Registering a birth in Cambodia

The hospital or clinic where the baby is born will issue you a "birth certificate", this is not the official birth certificate.

You will then have to take the hospitals "birth certificate", along with both parents original ID/Passport/Family book (if either parent is Cambodian citizen) to your local Sangkat. The Sangkat Chief will produce the official birth certificate (in Khmer only), and issue you with the original plus 3 copies, all stamped and signed. The child's birth details will be entered into the Sangkats records. I do not know the official price for this service, but my fiancée and I paid $80.

If neither you or you partner speak Khmer, then I suggest taking along someone to translate for you, unless your Sangkat chief speaks English.

It will also pay to have the birth certificate translated into English (or whatever your native tongue is) professionally to ensure that there are no errors, as this will cause problems when trying to register the child's birth as a citizen of your home country. I used Pyramid Translation Services and they did a fantastic job, and quick.

Now that you have the official birth certificate, you will need to find out what your home country's procedures are for registering your child as citizen by descent.

Hi rarky,

Thank you for your contribution, this might surely help.

Regards,

David.

Expat-blog team.

Hi

I am English and my partner khmere , we had a baby boy on 14 October . I arrived in country at the start of December , my partner has the baby record paper work from the hospital where our son was Bourn . Today we went to register the birth , we were told that we can not get a birth certificate for our son because we are not married . Is this fact ? I find it absolutely ludicrous if it is fact !

Our intention is to get married however I find it bazaar that a child can be Bourne and not have a birth certificate because the parents are not married .

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated .

Andy C

"Today we went to register the birth , we were told that we can not get a birth certificate for our son because we are not married . Is this fact ? I find it absolutely ludicrous if it is fact ! "

Whether you are married or not does not matter, the child was born, therefore it is a legal requirement for their birth to be registered with the government. My wife and I were not married at the time of our child's birth, and we had no problems getting the birth certificate. It is possible that your commune chief is trying to get some extra money from you, if he continues to refuse to issue the birth certificate then I suggest you contact a lawyer, or someone connected, to help get it sorted asap.

I will ask my landlord tomorow morning. He works for interpol and may know  Enjoy your baby dont stress.   Sucks though.  good luck.

HI,
Can you let me know if you got the document the day you living the maternity?
For my case they didn't give me anything when i lived the hospital, only the healthbook for my son and the bill.

If i have to waiting, how long?
I'm in Siem Reap and I did delivery my son at provincial hospital.

Any idea?

Thanks

Hi,

I am caught in a similar situation - my wife is Khmer and we were able to get an official birth certificate for our son (without my name on it - fair enough, we are not married). However, when we tried to get the document translated into English, we were told that they refuse to translate the document to English (the foreign ministry), because there is no father's name, and "That is their policy".

We have a bit of a deadline - I have cancer and need to go back to Denmark in about a week for treatment, and the plan has been that my (not official) wife and son would join me a couple of weeks later. But now we are caught in a sitation where I cannot get the documents, the Danish embassy in Thailand cannot give my son a visa, because he is Danish, and marriage takes a couple of months, so it would not be a solution.

Hi Jaggop, sorry to hear of your predicament.

The sangkat should have issued the birth certificate with your name listed as the father...married or not, it is your legal right.

I would suggest going back to the commune chief to try and sort this out asap, and as much as I condone advocating the corrupt practices that occur in Cambodia, you may have to give him some extra "tea money" in order to get this sorted in a timely manner.

hi I am expat living in cambodia from last two years. we had baby last August and due to some formalities I applied for my baby passport after nine month of his birth. could u plz tell me . shall I need to put visa on his passport if so what type of visa , have to pay any overstay fee ..?it will b as I want go.back to my country once passport is.done.

First of all, I'd like to say hi, I'm a new member here. I would be really grateful to hear from anyone who knows the current situation for registering a birth in Cambodia.
I'm Irish and my girlfriend is Khmer. Our daughter was born on 10 December. We went to the Sangkat today and, as quoted in a previous post on this forum, we were told that my name cannot be put on the birth certificate because we are not married. The problem is that, for my daughter to get an Irish passport, I need to submit a birth certificate showing that I'm the father. Sort of a catch 22 situation because, under Cambodian law, I'm apparently too old to get married in Cambodia!? Or does this mean that my daughter will be deprived of her rights on the paternal side for her entire life? Does anyone have any ideas about how to resolve this?

Hello Barryphanit.

First welcome on board at this forum.

Yes you have got yourself but even more your daughter in a bad position. Would have been better to have inquired before, and as mother was pregnant for about 9 months you had all the time to find out.
But that is something you know already.

Given that you're over 50 you cannot marry a Cambodian girl here. That means the only way to get married is in another country. I have seen reports of people married in Thailand, Hong Kong.
To do that you will have to inquire about the formalities.

You can google "marry in Thailand" or "marry in Hong Kong" to find out specific requirements for that country. But don't worry, it's possible and has been done before, so just go for it.

Once you are married have your marriage registered in Cambodia.

After that apply for the birth certificate with both names of the parents on it.

That's the best available option now.

Good luck.

Joe
Cambodia expat--advisor
Expat.com team