# Birth certificate missing one parent



## EtienneP (Jul 16, 2013)

Our daughter was born in Medi clinic Cape Town and her birth was also registered at the hospital with a Home Affairs official. Went to pick up her birth certificate and my wife is not on it, she's Croatian. All the forms was filled in correctly, but HA say that their system doesn't allow for foreign parents. Now we can't register her birth in Croatia. Any ideas? All I get from HA is come back in two weeks, there might be a system update... 

Thanks!


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## Saartjie (Mar 1, 2010)

EtienneP said:


> Our daughter was born in Medi clinic Cape Town and her birth was also registered at the hospital with a Home Affairs official. Went to pick up her birth certificate and my wife is not on it, she's Croatian. All the forms was filled in correctly, but HA say that their system doesn't allow for foreign parents. Now we can't register her birth in Croatia. Any ideas? All I get from HA is come back in two weeks, there might be a system update...
> 
> Thanks!


Hi,

No this is incorrect information provided by HA.

This is how it works, when you register the birth at HA, you will be issued with an Abridged Birth Certificate. As your wife is 'foreign', it will only show the SA parent's details on the certificate. However, you would not be able to use this certificate to register your child's birth in Croatia as for this they require an Un-Abridged Birth Certificate. 

To obtain an Un-Abridged Birth Certificat you need to apply through Home Affairs and pay a fee (I cant remember how much). Please note that, although I understand there has been some improvements in this regard, the waiting time for an Un-Abridged Birth Certificate can be quite long.

Please also note that if you are intending to register your child's birth in another country, that country may sometimes also require the Un-Abridged Birth Certificate to be Apostilled (to confirm the document is valid). You can get an Apostille at the Department for International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria.

The whole process set out above is rather time consuming but once done you will have succeeded in giving your child the opportunity to have dual citizenship which is the best gift of all.

Happy to answer any questions that you have as we went through all of this with our daughter when she was born.


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## EtienneP (Jul 16, 2013)

Saartjie,

Thanks for the response! Sorry, should have mentioned that we were issued a un-Abridged Birth Certificate about a week after she was born, that was at end of Jan. have been trying since to get it fixed.


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## Saartjie (Mar 1, 2010)

EtienneP said:


> Saartjie,
> 
> Thanks for the response! Sorry, should have mentioned that we were issued a un-Abridged Birth Certificate about a week after she was born, that was at end of Jan. have been trying since to get it fixed.


OK, then it is strange that it does not have both parents on. It should for sure.


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