Online Birth Registration

Criminal offence in breach of the duty to register birth

Under Section 7 of the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, Chapter 174, Laws of Hong Kong, parents of every child born shall apply for the registration of the child's birth at a births registry within a period of 42 days after the day of such birth. It is a criminal offence if anyone deliberately fails to register the birth of a child as required by the law. Offenders are liable to a maximum penalty of a fine of HK$2,000 or up to six months' imprisonment. Parents are required to register the birth of their children in accordance with the law, so as to avoid undermining the rights of their children to medical treatment, education and welfare benefits due to late registration.

If you intend to perform online birth registration of your new born baby, you can use the Immigration Department’s online service. This article will give you the details.

Who Can Use This Service?

You may register the birth of a child through the internet if the following requirements are met:

  • you are the father or mother of the child;
  • one of the parents of the child is a Hong Kong Permanent Resident;
  • the child is a legitimate child;
  • you are registering the birth within 42 days since the birth of the child; and
  • you are a registered user of “iAM Smart+” mobile app.

Supporting documents

Upon online registration of birth, you need to:

  • provide information required for birth registration;
  • upload copies of the Hong Kong identity card / travel document of both parents; and
  • upload a copy of the parents’ marriage certificate (applicable to marriage solemnized outside Hong Kong only). If the marriage certificate is not written in Chinese or English, certified translation of such is required.

The abovementioned documents are normally required for the purpose of verifying the Hong Kong permanent resident status of the child under the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115).

Depending on the nature of the case, you may be required to submit other supporting documents as per request.

How to perform Online Birth Registration

Step 1

You can perform online birth registration by submitting information and supporting documents through the link below:

Online Birth Registration (Submit Information Required for Registration of Birth)

Step 2

The respective births registry will prepare the register form of births (“Form 1”) according to the information and documents provided by you. Notifications in both SMS and email will be sent to you once the Form 1 is ready for confirmation. You are then required to login the online registration service to verify the information and perform digital signing on the Form 1 using “iAM Smart+”.

You can perform digital signing through the link below:

Online Birth Registration (Sign Register Form of Births)

Upon confirming and signing on the register form of births, you may apply for a certified copy of the birth entry (commonly known as “birth certificate”) by paying a prescribed fee. You may choose to collect the birth certificate in-person at the births registry or receive it by post. If you choose to receive it by post, online payment made by credit card (VISA, Mastercard, JCB, UnionPay), PPS or FPS is applicable to you. Otherwise, you will make payment upon in-person collection of the birth certificate at the specified births registry.

Processing Time

After the births registry has received all the required information and documents online, you will normally receive notifications in email from the births registry within 3 working days (exclude the time for you to confirm the contents on the register form of births (“Form 1”) and working days denote Monday to Friday excluding General Holidays) once the birth registration is completed and the certified copy of the birth entry (if applicable) is ready for collection or delivery by post.

Fee

Registering a birth does not incur a fee if it is made within 42 days of the birth.

If you want to obtain a certified copy of the birth entry (commonly known as “birth certificate”) after registration of the birth, you will be required to pay HK$140 per copy (for in-person collection/ collect by post locally).

If you did not apply for a certified copy at the time of the birth registration but need to get one afterwards, you will be required to apply for a search of birth records first and a search fee will be charged. (HK$140 for Particular Search and HK$680 for General Search. For details, please see Fees Leaflet (BDR 100)). For more information on applying for a birth certificate, please refer to “Application for Search of Birth Records and/or a Certified Copy of a Birth Entry”.

Under section 9(4) of the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, Chapter 174, Laws of Hong Kong, any person obtaining registration of any birth under any subsection of section 9 shall be entitled at the time of registration to receive free a certificate of such registration in the prescribed form (Form 3). If the parent wishes to obtain a Form 3, please contact the respective births registry after submitting the required information and documents online for the online birth registration.

Supporting documents to be produced on collection

When you collect the birth certificate of your child at the births registry of the Immigration Department, you will need to produce the following supporting documents:

  • Your Hong Kong identity card or valid travel document;
  • Printout of online registration acknowledgement; and
  • If you wish to authorise someone to collect the relevant certificate(s) on your behalf, the authorised person must produce the original written authorisation signed by you and copy of your Hong Kong identity card or your valid travel document when he/she collects the relevant certificate(s).

Assistance and Further Information

If you need technical assistance in using the online service, you can call the Immigration e-Services Hotline at (852) 3128 8668 between 7 am and 11 pm daily.

For general enquiries, please call (852) 2824 6111 during office hours (from 8:45 am to 5:15 pm, Monday to Friday; from 9 am to 12 noon on Saturday, except public holidays), fax to (852) 2877 7711 or email to enquiry@immd.gov.hk.

Should you have any other enquiries about this application, you may contact the respective births registry direct.

Addresses and Office Hours of Births Registries

Further information on this service is also available in a set of helpful Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). 

FAQs about online registration of birth
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Last revision date: April 2024