If you are interested in updating your civil status documents in Romania, whether you want to obtain Romanian citizenship for your descendants or renew your identity documents, first of all you must be a Romanian citizen yourself.

As long as there is a change in your civil status information and it took place abroad, you must register that event in Romania in order to obtain an updated identity document, either a passport or a national ID card (buletin).

The civil status events

There are five types of civil status events that must be registered in Romania.

1) Birth of a child that occurred abroad

2) Marriage that was officiated abroad

3) Name change that happened abroad

4) Divorce made abroad

5) Death of one of the spouses abroad – in this case, this event must be registered, because otherwise in Romania you will still be considered married.

Consequences of not registering these events in Romania

Except for registering the birth of your child, if one of the events occurred and was not registered in Romania, there is a high probability that you will not have a valid identity card or passport.

And even if you have a valid one, if the current passport expires, that passport will not be extended, so a new passport will not be issued by the public authorities until you register all your civil status events.

The civil status procedure

If I am a natural-born citizen, I have a birth certificate with a CNP (personal identification) number, I was married, I got divorced abroad and now I want a new passport to return home. What happens now?

Well, at most, the Romanian authorities will give you a certification that you are a Romanian citizen and you have the right to return to Romania and while you are in Romania you will receive a temporary identity card that allows you to be identified by the Romanian authorities, but that document will be subject to certain limitations. It does not allow you to travel to the EU, leave Romanian territory or do certain operations regarding your citizenship, apart from having the right to stay in Romania and clarifying the status documents.

Submitting your file

If you are in Romania and want to file this application in Romania, the rule is to file your application at the last place of residence where you lived.

For example, if you lived in Bucharest before moving to the US and got married in the US, and your last ID card has Bucharest Sector 2 as your residence, you must file at Bucharest Sector 2 to register your civil status event.

However, if you have never lived in Romania and have no address in Romania, usually the address where you must register all civil status events would be Bucharest Sector 1. Alternatively, you can also register civil status events from abroad at the Romanian Consulate. However, the Consulate sometimes requests additional documents and there are also certain limitations on the civil status events they can register.

Relevant documents and proof of these civil status events

Relevant documents and proof of these are made through documents from abroad, which can be: civil status certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce decree if you divorced before a foreign court, divorce certificate if you divorced before a Public Authority abroad, death certificate, name change certificate.

However, any of these documents must be certified to be used internationally. This means that either the international legalization procedure with recognition by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes place, or certain additional certifications are required. Also, presenting the document from abroad that certifies that a certain civil status event has occurred does not limit the additional documents that you must present.

For example, if you have been abroad, are married to a foreigner and your child was born abroad, you must also obtain a declaration from your husband, the foreign citizen, who accepts the naturalization or acquisition of Romanian citizenship by your child, as long as he or she is under 18 years old. In the case where we are talking about marriage, we need another document that certifies your names after marriage for both spouses, we need a document that attests the law applicable to the marriage, how you will manage the assets if they are in custody, if there is a separation of assets.

Or in the case of changing your name, you must provide a document that attests the exact date when you changed that name. For divorces, it is a bit more complicated, but if you went to court, the sentence must also specify the date on which the divorce became final and whether the husband was present or if the sentence was pronounced in his absence.

Special situations

            Sometimes, there are certain particular situations in which you must contact a Romanian court to register the civil status event that took place abroad.

            If you divorced in a country where you are not a citizen, for example, you were in the Seychelles and got divorced there, but you do not have their citizenship, the divorce sentence must be recognized by the Romanian courts before it can be accepted by the Civil Status Authority.