Register the birth/adoption of a child in the Walloon Region

Since the issue of the Royal Decree of 21 December 2022, which entered into force on 24 March 2023, the birth declaration may be submitted electronically via a secure platform set up for your municipality. If your municipality does not have this arrangement, we invite you to contact the municipality.

The following conditions must be established, namely when:

• the applicable law provides that a presumption of paternity or co‑comaternity applies;
• prenatal recognition is in the BAEC (Banque des données des actes de l'état civil – Database of civil status documents) or could be registered there;
• only maternal affiliation must be established.

The registrant(s) will have to submit certain information via the platform (date of birth, place of birth, time of birth, sex, surname and first name(s) of the child/children, identification number, etc.).

Your child will be registered in the population register and you will then receive a notification to collect the child’s identity documents.

If your child is stillborn, you must still register their birth.

Adoption

In the case of adoption:

• if the person you wish to adopt is under the age of 18, a request for adoption must be submitted to the Youth Court (tribunal de la jeunesse), and must be drawn up in writing
  • by the adopter,
  • by the adopters, or
  • by a lawyer.
• If the adopted person is over the age of 18, they must send the application to the Court of First Instance.

Once the judgment has been handed down and the time limit for appeal has expired, the clerk of the Youth Court or Court of First Instance will send a copy of the judgment for transcription:

• in the registers to the civil registrar of the domicile of the adopter or adopters;
• or, failing that, to the civil registrar of the adopted person;
• or, failing that, to the Brussels civil registrar.

Adoption takes effect from the date on which the application is filed (therefore with retroactive effect, since the judgment must first be entered in the civil status registers).

After recognition and registration by the central authority, the latter provides documentary evidence. The adopters may then ask the civil registrar in their place of ordinary residence to transcribe the operative part of the foreign decision and the adopted person's birth certificate into the special register of birth certificates.

Costs

Free of charge

Deadline

You have 15 days after the birth of your child to register them at the municipality where they were born, so that they can be entered into the population register.