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
  
  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

In German law a child whose parents are married at the time of the child’s birth and who bear a married name (“Ehename”) will obtain the parents’ married name as birth name. In cases where the parents are married, but do not have the same married name, or when the parents are not married and another name as the mother’s last name is desired as the child’s last name, the parents will have to make a name declaration as part of the birth registration.

The name declaration is included in the application form for the birth registration on page 4. If both parents are German nationals, only German law can be chosen for the name usage. If one of the two parents has a different nationality than German, the naming law of the country of citizenship of that particular parent can also be chosen instead.

If no name declaration is needed as part of the birth registration one parent can submit the application.

For general information on the different name declaration options for a child please click here: Name Declaration for a child

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 if a name declaration is part of the birth registration both parents need 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 certificates.

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 €56,43*.
If a name declaration is made as part of the birth registration the fee is €79.57 *

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 €26.21*.

*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):

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.