Romanian civil status records: birth, marriage and death certificates

• •Record location
• •Archive requests
• •Obtaining the certificate or a further copy

• Everything the family already holds about the person concernedFull name and any spelling variants, date and place of birth, parents' names, and the approximate date of the event.
• Identity document of the applicantOr passport, or an EU national identity document.
• Documents evidencing the relationshipWhere the record concerns another person or a deceased ancestor.
• Lawyer authority form signed.
• For transcriptionThe foreign certificate in original, apostilled or legalised, with a legalised Romanian translation; proof of Romanian citizenship; identity documents of the parents or applicant; the parents' Romanian marriage certificate or their birth certificates where they are not married; a declaration that no other transcription has been made; and, where the parents have different domiciles, a declaration on the child's domicile.
• The destination country's requirement in writing, where availableSo the apostille and translation are done once and correctly.

• A multilingual extract on the international convention form is exempt from translation and legalisation, which can remove two steps and several days. Ask for it where the destination accepts it.
• The single most useful thing a client can send at the start is the place name as the family remembers it, even if misspelled. Most searches turn on that.

1. Intake and record identification2 to 5 working daysWe establish which institution holds the record and what evidence exists, and whether a multilingual extract or standard form removes the need for apostille and translation.
2. Power of attorneydepends on the client's local appointmentSigned before a notary or at a Romanian consulate and couriered.
3. ApplicationFiled with the competent office. Where the receiving office does not hold the register, it must request the certificate from the holding office within three days.
4. Issuance, transcription, reconstitution or rectificationIssuance of the certificate, or transcription of the foreign record, or, where the record is missing or wrong, reconstitution or rectification.
5. Apostille and authorised translation2 to 4 working daysWhere the destination requires them.
6. Delivery1 to 2 working daysScan by email, original by courier.

Anyone who needs a Romanian civil status document and cannot obtain it in person, and anyone whose foreign record has to be recognised in Romania.

• Israeli applicant who needs the birth records of two deceased grandparents, held in different counties, as the foundation of a citizenship file.
• Romanian citizen married in the United States who must register the marriage in Romania, within six months of the foreign registration.
• Person who has just obtained Romanian citizenship by descent and must now transcribe their own birth and marriage records before a personal numeric code can be allocated.
• Applicant whose ancestor's record sits in a village that changed both name and county after administrative reorganisation.

Can you find a record from the 1920s?

Often, yes. It depends on whether the register survived and on how precisely the family can place the person. Send us the place name as the family remembers it, even if the spelling is wrong; most searches turn on that.

What does it cost at the authorities?

Nothing. Certificates, multilingual extracts, multilingual standard forms, rectification, reconstitution and the apostille are all free of charge. A local council may set its own small charge, and third party costs such as translation are separate, but the state itself charges nothing.

What if the record is not found?

Then it is not found, and there is no substitute document. Where the registers themselves were destroyed there is a reconstitution procedure, which is different from issuing a certificate. We price the search rather than the result, and we say so before you order.

The village name has changed. Does that matter?

It is one of the most common reasons a search fails when done by someone unfamiliar with Romanian administrative reorganisation. Records follow the locality through its changes, and knowing where they landed is most of the work.

My name is spelled differently on each document. Is that a problem?

It is normal, particularly across emigration. What matters is whether the chain is reconcilable. Where the entry is genuinely wrong there is an administrative rectification route with a 30-day term, and it is free.

I got married abroad. Do I need to register it in Romania?

Yes. The deadline is six months from the foreign registration, or from the date you acquired Romanian citizenship. You need the foreign certificate in original, apostilled and translated.

I have just obtained citizenship by descent. Can you handle my transcription?

We can prepare it, but the filing itself has to be done by you personally. Applicants who obtained citizenship under art. 8-1, art. 10 or art. 11 cannot file transcription through a representative.

Do I need an apostille?

For use in another EU state, usually not. A Romanian birth, marriage or death certificate is exempt from apostille and sworn translation there, and a multilingual standard form can be attached free of charge. Outside the EU, yes. Be careful not to confuse the multilingual extract, which works only in the states party to a specific convention and is never apostilled, with the EU standard form, which is only a translation aid.

Do these certificates expire?

No. Two exceptions in practice: some receiving authorities want a recently issued copy, and for a citizenship application the extracts must be no more than two years old.

• We do not promise that a historical record will be found.
• We do not reconstruct destroyed registers outside the statutory reconstitution procedure, and we do not produce substitute documents.
• We do not conduct open-ended genealogical research as a service in its own right. Archive searches here are tied to a specific document and a specific purpose.
• We do not file transcription applications for clients who obtained citizenship under art. 8-1, art. 10 or art. 11, because the law requires them to do it personally. We prepare the file and brief them.
• We do not take files where the client wants a record altered rather than corrected. Rectification exists for genuine errors, and name changes have their own procedure.

Issuing authority: The civil status officer within the local public community service for population records, or the town hall of the administrative unit (art. 3(1) and art. 14 of Law 119/1996). The county public community service for population records gives the binding opinion required for transcription (art. 41(3)). For Bucharest, the General Directorate for Population Records of the Municipality of Bucharest.

RoAdvisors is not a law firm, a real estate agency or an accounting firm, and is not the authority that issues documents. Legal services are provided by independent collaborating professionals, each acting under their own professional regulation.

5 September 2026

• Law 119/1996 on civil status documents, art. 3(1), art. 14, art. 41(3)
• Romanian citizenship law, art. 8-1, art. 10, art. 11, personal filing requirement for transcription
• General Directorate for Population Records, Bucharest