Bringing Your Child Home: Birth Registration, Parentage and Travel Documents

Preparing to travel home involves several separate processes: birth registration in Armenia, recognition of parentage, citizenship and a passport or other travel document. Requirements depend on your family’s circumstances. Begin the legal and consular review before treatment starts, rather than waiting until the birth.

Step 1: The birth and the DNA test

Under Armenian law, the child is handed over to the intended parents after a DNA test confirms the genetic relationship and that the surrogate is not the child’s genetic mother. The test is usually arranged within the first days after birth. Your coordinator organizes the sample collection and the paperwork.

Step 2: The Armenian birth certificate

Once the DNA results and the notarized surrogacy agreement are available, the baby’s birth is registered with the Armenian civil registry. Our legal team explains in advance exactly how the registration will be done for your family and which names will appear on the certificate. We then arrange certified translations and, where your country requires it, an apostille; check this in your country’s official consular guidance.

Step 3: Passport or travel document

Three questions are handled separately: your child’s citizenship (decided by your home country), legal parentage (Armenian birth registration first, then recognition at home) and the travel document. Your baby needs a passport or emergency travel document from your country of citizenship. Procedures vary widely:

• Some embassies issue a passport based on the birth certificate and a DNA test proving a genetic link to a citizen parent.
• Others first require citizenship to be registered, which can take longer.
• Some countries require a DNA test arranged through the embassy itself.

Because your country may not have an embassy in Yerevan, you may need to deal with a consulate in a neighbouring country. Contact your embassy or consulate early in the pregnancy so you know exactly which documents to prepare.

Step 4: Exit from Armenia

With the birth certificate and your baby’s travel document, you can leave Armenia. Your coordinator will check all documents before your flight and arrange the airport transfer.

Step 5: Legal parentage at home

In many countries the process does not end at the border. Depending on your citizenship you might need to:

• register the foreign birth with your civil registry,
• apply for a parental or parentage order from a court,
• complete a step-parent or second-parent adoption for the non-genetic parent.

Rules differ significantly between, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and EU countries. We strongly recommend consulting a family lawyer in your home country before you start your program.

How long will you stay in Armenia?

As a planning estimate, families stay about three to five weeks after the birth; it can take longer, depending on how quickly the embassy issues travel documents. Our concierge team arranges comfortable, family-friendly accommodation, a translator for official appointments and help with everyday things like baby supplies and a pediatrician.

Checklist: documents to prepare

• your passports (and marriage certificate, if married, legalized or apostilled as your country requires),
• the notarised surrogacy agreement,
• DNA test results,
• the Armenian birth certificate with certified translation (and apostille, if your country requires it),
• embassy application forms and passport photos of your baby.

We stay with you until you are home

At Aurum, our job is not finished at the birth. Your coordinator supports you until your baby has travel documents and you are safely home. Read our complete guide to surrogacy in Armenia or book a consultation.

General information, not legal advice. Procedures depend on your citizenship and may change.