Can you find a birth certificate online

Almost every week, I get a question by someone who needs help obtaining his birth certificate from the Netherlands. Often, these are people who were born in the Netherlands but moved away and now need a birth certificate to get married or apply for citizenship. Since this is not a service I provide, I thought I’d explain how you can order your birth certificate yourself.

Birth records for people born less than 100 years ago are not public. Birth records younger than 100 years are kept by the municipality where the person was born. To protect the privacy of living people, only the person himself can retrieve a copy.

Municipalities in the Netherlands in 2013. Map by Janwillemvanaalst (source: Wikipedia)

Finding the municipality

A lot of municipalities have merged over the last couple of decades, so the municipality you were born in may not exist anymore. You can find out the name of the current municipality by looking up the name of the old municipality in the “Repertorium van Nederlandse Gemeenten vanaf 1812 [Overview of Dutch municipalities since 1812].” The section that starts at p. 52 has a list of all municipalities that ever existed. If the municipality merged, it will say “opgegaan in [merged with]” followed by the name of the new municipality.

Please note that this link is just for finding the municipality, not for ordering records. The DANS organization offers this publication but does not have the birth certificates.

Contacting the municipality

All municipalities have a website, that can usually be found at the .nl address, for example www.amsterdam.nl or www.rotterdam.nl.  Alternatively, you could search for the name of the municipality in Wikipedia and see if it has a link to the website.

You need to find the address of the municipality. Most municipalities will have two addresses: one for visitors and a PO Box (Postbus). You need this second address.

There should also be a contact form on the site where you can ask for specific directions.

Ordering a birth certificate

Once you find the address, you can order your birth certificate by writing a letter addressed to:

[Name of municipality]
Afdeling Burgerlijke Stand
Postbus [number of PO box]
[Zip code consisting of 4 digits and 2 letters] [Municipality]
The Netherlands

In your letter please include:

• Your full name
• Your date and place of birth
• Your postal address
• The reason why you need the birth certificate
• Your signature
• A photocopy of a valid ID

Paying for the birth certificate

Costs vary but are typically between 10 and 20 euros (12-28 USD). Most municipalities will send you an invoice with the birth certificates, others require full payment upfront.

Some municipalities accept credit cards while others only accept bank transfers. Checks are not used in the Netherlands anymore.

To transfer money by bank, you will need to find out the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and Bank Identifier Code (BIC) for the municipality. Contact your bank to find out how to do a transfer. If you live outside Europe, additional charges will apply.

Someone else’s birth certificate?

Do you need the birth certificate of someone else, who was born less than 100 years ago? There are two ways you can do this:

• If the person is deceased, provide a photocopy of their death certificate and send this with the order form. You still need to include a photocopy of your own ID.
• If the person is still alive, the only way you can get a copy of their birth certificate is with their permission. Have them fill out and sign the form, or include a signed letter. Also include a photocopy of their ID.

If you don’t know if the person is alive, or you can’t get permission, you will not be able to obtain a birth certificate.

Note: Please do not post information about living people

Several people are commenting on this article posting information about living people. These comments will be removed, to respect living people’s privacy. Please do not provide information about living people, including yourself. There is no way for me to check if you are sharing your own information or somebody else’s.

Retrieving birth records or other records of living people is not a service I provide. The information in this article is all the help I can give you.

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