• General information
• Stages of examination
• Categories of applicants
• Documents required for issuance
• Terms, cost, and place of issue *
• Benefits *
• Complementary services

General information

Restoring civil status documents is a procedure practiced to restore a civil status act if it was:

• previously registered but not preserved due to the loss of all or part of the civil status registers;

• registered abroad, but it is impossible to obtain a civil status certificate or an extract from it.

Civil status documents are restored according to:

• a  registry office decision when the documents confirming previous existence of lost civil status documents are presented;

• a court decision on stating the fact of registration of a civil status act or declaring a person dead;

• a notification from competent authorities for restoring acts death on behalf of those repressed, whose death occurred in places of repression.

In case if the documents necessary to restore a civil status act are insufficient, an applicant may be issued a notification confirming the impossibility of restoring the act, which serves as a basis for addressing the court to state the fact which has legal value (procedure governed by Art. 281-285 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Moldova).

Stages of examination

To restore civil status documents, you should take the following steps:

1. Submitting an application:

An application for restoring a civil status act together with documents showing the existence in the past of the act may be filed to:

• the registry office:

- in charge of the territorial unit where you reside;

- that stored the act in question before its loss.

2. Examination of the application:

The registry office will examine your application, organize the dossier, take a decision in this regard, and provide a notification on restoration of a civil status act in question.

If you address the registry office in charge of the territorial unit where you reside, the official will send the dossier to the registry office that stored the act in question before its loss to issue the act in question.

3. Registration of a civil status act:

A restored civil status act will be registered by the registry office that stored the act in question before its loss. The civil status certificate will be sent to the registry office in charge of the territorial unit where you reside to be issued.

A civil status act registered abroad (including the CIS countries) shall be restored at the registry office in charge of the territorial unit where you reside.

4. Special cases of dossier approval by the civil status service:

In certain cases, the dossier for restoring a civil status act is examined for approval by the Civil Status Service (for instance, the act to be restored is found only in possession of the Civil Status Service, etc.). A dossier is approved within 15 working days, without taking mailing time into account.

A dossier for restoring a civil status act may be examined by the Civil Status Service upon the applicant’s request urgently, if the applicant presents personally at the Methodology and Dossier Examination of the Control and Methodology Department of the Civil Status Service located at  11/1 Mihai Viteazul Street, Chisinau Municipality.

For urgent examination of the dossier, the following documents shall be submitted:

-  relevant dossier sealed (in an envelope) as required;

-  identity document of the applicant;

- proof of authorization (for representation): power of attorney,  proxy,  service document that confirms acting on behalf of a guardianship or other empowered authority, etc.;

-  check confirming the payment for services.

Categories of applicants

The following categories of applicants may require restoring civil status acts:

• civil status certificate holder;

• family members, relatives of the deceased, or other empowered persons – if the holder of a civil status act is dead;

• the legal representative of the minor, a person with limited individual capacity or declared incapable by court decision (parents, guardians or curators, representative of a guardianship authority);

• contractual representative (authorized by a power of  attorney or a warrant agreement).

Documents required for issuance

1. To request restoring a civil status act, an applicant shall attach to the application the following documents:

• notification of stating the absence of a civil status act (form No 28);

• curriculum vitae (detailed, in chronological order, including the data on parents, brothers, sisters, and children, date of birth, full name, date of marriage, divorce);

• explanation of the reason for restoring the civil status act;

• statement documents which include the data to be entered in the document to be restored:

- military record card;

- employment record book;

- pension certificate;

- documents regarding education;

- marriage certificate;

- certificate of divorce;

- birth certificates of children;

- birth or death certificates of brothers, sisters, parents of the holder of the act to be restored);

• a copy of the identity documents;

• photo of the holder,

and as appropriate:

• a copy of the real estate record book that includes the data on the members of the applicant's parents’ family;

• other documents to be used as evidence (if necessary)

Terms, cost, and place of issue *

• Examination of an application for restoring a civil status act (organizing a dossier by a registry office

The service fee is charged from the applicant when filing the application, regardless of the result of its examination

• Examination of the dossier for restoring a civil status act by the Civil Status Service

Benefits *

The following categories of individuals are exempt from paying the tariffs for the services:

• disabled persons: the 1^st, the 2^nd, and the 3^rd disability groups;

• participants of the Last World War;

• retirement pensioners;

• parents who have 3 or more children;

• orphaned children;

• participants of the liquidation of consequences of the Chernobyl accident;

• citizens of the Republic of Moldova who participated in the armed conflict protecting the interests of the Republic of Moldova – 50 per cent of the total cost of the service;

• citizens applying for repeatedly issuing death certificates of their relatives repressed and later rehabilitated or replacement of previously issued ones.

 * In accordance with Appendix No 3 to the Nomenclature and Tariffs for Services Offered by the Civil Status Service and Registry Offices (approved by Government Decision No 738 dated June 20, 2008, and published in Monitorul Oficial No 112-114 dated June 27, 2008).

Complementary services

• Drawing up an application for issuing civil status documents by the registry office or the civil status service

• Verification of information of a registry office by contacting the civil status service or other registry offices in the republic of moldova on the phone for certain clarifications and competent consideration of applications