The short answer
Home Affairs says that the waiting period for an unabridged birth certificate is three to eight weeks, but many people have complained of delays of many months.
The whole question
I was born in South Africa, to South African parents and raised in Cape Town as a South African citizen. I relocated to the UK 20 years ago.
In December 2016 I applied to the DOH for a copy of my unabridged birth certificate. After waiting more than two years they did not produce a birth certificate. They gave no reason or explanation for this.
In November 2018, I made a second application for my unabridged birth certificate. This time I used a specialised firm and they had more luck: the department admitted to them that my “file was lost”. To remedy the problem, the department requested that I sign an affidavit confirming my parents' ID numbers and the location of my birth. My understanding is that Home Affairs now intend to issue an unabridged birth certificate based on information I’ve given them (sounds topsy turvy, but it’s true). Needless to say that it has been over three months since I submitted this affidavit and no response from the department.
Are you able to offer advice or should I relinquish all hope of ever seeing my birth certificate?
The long answer
Thank you for your email about the difficulties of receiving your unabridged birth certificate from the Department of Home Affairs.
Home Affairs says that birth certificates are issued to South African citizens whether they reside in or outside the country, so there should be no reason for the delay in issuing yours, but I’m afraid that failure to communicate and extremely long, seemingly unwarranted delays appear to be very common.
The Home Affairs website says that the waiting period for an unabridged birth certificate is three to eight weeks, but many people have complained of delays of many months, and a frustrating lack of response to queries, as in your own case.
In the case of delays where children need the birth certificates to travel with their parents, the DHA has said that if the applications were not processed within eight weeks, the family would qualify for an official letter allowing the children to travel without the unabridged birth certificates. This letter would state that all the required and correct information had been submitted and received by the DHA. The family would have to apply for this letter and give proof of their intention to travel on particular dates.
The DHA does have a specific hotline for enquiries about birth certificates and also a dedicated email address. These are:
Hotline: 0800 60 11 90
Email: hacc@dha.gov.za
Wishing you all the best in your quest.
Answered on March 26, 2019, 9:24 a.m.
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