Birth Certificate for a UAE Child Residence Permit | Checklist

A child’s birth certificate is used to show the parent-child relationship in a residence application. The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) lists children’s birth certificates for this purpose. The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA) also asks for evidence of the family relationship. Their public pages do not state one translation rule for every country, language or application. Start with the exact residence service.

Four questions to settle before ordering

1. Who will receive the file? Identify the exact ICP, GDRFA or other residence service rather than using “UAE immigration” as a general label.
2. Can the authority use the certificate’s current language? If not, ask which target language and type of translator it accepts.
3. Does the certificate require attestation? Translation changes the language. Attestation confirms official signatures and seals. Check the current instructions for the issuing country, document and authority.
4. Which name spelling should the translator follow? Provide the passport or other reference named by the authority. A translator cannot rewrite the civil record.

Gather these documents and details

Before contacting a translator, gather:

• the complete birth certificate, including reverse pages, stamps and annotations;
• the child’s passport and the parents’ spelling references if the authority asks for them;
• the exact residence service and emirate;
• any written checklist or message supplied by the authority, an Amer government service centre in Dubai, an application centre or the sponsor; and
• the submission deadline.

This lets the translator identify what is readable and what can be translated. It also separates translation questions from attestation or application questions that must go back to the authority.

What the official pages say

ICP identifies birth certificates as evidence of the parent-child relationship. GDRFA asks for evidence of that relationship in a family residence application. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFA) says attestation confirms official signatures and seals. None of these pages says that every English certificate needs Arabic translation, every file follows the same steps, or a translation will be accepted automatically.

If a UAE authority requires a legal translation, check that the translator is registered for that work. Federal Decree-Law No. 22 of 2022 regulates translators and translation houses. This concerns who may do the translation; it does not mean every authority asks for the same language or document format.

Avoid three common scope errors

• Do not treat these as the same step. An apostille is a certificate used under the Hague Convention. Embassy legalisation and MOFA attestation separately confirm official signatures and seals. Translation changes the language.
• Do not omit the back of a certificate, an annotation or a continuation page without checking whether it belongs in scope.
• Do not silently change a name to resemble a passport. Show the difference and ask the authority how it should be handled.

Check country rules at the time you apply

The Hague Conference status table records the Apostille Convention in force for Pakistan from 9 March 2023 and for Bangladesh from 30 March 2025. Older guides may therefore show the wrong status. Convention membership alone still does not tell you every step needed for a certificate going to the UAE. Check the current instructions with the authority handling your application.

Where to place the order

Once the authority, language and type of translator are clear, use the birth certificate translation service for document review and a written quote. This guide helps you decide what to ask for; the service page is where you place the translation order.