IsraelLawCan Israeli parents register a child born through surrogacy abroad as their own?
The Embryo Carrying Agreements Law 5756-1996 governs surrogacy performed inside Israel and requires the surrogate to be an Israeli resident, so an arrangement made in Georgia, the United States or anywhere else falls outside it. Israeli courts filled the gap with the parentage order, which the Family Court grants after a welfare officer report and a court-supervised DNA comparison between the child and the intended parent. The genetic parent is recognized first, and a second intended parent generally completes the picture through an adoption order or a parentage order of their own. The Attorney General’s office is a party to these files and reviews each one before the order issues.
Timing is what catches families out. The DNA sample is normally taken at the Israeli consulate in the country of birth, and the baby stays there on a foreign travel document until the order and an entry permit come through, which commonly takes several weeks. Parents should open the Israeli file before travelling, keep every clinic and hospital record, and have the birth certificate apostilled and translated into Hebrew. Countries differ sharply in whether they will issue a passport for a baby born to foreign intended parents, so the local legal position matters as much as the Israeli one. Our guide on registering a child born abroad as an Israeli citizen sets out the consular paperwork.
- Governing law: Embryo Carrying Agreements Law 5756-1996 (domestic surrogacy only); parentage from a foreign arrangement is recognized through a Family Court parentage order, with DNA testing under the Genetic Information Law 5761-2000
- Competent authority: Family Court (Beit Mishpat LeMishpacha), with registration handled by the Population and Immigration Authority (Rashut HaOchlusin VeHaHagira)
- Costs: approximately NIS 550 (2026) to open the parentage file, plus roughly NIS 2,000–3,500 for the consular DNA sampling and laboratory report
- Timeline: about 4–10 weeks from filing to a parentage order in a straightforward case, once the DNA sample has been taken
- Documents: apostilled foreign birth certificate with certified Hebrew translation, the surrogacy agreement, clinic and hospital records, and the surrogate’s written consent
- Second parent: a non-genetic partner normally still needs an adoption order under the Adoption of Children Law 5741-1981 to appear on the register
From the full guide: Surrogacy in Israel: Legal Framework, Eligibility, and the Approval Process
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