General Information

If parents of a child are or were not married at the date of its

birth, a legal parent-child assignment can only arise from an effective acknowledgement of paternity.

According to German law, an acknowlegement of paternity generally consists of two parts:

1. Declaration by the father, that he acknowledges the child
2. Declaration by the mother, that she agrees with the acknowledgement of paternity.

If the child is already of age at the time of certification, it needs to give its explicit agreement. The paternity of a child of non-married parents can - according to German law - already be acknowleged before borth. All concerned parties need to be personally present for the declaration.

Procedure

Normally, the declaration is given by both parents. Such a certification will be prepared by the German Embassy based on the information supplied. Due to this, the certification can only be carried out after having made a direct appointment with the visa- and consular section (no online appointments possible).

In preparation for the certification of the acknowledgement of paternity, please send us the following documents first as a scan together with the completed questionnaire to the E-Mail address: info@windhoek.diplo.de (with the by-line: „Paternity Acknowledgement for the child ...“)

The questionnaire can be found here: Questionnaire

As soon as the Embassy has checked your documents, we will contact you for an appointment directly.

Which documents must be submitted?

Both parents and the child should be present during the acknowledgement of paternity. Please bring all the following documents as originals to you appointment with the Embassy:

• travel passports of both parents
  
• birth certificates of both parents
  
• birth certificate of the child to be acknowledged
  
• by acknowledgement before birth: doctors certificate on the pregnancy and the expected date of birth
  
• If applicable: travel passport of the child to be acknowledged
  
• If applicable: Divorce documents from previous marriages of both parentsg
  
• completed questionnaire for the acknowledgement of paternity
  

In some cases it might be necessary to provide further documentation.

Fees

The fees for the service of the German Embassy need to be paid at the application in Namibian Dollar. The fees will be converted into Namibian Dollar according to the Exchange rate of the Embassy on that day. Payment can be done with cash or credit cards (Visa or MasterCard). List of fees.