Birth

The Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages is the responsible Australian authority to issue a birth certificate for Austrian children born in Australia.
Australian and New Zealand birth certificates require an "Apostille" to be valid in Austria (see Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, Authentication Unit for details).

Please forward the birth certificate to the next Consulate or Embassy. You can apply for an Austrian citizenship certificate ("Staatsbürgerschaftsnachweis") for the child. You will find further information in "Citizenship". Children can no longer be entered into the passport of the Austrian parent and require their own travel document (see "Passport" for further details).

Personal documents for newborn children issued within the first two years after the birth are issued free of charge. This includes the Citizenship Certificate and Passport.

If the parents have a common surname, then the child receives the same surname.

If the parents have different surnames, the following regulation applies: Both spouses must already determine before or during the marriage ceremony the surname of any children originating from the marriage. The declaration, which surname the children will carry, can be made

• before the registrar of births, marriages and deaths
• or during the marriage ceremony in a public or publicly certified document.

If such declaration is not made, the children of the married couple receive automatically the surname of the father.

Illegitimate children receive the surname of the mother, i.e. the surnames, which the mother had at the time of birth of the child.

If the "Australian name" of the child does not correspond with the name recognized under Austrian law, a change of name can be applied for (see "Name Change").

Surrogacy is banned in Austria, § § 2 and 3 Reproductive Medicine, Reproductive Medicine Act as amended, Federal Law Gazette 275/1992.

According to § 137b Civil Code the mother of a child is always the woman who gave birth to the child, that is, the surrogate mother - and not the contractor of the surrogacy.

The child of a (foreign) surrogate mother does not acquire Austrian citizenship under § 7 of the Nationality Act 1985 as amended (Federal Law Gazette 311/1985) from the Austrian contractor of the surrogacy.

Under these circumstances the Austrian representative authorities abroad can therefore not provide an Austrian proof of citizenship nor an Austrian passport, nor issue an Austrian identity card for the child.