PROVISIONS

1. Birth :

A birth can be registered under the provisions of the Births & Deaths Registration Act (Chapter 110) and Section 7 of the Consular Functions Act No. 4 of 1981 and the Consular Functions (Amendment) Act No.18 of 2006.

 

The registration of birth of a child under the Births & Deaths Registration Ordinance must under normal circumstances be made within three months of birth of the child.

 

If the birth is registered after 3 months but less than one year, such births can also be registered by the Embassy.

 

However, if an application is made to register the birth after completion of 12 months of child birth (after one-year), the Embassy should obtain the approval of the Registrar General’s Department, Colombo. In this case, the application is sent to the Registrar General’s Department for approval and takes a longer processing time to issue a Birth Certificate of a child born more than a year ago.

 

2. Citizenship :

When a child of a citizen of Sri Lanka is born abroad, there is an additional requirement under the Citizenship Act that such birth should be registered within one year of birth at the Citizenship Division of the Department of Immigration & Emigration of Sri Lanka.

 

Such child should obtain the Citizenship Certificate from the Citizenship Division.

Therefore, when an application is made for the registration of birth under the Births & Deaths Registration Ordinance, an application for the registration of the child under the Citizenship Act should also be made.

 

The application for Citizenship is forwarded to the Citizenship Division of the Department of Immigration & Emigration in Colombo, which will process the application and issue the Citizenship Certificates to the Embassy for onward transmission to the applicants.