New Born Baby

When a baby is born to expatriates in Kuwait, the parents must obtain a dependent's iqama for the child. There is no minimum salary requirement and the father of child born in Kuwait can sponsor his infant's residence irrespective of his salary level.



But first the parents must obtain a birth certificate for the child. The hospital where the child was born will provide a notification of the birth. This must be taken to the registry of births in the governorate in which the birth took place to obtain the official birth certificate. The hospital will provide the address. The additional documents required to obtain the birth certificate include: application form duly comp-leted, photocopies of parents' passport and civil IDs, and authenticated marriage contract. The birth certificate is usually ready to be picked up at the registry after about a week. The fee is KD10.

When the notification is being submitted at the registry, the parents will be asked to write down the proposed first name of the child. For expatriates who do not speak Arabic the name will be written phonetically in Arabic.

To obtain residence the baby's name must first be added to the parent's passport or a separate passport must be obtained for the infant. To obtain a passport for the child, different emba-ssies have different rules, but most non-Arabic embassies require a certified translation of the child's birth certificate while some require the birth certificate to be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait.

Once a passport has been procured or the child has been added to one of its parent's passport, the procedures for obtaining the child's residence are the same as for any dependent. An infant born in Kuwait however is not required to undergo medical tests and fingerprinting. The documents required include the originals and copies of the father's passport, the civil IDs of both parents, marriage certificate, work permit and letter of employment indicating salary. The application for the infant's residence must be made within 60 days of the birth to avoid a fine of KD 200.

Where the father works in the private sector, the administrative fee for the new-born infant is KD100 in the first year for the first and second child, and KD200 in the first year for the third and subsequent children. But if the father works in the public sector, there is no charge in the first year for the first three children, while the charge for each subsequent child is KD100 in the first year. The actual residence fee is KD10 a year.

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