Registering a birth in South Africa

42358POSTS

8 years ago

Hello everyone,

Have you had to or are you going to register a birth in South Africa? What was the experience like?

Who is required to register the birth, and where? Can it be either the mother or father?

What documents are usually required in South Africa?

How long does the process to register a birth take? Are there any time limits in which the registration must be completed?

Did you register the birth with your home country and how did that process compare? Will your child be able to have dual nationality?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Priscilla

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terryZW Member

14POSTS

8 years ago

If either one or both of you are foreign I recommend going to register at a government hospital that has a decently equipped home affairs office (we used Karl Bremmer.) You just get the birth record from the hospital you gave birth at and take it there. The will take copies of your IDs and visas then you'll get the birth certificate in 2 weeks max

The South Africa expat guide

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Sa11y Active member

34POSTS

8 years ago

My son has South African father and in our case the registration itself was聽 done at hospital. We were then issued abridged birth certificate that took a long while to be replaced with unabridged one. As far as I know now they issue unabridged certificates. I have not registered the birth in my home country yet, but will have to do this if we would like to benefit from my nationality.