Ministarstvo vanjskih i europskih poslova

Registering a Child in Croatia

In order to register a child under 18 years of age in the Croatian Birth Registry an application may be submitted by a legal representative provided that at the time of the child’s birth, one of the parents was a Croatian national.

  • Directly at the Registry Office in the Republic of Croatia according to the place of residence/registered address in Croatia, if a parent who is Croatian national, has registered Croatian address in the Croatian passport or ID, or
  • At the Registry Office Centar in Zagreb, if a parent who is Croatian national, has no registered address in Croatia

The list of Croatian Registry Offices is available on https://uprava.gov.hr/maticni-uredi-u-rh/1603 or

If the parent(s) is/are not in a position to travel to Croatia, a parent who is Croatian national may assign power of attorney to a relative/friend who can lodge the application on their behalf in Croatia at the one of the above mentioned Registry Offices in Croatia.

  • through the Croatian Embassy.

The application form (available at the Embassy when applying) must be accompanied by the following:

  • A valid passport of the legal representative who submitted the request;
  • A valid Croatian passport of a parent who is a Croatian citizen;
  • A birth certificate – an IE Cerified Copy of an Entry of a Birth with Annex I. –e.g. Multilingual Standard Forms (MSF) issued only when you are obtaining a certificate from the General Register Office in Ireland. If there is no additional annexes, documets have to be translated into Croatian by an official interpreter in Ireland or by a certified court interpreter in Croatia.

The Embassy reserves the right to request additional documents while conducting legally binding proceedings related to each request submitted.

PROCESSING TIME:

The average duration of proceedings from when the application is submitted through the Embassy until the registration of the child is 3 to 6 months. The same procedure in the Registrar's Office in Croatia can be made the same day.

Fee: 35 EUR (per each document - Domovnica and Croatian Birth Certificate)