The Department of Home Affairs has encouraged parents and guardians to apply at their nearest home affairs offices for unabridged birth certificates for their children. This even if they do not have plans to travel abroad in the near future. It is a legal requirement.

The department announced earlier this week a grace period until the end of September 2014 for parents and guardians to travel with children without producing an unabridged birth certificate as required by the new immigration regulations.

These regulations came into operation on May, 26 with the Immigration Amendment Acts of 2007 and 2011.

As of 1 October 2014, parents travelling with a child must produce an unabridged birth certificate of the child reflecting the particulars of both the parents and child.

In a media statement the department says provision is also made for one parent travelling with a child and where one parent or both parents are deceased or the child is travelling with a relative or another person.

Certified copies of unabridged birth certificates and parental consent where applicable will be acceptable when travelling with children.

This Regulation applies to minor children under the age of 18 years.

The Department started issuing unabridged birth certificates for newborn babies from March 4 last year. This followed the department’s review of the Birth and Death Act (1992) and the Citizenship Act (1995) which culminated in the South African Citizenship Amendment Act 2010.

The unabridged birth certificate is more secure and reliable with added information as it contains particulars of both parents, aimed at supporting the drive to secure the National Population Register so that all people in the country are and feel safe.

For children born before March 2013, parents need to apply for unabridged birth certificates to replace the old abridged birth certificate that contained only the name and ID number of the newborn baby and the mother and was easy to reproduce illegally. For this category the application fee is R75 and the process takes about 6 weeks. The application can be made at any home affairs office, by the parent(s)/guardian, who should take along their identity documents and the child’s abridged certificate.

These changes will also promote the department’s main function of issuing secure, credible and accurate birth certificates as well as identity documents to all our people.

Media Statement issued by the Department of Home Affairs