German passport if

• the child is habitually resident in New Zealand
• the name in the birth certificate is spelled correctly (relevant for names including “ß” or “ä”, “ö” or “ü”)
• the parentage of the child is clear

For children born before May 1, 2025 a name declaration might be required. Please refer to the following article on our website: name declarations for children born before 01.05.2025.

The name declaration is included in the application form for the birth registration on page 4 (when registering the birth, a separate name declaration is therefore not necessary). With regards to the law chosen for the name usage, it is usually the law of the place of habitual residence (New Zealand). However, the law of the country of which one or both parents hold citizenship (e.g. German) can be chosen for the name usage as well.

You can apply for a German birth certificate via the Embassy or the office of our Honorary Consuls. Please book an appointment here for submitting your application in Wellington or Auckland.

Please make an appointment at our Honorary Consul's office in Christchurch by telephone or email.

Please note that both parents need to be present at the appointment.

The Embassy will then forward the application to the responsible registry office in Germany, which enters the birth in the birth register and issues the requested birth certificate/s.

1. Notarization of the signature(s) on the application form

The signature(s) must be certified on the application. The signature can be authenticated either by the Embassy or one of the Honorary Consuls. The fee for certifying the signatures on the application is €60,00*.
If a name declaration is made as part of the birth registration the fee is €85,00 *

2. Notarization of the copies of the required supporting documents

The registry office in Germany requires certified copies of the supporting documents. These are made by the consular officer upon presentation of the originals. The fee for this is €32,00*.

3. Fee at the German registry office

Once the birth is ready to be entered into the German birth registry, you will be contacted by the German registry office directly concerning the registration fee. This is separate/ on top of the above-mentioned fees paid during your appointment at the Embassy or the offices of our Honorary Consuls. The fees for registering the birth as well as for issuing the birth certificate(s) are set by the individual German Federal State and may therefore vary.

*You may pay the fee in cash in NZ$ at the current exchange rate or with credit card (Visa or Mastercard, the amount will be charged in Euros):