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The birth certificate is the document issued by the Registrar or acting Registrar of the corresponding Civil Register or Consular Register, which certifies the birth, the date it occurred, as well as the sex and, when appropriate, the time of the birth and the relationship of the registered individual. 

Certificate Types

Several types of birth certificate may be requested. Certificates may be positive or negative:

1. Positive Certificate:
   • Extract: This is a summary of the information related to the birth, as it appears in the Civil Register. There are different versions:
     • Ordinary: It is issued in Spanish in the autonomous communities in which the only official language is Spanish.
     • International or multilingual: This version is valid in the countries that have ratified the Vienna Convention of 8 September 1976. This certificate is issued in the official language of each of the signatory countries of that convention (Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Serbia-Montenegro).
     • Bilingual: Whenever an extract certificate is requested in an autonomous community  that has its own official language, the certificate will be issued in Spanish and in the official language of the autonomous community in which it is issued.
   • Literal: This is a literal copy of the registration of the birth, containing all of the data related to the identity of the individual and to the birth itself.
2. Negative Certificate: This certifies that an individual has not been registered at that Civil Register.

Contents of the certificate

The certificate includes:

• The Register, indicating the municipality and province of its location; and, in the case of the Consular Registers, the town and country.
• The identity of the registered individual, with the data that appears in the registration.
• The page and book of the entry, or the corresponding page and file.
• The date, name and signature of the certifying Registrar, Acting Registrar or Secretary, and the office seal.

Legitimate interest to receive information on the entries in the Civil Registers or Consular Registers is presumed to be held by the individual who requests the certificate. However, no information will be provided in the following cases without special authorisation:

• Adoption (except for entries made pursuant to the Department of Registers and Notaries Instruction dated 15 February 1999) or unknown kinship, or details that reveal said circumstances, and the change of a Foundling surname or other similar or inappropriate ones.
• Sex change: Authorisation in these cases is granted by the Judge responsible, and only to those who certify legitimate interest and a well-founded reason for requesting it. The certificate indicates the name of the individual making the request, the reasons for issuing it and the express authorisation of the Registrar or Acting Registrar, who will personally issue the certificate from the Register directly under his or her control.
• Surname changes authorised in cases of gender violence, or necessitated by the urgency of the situation.

How long you have to wait to receive the certificate depends on how you have chosen to receive it. If you have chosen to receive the certificate by post, the period between the request and reception of the certificate is approximately 15 days.

When applicants choose to retrieve the certifications in person, the Civil Registry Office will notify the date from which they may do so.

This period will be interrupted when the Civil Register requires additional or clarified information on the application, until they have been provided by the requester, and likewise, when technical difficulties make it impossible to receive the requests properly.