Guidance

Luxembourg: Knowledge Base profile

Updated 9 April 2024

This document contains useful information about Luxembourg which will assist His Majesty’s Passport Office staff process passport applications.

Contacts

If you have any questions about the document and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the document has factual errors then email the Guidance team.

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Publication

Below is information on when this version of the document was published:

• version 3.0
• published for Home Office staff on 9 April 2024

Changes from last version of this document

This document has been updated with minor formatting changes.

Luxembourg: names

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about names in Luxembourg.

Names in Luxembourg consist of:

• 1 or more forenames
• a surname, which can be either the:
  • father’s surname
  • mother’s surname
  • father’s surname followed by the mother’s surname
  • mother’s surname followed by the father’s surname

All children from the same couple must hold the same surname.

Passports and identity cards are issued matching with a person’s name in the Luxembourg National Register of Natural Persons.

Change of name

Following a marriage, a woman will keep her birth surname on her passports and identity documents. On a passport the married surname will also be included, following the letters ‘ep’.

Name alignment

HM Passport Office will not ask the customer to align a passport from Luxembourg if the customer applies for a British passport in their married name and the foreign passport is in the customer’s maiden name with the married name shown as ‘ep’ [insert married surname].

Luxembourg: nationality

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about nationality in Luxembourg.

Dual nationality is recognised in Luxembourg since 1 January 2009.

Luxembourg: legitimacy and parental responsibility

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about legitimacy and parental responsibility in Luxembourg.

Legitimacy

Luxembourg recognises a difference between legitimate and illegitimate births.

A child will be considered:

• legitimate from:
  • birth if they were born to married parents
  • the date of marriage if the parents marry after the birth and there is a declaration of parentage
• illegitimate if they were born to unmarried parents who never marry

Parental responsibility

Parental responsibility is shared equally between both parents, whether they are married or not. It will only be exercised alone if the other parent is:

• deceased
• absent
• unable to express their wishes

Luxembourg: adoption

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about adoption in Luxembourg.

Adoption is legal in Luxembourg if one of the adoptive parents is a Luxembourg citizen.

Luxembourg: surrogacy

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about surrogacy in Luxembourg.

Surrogacy is illegal in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg: gender recognition

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about gender recognition in Luxembourg.

Transgender citizens are recognised in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg: documents

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about documents in Luxembourg.

The “Centre Informatique de l’Etat” holds records relating to all births, marriages and deaths in Luxembourg.

Following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, HM Passport Office cannot accept Multilingual Standard Forms (MSFs) issued by member states. An MSF will:

• contain a reference to the convention signed at Vienna on September 8 1976, this may be on the reverse of the document
• be marked as a Formul A (birth certificate), normally in the top right corner on the front of the document in the language of the country where the document was issued
  • there will also be marriage certificates and death certificates that will have a different Formul version that is also not acceptable

These documents are an extract of a civil registration record translated into the language needed and not a full, original certificate.

Birth certificates

Following registration, a birth certificate is issued. All births must be registered within 10 days at the Office de l’Etet Civil’ in the commune where the child was born.

If an error is found on the birth certificate the parent must return to the issuing commune and declare an ‘Erreur Material’ to correct the entry and receive a new certificate

There are various styles of birth certificate in circulation, depending on the local council from the area where the certificate was issued.

Marriage certificates

Only civil marriages are legal in Luxembourg. These are automatically registered at the time of the ceremony where a marriage certificate (a ‘Carnet de marriage’) is issued.  

There are two types of marriage certificate in circulation, these are for couples who:

• have not previously married
• have been previously married, this certificate will hold the names of previous partners

Death certificates

Death certificates are issued by the commune where the citizen lived, following a doctors certificate of death.

The death should be registered as soon as possible (either same day, or immediately after), Late registration is allowed.

All Luxembourg death certificates are issued in a standard format, containing the:

• name of the deceased
• next of kin
• name of the person making the declaration
• name of the communal representative signing the certificate

Identity documents

Passports and identity cards are issued matching with a person’s name in the Luxembourg National Register of Natural Persons.

There are 2 types of identity cards for foreign nationals who intend to live in Luxembourg for more than one year and these are issued by the local commune (town hall):

• Attestation d’Enregistrement for European Union (EU) citizens
• a Titre de Sejour for non-EU citizens

These are issued by the local commune and the person will be requested to provide their fingerprints and a passport photo for the card to be issued.