Immigration & Aliyah

How do foreign parents register the birth of a child born in Israel and obtain a birth certificate?

The hospital reports the birth and the parents collect the certificate. The Population Registry Law 5725-1965 requires the institution where the birth took place to notify the Population and Immigration Authority, which registers the child and issues a birth certificate (teudat leida) naming both parents. Registration records a fact and confers nothing else. Under Section 4 of the Citizenship Law 5712-1952, citizenship by birth passes only where a parent is an Israeli citizen. Foreign parents still need the certificate to obtain a passport from their own embassy and to apply for the child's status at an Interior Ministry bureau.

Notification is the hospital's duty, not the family's, and it reaches the Population Authority within days of delivery. The registry entry records the child's name, date and place of birth, and the details of each parent. Where the parents are not married to each other, the father's details go in only on a signed acknowledgment of paternity or a court declaration, so unmarried foreign fathers should raise this before leaving the hospital. A home birth, or a birth outside a recognised institution, shifts the reporting duty onto the parents, who must attend a bureau in person with medical evidence of the delivery.

Foreign parents run into two predictable problems. The first is status, because the child does not inherit the parents' visa automatically and a family on a work or student permit must apply separately to add the child, ideally within the first weeks. The second is paperwork abroad. An Israeli birth certificate is a public document, so a foreign registrar or consulate normally wants an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plus a translation. Order extra certified copies at the outset. Our guide on children born in Israel to foreign parents covers the status route in detail.

⚖ In Practice
  • Governing law: Population Registry Law 5725-1965 (notification and registration of births); Citizenship Law 5712-1952, Section 4
  • Competent authority: Population and Immigration Authority (Rashut HaOchlusin VeHaHagira), Ministry of the Interior
  • Fees: the first birth certificate is issued at no charge; a replacement copy costs roughly NIS 70 (2026)
  • Timeline: hospital notification within about 10 days of the birth; the certificate is normally collectable at an Interior Ministry bureau within a few weeks
  • For use abroad: an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, plus a translation for the receiving country
  • Status: registration creates no citizenship and no residence permit; the child's permit is a separate application at a PIBA bureau

From the full guide: Child Born in Israel to Foreign Parents: Status and Rights


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