Birth certificates in Ukraine are issued by local vital statistics offices, within 1-3 days after application due to COVID-19 restrictions. In normal times the process takes 2-3 hours.

Parents acquire parental rights immediately upon child’s birth, as per Family Code of Ukraine Article 123 part 2.

Ukrainian law is one of the most favorable in the world in terms of registration of the child’s birth, born by a surrogate mother. The thing is that the names of the intended parents are put on the birth certificate from the very beginning. Genetic parents do not need to get any special permits from any committee, court or other institution. No adoption procedure is required. The child is considered to be legally of commissioning parents from the very moment of conception.

Pursuant to the Rules for vital statistic, registration in Ukraine of 10/18/2000, the Ukrainian Law governs vital statistics registration upon applications of foreigners. That means that foreigners may apply for a birth registration either to the Consular Office of his own country or to the Ukrainian Vital Statistics Office at the place of birth of their child. Surely, it is easier to apply to the Consular Office and get a birth certificate issued by own country together with the child’s passport. However, it is only possible when the surrogacy is legal in the own country of the parents applying for a birth certificate of the child born by the surrogate, for example USA.

The procedure of birth registration for a child born by a surrogate is expressly stipulated by the mentioned Rules for vital statistics registration: If a child was born by a woman impregnated with an embryo originating from the spouses, the birth registration is conducted upon application by the spouses who gave their consent to implantation.

Therefore, these are genetic parents, being as well legal parents, who register their newborn child, and the surrogate has nothing to do with it. She takes no part in the registration other than giving her notarized permission to it. The parents personally (with help of interpreter) apply to the vital statistics office for their child registration. They only have to submit certificate that proves their genetic relationship to the child and the surrogate’s written consent to record their names on the birth certificate of the child she delivered.

The birth certificate the intended parents receive does not contain any entry neither on the surrogate’s name nor on the surrogate program. The only record about the name of the surrogate mother is contained in the civil record itself, which is kept with the Vital Statistics Office. In the column «remarks» there is an entry “the mother according to the medical certificate of birth” (the full name of a surrogate).
One more question that has to be answered is who should be considered as the child’s parents if the embryo was conceived by using of donated cells and biological material only from one of the intended parents
According to Paragraph 5.1 of the Instruction on Procedures for Assisted Reproductive Technologies the embryo implantation is performed when anonymity of the donor and medical secrecy are protected. Thereby the donor gametal cells (eggs, sperm) cannot acquire parental responsibilities and rights with regard to the child that has to be born in the future.

Paragraph 7.11 of the aforementioned Instruction stipulates that the birth registration of the child, born by virtue of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, is accomplished in accordance to the current legislation of Ukraine on the basis of certificate stating genetic relationship of the parents (mother or father) to the fetus.

Consequently, neither gametal cell donors, nor surrogate mother acquire parental rights and with regard to the children born by virtue of Assisted Reproductive Technologies when using either biological material of both or only one of intended parents. In these cases, parental rights and responsibilities belong to the spouses who are duly registered as the child’s parents.