If you need to authenticate a birth certificate in Nigeria at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then you should bear in mind that it is necessary to have the official birth certificate or birth attestation certificate issued by the National Population Commission (NPC). This is because most embassies and foreign immigration authorities tend to accept only the authenticated NPC-issued birth certificate or attestation of birth. This means that authentication of birth certificate in Nigeria should be done only after you have obtained the official birth certificate or attestation of birth issued by the National Population Commission.
If you don’t already have the NPC birth certificate, you first need to obtain a sworn affidavit of birth from a High Court and then head to the nearest National Population Commission (NPC) office in your state in Nigeria to begin the process of obtaining the official birth certificate.
After you have received the birth certificate, you can then proceed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja to start the authentication process. The procedure for authentication of birth certificate in Nigeria is the same for other documents (such as marriage certificate, academic results, etc.), which we comprehensively explained in a previous cornerstone article on how to authenticate documents in Nigeria. The highlight of this process is to go to the legal services department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja and follow their instructions pertaining to paying the official authentication fee, submitting the birth certificate, and determining when to come back for it.
Before taking the birth certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for authentication, you need to find out from the embassy of your destination country or the institution you intend to submit the document to whether you are required to authenticate the original birth certificate itself or whether it is okay to make a photocopy of the birth certificate and then authenticate the photocopy. This requirement differs from one embassy or country to the other.
For example, most embassies including the UAE Embassy, Netherlands Embassy, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Qatar Embassy in Nigeria among others usually insist on authentication of the original birth certificate, whereas the South Africa Embassy and a few others may accept authenticated photocopies or printed copies rather than the original. You just need to inquire from the specific embassy or authority you’re submitting the document to in order to ascertain whether or not you need to authenticate the original.
In essence, the process for authentication of birth certificate in Nigeria at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is summarized as follows:
- Get a sworn affidavit of birth at a competent High Court in any part of Nigeria
- Submit the affidavit to the National Population Commission (NPC) and follow the instructions to apply for a birth attestation which would essentially serve as your official birth certificate.
- Take the NPC issued birth certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and make your way to the Legal Services Department to begin the birth certificate authentication process.
There is no clear time-frame for getting the authentication completed. Considering the bureaucratic bottlenecks and large volume of documents treated daily by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it can take several days for your birth certificate to be successfully authenticated.
Again, if you intend to submit your NPC-issued attestation of birth certificate to the Embassy of Belgium, there is a special requirement which you must fulfill – which is to first authenticate the birth attestation certificate at the National Population Commission, which is a process they call ‘confirmation of birth’, before proceeding for authentication at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subsequently submitting the document to the Embassy of Belgium. Note that you will be required to also submit a copy of the REMITA payment receipt issued for the confirmation done by the NPC. To the best of our knowledge, this additional process is only required (for now) by the Belgium Embassy in Nigeria.
Difference Between NPC Birth Certificate and NPC Birth Attestation Certificate
According to the existing National Population Commission policy, the official birth certificates can only be issued to individuals below the age of 18. In other words, only mostly infants, children and adolescents tend to be eligible to be issued a birth certificate by the NPC.
On the other hand, if you are 18 years and above, then the NPC will issue you an equivalent document previously known as the ‘Attestation of Birth Letter’ but now simply known as ‘Attestation Certificate’. Note that this birth attestation certificate is completely equal to a birth certificate and carries the same legal weight both domestically in Nigeria and when using it overseas (provided it has been duly authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Below is a sample of the new digital Birth Attestation Certificate issued by the National Population Commission of Nigeria (NPC). As you can see, this new form of NPC attestation certificate has an embedded QR code with which its authenticity can be validated by local or international authorities including immigration and consular departments worldwide.
To get this attestation of birth letter from the NPC, you must first obtain and present a court affidavit attesting to your date of birth and other personal details, and the affidavit must have a declarant who will be either of your parents (father or mother) or a significantly older sibling. A sample of the age declaration affidavit issued by a High Court in Abuja, Nigeria can be seen below.
If you intend to use your NPC Birth Attestation Certificate abroad for immigration purposes, you may sometimes be required to submit the birth certificate (Attestation Certificate) along with the age declaration affidavit. This is particularly the case for the Netherlands and a few other European countries.
Contact Antarch Consulting for Help With Authentication of Birth Certificate or Birth Attestation Certificate
You may contact us at Antarch Consulting for professional support If distance or a busy schedule prevents you from personally processing your birth documents as described above.
For assistance with attestation or authentication of birth certificate and other documents you intend to use abroad, you are welcome to get in touch with Antarch Consulting, as we can help you get this done quickly and efficiently. If you need this service or any related assistance, feel free to Contact Us.
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