玩偶姐姐

There should be a standard form of birth certificate we call it Formula A .

Generally we need recent birth certificate, issue date must be less than 6 month.

My be you submitted old, that's why both having a different format

Also, less than 12 year kids doesn't need birth certificate, they will get nationality automatically once you will get.

@KTantwerp05

The gemeente is clearly wrong. Situations like this happen all the time, formats of birth certificates change and that is completely normal. For example, my colleague from Russia applied recently with two children: her own birth certificate was an old cardboard booklet, the older child had a paper a bit smaller than A4, and the younger child had an A4 paper with a QR code. All of them were accepted without problem (in Gent).

Document formats change over time, this is absolutely normal. What is not normal is the behavior of the commune officer, who basically accused you of presenting fake documents. Why do I say this? Because that is the only reason a birth certificate can be rejected by law. The nationality law does not require that documents from different people and different times look the same. There is also no legal rule about the 鈥渧alidity period鈥� of a birth certificate or of the apostille (though communes often wrongly demand documents not older than 1 year ,this is also illegal).

What you should do now: write and send via post an official complaint (Klacht) to Antwerp commune and describe the situation. Don鈥檛 be afraid, this will not harm your nationality application. A separate person will review your complaint.

Also, since Antwerp has very few slots, and because this mistake is not your fault, you should demand an urgent extra appointment as soon as possible.

If your documents are genuine, you have nothing to fear. Good luck!

@gbsc0609

That is bullshit. There is no validity period for an original birth certificate, and also no validity period for the apostille. If it is an extract from the population register, then yes, extract can have a limited validity. But not the original certificate.

Belgian communes have been telling foreigners this bullshit for 20 years already, and they have been criticized many times in official instructions for doing so. Still, some very stupid staff continue to repeat it.