Is a citizenship stamp on a child's birth certificate required for travel to Switzerland in 2025?

Until 2024, the stamp indicating Russian citizenship on a child's birth certificate was not mandatory, and it was sufficient that all parents had a citizenship mark in their certificates. However, the laws have now changed. In 2023, Presidential Decree No. 889 of November 22, 2023, 'Issues of Citizenship of the Russian Federation,' was signed, according to which Russian citizens are now checked for the presence of Russian citizenship when leaving the country. And if citizenship confirmation is lacking, in 2025, they may not be allowed to cross the border. The Border Service of the FSB of Russia (not customs!!!), which processes citizens at the border, has issued clarifications: Currently, for taking a child under 14 abroad, it is mandatory to present at border control any of the following documents:

• A stamp in the birth certificate.
• A separate insert confirming citizenship.
• An entry of the child in the parents' passport with a stamp and signature from an FMS employee.
• The child's own passport or internal passport after turning 14.

Note that even one of the listed confirmations of citizenship is sufficient, and this works in practice and complies with Russian legislation. In other words, if the child has their own passport or internal Russian passport issued after turning 14, or has a citizenship insert, or is registered in your (parents') passport with an FMS employee's signature and stamp, then it is not necessary to put a stamp in the birth certificate, even 'just in case.' And all the stories in chats and forums from users about not being allowed out without a stamp on the birth certificate are inaccurate information as of 2025.

To summarize, we reiterate that the question can be answered definitively as follows:

• If you are traveling with a child abroad to one of the distant countries where entry is strictly by passport, not by internal Russian passport or birth certificate, which is the vast majority of countries, then there is no need to worry about having a stamp at all; it is not required since citizenship is confirmed by the passport.
• If you are traveling with a child abroad to one of the countries where Russian citizens can enter with an internal passport or birth certificate (currently Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Ossetia) and the child does not have their own passport, Russian passport, insert, or is not registered in your passport with a signature and stamp, then the child must have a stamp in the birth certificate.

To put a stamp in the birth certificate, you will need to apply to the FMS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to obtain it. Usually, this is done in one visit within just a few minutes, but sometimes it takes several days (depending on the workload of the FMS department). Also, stamps are placed in some MFC offices, but this takes much longer, and not all MFCs do this.

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