Registrations in the Civil Registry

The REGISTRATION of a birth, marriage, or death is the act of recording the relevant event in the civil registry. This action is mandatory to ensure proper control of births, marriages, and deaths that have occurred, and it is a completely free procedure.

Birth and marriage registrations must be done in person at the Civil Registry; death registration can be done either in person or by post. For more detailed information, visit the corresponding option:

What is registered in the Civil Registry?

Birth.
Parentage.
Name and surnames and changes to them.
Emancipation and age qualification.
Judicial modifications of a person’s capacity or declarations of bankruptcy, insolvency, or suspension of payments.
Declarations of absence or death.
Nationality and residence.
Parental authority, guardianship, and other representations specified by law.
Marriage.
Death.

Types of registerable entries

The following entries are made:

Registrations. These have full evidential effect, whether they are principal (those that open a new folio) or marginal (recorded on an existing folio).
Annotations. These are merely informative notes and have no evidential value.
Marginal notes, references between different books.

Registrations constitute proof of the recorded facts, whereas annotations are purely informative.

Registrations can only be rectified by a final court ruling, although in some limited cases, they can be modified through an administrative procedure without resorting to a trial.

Which registry is competent?

Births, marriages, and deaths must be registered in the registry of the place where they occur. If the place is unknown, the registration of a birth or death will be made in the registry corresponding to the location where the abandoned child or the body is found.

For the registration of births, marriages, and deaths occurring during a journey, the registry of the place where the journey ends is competent. In the case of a death, the registry of the place where burial is to take place or, failing that, the place of first arrival.

Notwithstanding the above, births occurring in Spanish territory, when registration is requested within the deadline, may be registered in the Municipal Civil Registry corresponding to the domicile of the legally recognised parent or parents. In this case, for all legal purposes, the place of birth of the registered person will be considered the municipality where the entry was made. Summary certificates will only mention this municipality.

The Municipal Civil Registry is also competent when it comes to registering births by adoption or acquisition of Spanish nationality, as expressly referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 16 of the Civil Registry Law.

Effects of registration:

The Civil Registry constitutes proof of the recorded facts. Only in cases where there is no registration or where it is not possible to certify the entry will other forms of proof be accepted. However, in the first case, it will be an essential requirement for such proof to be admissible that the omitted registration or the reconstruction of the entry has been requested beforehand or simultaneously.

How much does it cost to register?

Civil Registry entries, burial permits, and procedures related to the Civil Registry that are not expressly exempted are entirely free of charge.

Is the information public?

The Civil Registry is public for those who have an interest in knowing the entries, except in the following cases, which prevent disclosure without special authorisation:

Adoptive, non-marital, or unknown parentage, or circumstances that reveal such status (except in cases where adoptive parents request a new birth registration for a minor child).
Sex rectification.
Causes of annulment, separation, or divorce of a marriage or those of deprivation or suspension of parental authority.
Archived documents, regarding the points mentioned above or dishonourable circumstances or those incorporated in a confidential file.
The file of abortions.

In these cases, information may only be provided to the person directly affected by the content of the annotations or to others with judicial authorisation.