Transcription of Foreign Civil Status Certificates
A foreign birth, marriage or death certificate carries no legal weight in Romania until it is transcribed into the Romanian registers. We assemble the file, file it through a representative and collect the Romanian certificate. Competence and legalisation are checked before any cost is incurred.
Overview
A birth, marriage or death certificate issued abroad has no evidentiary force in Romania until it is transcribed into the Romanian civil status registers. This rule comes from Law no. 119/1996 on civil status documents. A sworn translation does not replace transcription, which is why files that look complete are still rejected at the counter.
The same law asks the Romanian citizen to request transcription within six months of returning to the country or of receiving the certificate from abroad. Most of our clients do not need the transcription for its own sake. They need it because a Romanian passport, an identity card, a citizenship file, an inheritance or a later marriage in Romania cannot proceed without a Romanian certificate.
The request is filed with the civil status service of the last domicile held in Romania. Where the person never held a Romanian domicile, Bucharest Sector 1 is competent. The mayor approves the transcription with the binding opinion of the county public service, and the published processing terms are 30 days for local files and 60 days in the remaining cases.
The legalisation chain is where most files fail. Documents from states party to the 1961 Hague Convention need an apostille, certain civil status documents issued in EU member states are exempt under Regulation EU 2016/1191, and documents from other states need full consular legalisation. We confirm which regime applies to your issuing state before you spend anything on stamps or translations.
We run the file end to end. Filing through a representative holding an authenticated special power of attorney is permitted, so travel to Romania is not required. We coordinate the sworn translations and the apostilles, and where Romanian archive records are missing we use our civil records identification service. When the transcription is the first step of a citizenship file, we treat both as one mandate.
A Romanian certificate that authorities accept
No travel to Romania required
File checked before it reaches the counter
Translations and apostilles handled for you
A single point of contact
Prerequisite cleared for a citizenship file
Process & Timeline
Eligibility check
We confirm the competent authority and the legalisation required for your document, within 2 working days.
File assembly
We gather the foreign document, apostille, sworn translation and personal papers, in 2 to 4 weeks.
Special power of attorney
You sign the filing and collection mandate before a notary or a consulate, within one week.
Filing the request
We file the request with the competent civil status service and register it, in the same week.
Decision on the file
The mayor approves the transcription with the binding county opinion, in 30 or 60 days.
Certificate delivery
We collect the Romanian certificate and send it by insured courier, in 3 to 5 working days.
Requirements
Required Documents
- The original foreign civil status certificate
- The apostille or consular legalisation applied to it, where required
- A copy of your Romanian passport or identity card
- The Romanian citizenship certificate, if citizenship was granted or reacquired
- Your parents' birth and marriage certificates, if the foreign record has blank fields
- The divorce judgment or the former spouse's death certificate, where applicable
- An authenticated special power of attorney for representation
- Your children's certificates, if their records are transcribed as well
Required Information
- The state and locality that issued the document
- The last domicile you held in Romania, if any
- Whether a Romanian domicile was ever registered in your name
- Previous names and any name changes
- What you need the document for, passport, identity card or citizenship file
- Details of any minor children included in the request
- The postal address for delivery of the certificate
Have Questions?
Contact us for a personalized consultation and detailed information about the documents required for your specific case.
Frequently Asked Questions
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lawoffice@arsulescu.com
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