Everyone is required to declare the birth of a child to the Registrar of Civil Status. This declaration means that the newborn will be registered in the Quebec Register of Civil Status.

Having a child listed in the Register of Civil Status allows her to obtain various important documents, such as a birth certificate, which proves her identity and citizenship, a health insurance card, and a social insurance number. These documents let your child benefit from all the rights and privileges enjoyed by all Quebecers.

The Registrar of Civil Status uses 2 documents to draw up a newborn’s act of birth.

The Attestation of Birth

This document is prepared up by the doctor, nurse, midwife or any other person who helped the mother during the delivery. It indicates the place, date and time of birth, the child’s gender, the mother’s first and family name as indicated on her act of birth, her domicile and the name and address of the hospital where the child was born.

Two copies of the attestation of birth are made. The original copy is immediately sent to the Registrar of Civil Status. The hospital gives the parents the other copy, along with another form to be filled out, called the “declaration of birth”.

The Declaration of Birth

This is a document that must be filed with the Registrar of Civil Status by the newborn’s parents within 30 days of the birth.

If the parents are unknown or are prevented to filing the declaration for some reason, the person who shelters or takes custody of the child must complete the declaration of birth within the same 30-day limit.

To declare the birth of your newborn, you must complete the declaration of birth form you received at the hospital or birthing centre.

The form contains instructions on how it should be completed. Essentially, you must provide the following information:

• the child’s first and family names, spelled correctly
  
• the child’s gender
  
• the place, date and time of the birth
  
• the name and domicile of the mother, father, and witness
  
• the family relationship between the person declaring the birth and the child
  
• the date of birth of the father and mother and, where applicable, their marital status
  
• the parents’ social insurance numbers
  
• the number on the parents’ medicare cards

If the delivery takes place other than in a hospital or birthing centre, contact the Registrar of Civil Status to find out how to declare the birth of your child.

Parents must send their child’s declaration of birth to the Registrar of Civil Status within 30 days of the birth.

If the Registrar of Civil Status receives the declaration of birth after the 30-day limit, the parents will be charged an administrative fee.

Usually, a child’s relationship to her parents is established in the act of birth, which is prepared based on the declaration of birth. If the parents are married or in a civil union, only one parent needs to complete the declaration of birth and sign it in front of a witness (a person 18 or over who is not one of the parents).

If the parents are not married, it is a good idea for both parents to sign the declaration of birth in front of a witness. This is because, in a civil union situation, neither the father nor the mother’s spouse, if she has one, benefit from the automatic presumption of being a parent that is granted to the husband of a married mother or to the person with whom lives in civil union.

To learn more about civil unions, consult our Infosheet Civil Union.

The first name(s) you give your child must respect certain rules:

• you may choose one or several first names, but it is preferable not to give more than 4 names
  
• the name that appears first in the declaration of birth must be the name you intend to regularly use
  
• if one of the first names is a compound name, you must insert a hyphen between the two names. If you do not, the two names will be considered as two distinct names
  
• one of the parent’s family names can be used as one of the child’s first names
  
• an initial of one of the parent’s family names can be used as one of the child’s first names

If you and your spouse cannot agree upon a name to give your child, the Registrar of Civil Status will intervene. It will assign 2 first names to the child, one chosen by the mother and the other chosen by the father.

Your child’s family name must respect certain rules:

• the child can adopt the father’s family name, the mother’s family name, or a composite of the two names joined by a hyphen
  
• your newborn’s family name may differ from the family names of your other children. This means that children born from the same mother and father can have different family names
  
• a family name cannot contain only an initial (e.g.: B-Roy), because this kind of name does not meet the requirements of the Civil Code of Québec. The family names of the mother or father must be written in full so that the child’s family name fully reflects the family relationship either to the mother, father or both
  
• the child’s family name cannot be composed of one of the parent’s first names
  
• when both parents have composite family names (names joined by a hyphen), you must choose a name that contains only two parts. The child may have the father’s composite family name or the mother’s composite family name or a family name made up from one part of the father’s family name and one part of the mother’s family name.Where both parents have composite names, 16 combinations are possible.

For example, if the father's name is John Wagner-Laplante, and the mother's name is Sylvie Colombe-Ladouceur, then the parents must choose one of the following possibilities:

• Wagner
  
• Laplante
  
• Colombe
  
• Ladouceur
  
• Wagner-Laplante
  
• Wagner-Colombe
  
• Wagner-Ladouceur
  
• Laplante-Wagner
  
• Laplante-Colombe
  
• Laplante-Ladouceur
  
• Colombe-Wagner
  
• Colombe-Laplante
  
• Colombe-Ladouceur
  
• Ladouceur-Wagner
  
• Ladouceur-Laplante
  
• Ladouceur-Colombe

If you gave your child a first name or composite family name (name with a hyphen) that is unusual and might mean your child is ridiculed or not taken seriously, the Registrar of Civil Status may ask you to choose a less controversial name.

If you refuse to change the names you have chosen, the Registrar will still draw up an act of birth, but will notify the Attorney General of Québec. The Attorney General may then ask the court, within 90 days of the registration of the act of birth in the Register of Civil Status, to replace either the first name(s) or family name(s) chosen by the parents with one of the parent’s family names or with two common first names, as the case may be. It is the court that makes the final decision on the matter.

To get a birth certificate, you must do two things:

• First, you must complete a “Request for Certificate” form. You can either complete the form online or print out a copy from the website of the Registrar of Civil Status. Otherwise, you can get a paper copy by going to one of the offices of the Registrar of Civil Status or a Services Québec office, or by calling the Registrar.
  
• Second, you must send the completed form to the Registrar, along with your payment and the documents required.

You might need to get a birth certificate urgently, for example, if you need a passport in a hurry.

In these cases, you must make a request for your application to be processed on an urgent basis. You can do this either by going to an office of the Registrar of Civil Status in Montreal or Quebec City, or by sending your form by fax. You will have to enclose certain supporting documents and pay the fee for this type of request.

You can then get a birth certificate within 3 working days, not including the time needed for delivery.