Pretoria - The Department of Home Affairs has encouraged parents and guardians to apply for unabridged birth certificates for their children even if they do not have plans to travel abroad.
This was a legal requirement, the department said in a statement on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the department announced 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 that came into operation on 26 May 2014 with the Immigration Amendment Acts of 2007 and 2011.
As of October 1 this year parents who are travelling with a child parents must produce an unabridged birth certificate of the child reflecting the particulars of the parents of the child.
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. The regulation applies to children under the age of 18 years.
Home Affairs started issuing unabridged certificates for newborn babies from 4 March 2013 on the spot and at no cost.
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 certificate is more secure and reliable with added information as it contains particulars of both parents, where possible, and their ID numbers and therefore supports 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 six weeks.
The application can be made at any home affairs office, by the parents or 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 people. - SAnews.gov.za
