Authentication of Birth Certificate in Nigeria For Use Abroad

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 often important to have the official birth certificate or attestation of birth 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:

1. Get a sworn affidavit of birth at a competent High Court in any part of Nigeria
2. Submit the affidavit to the National Population Commission (NPC) an follow their instructions for issuing your official birth certificate or attestation of birth letter
3. 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 attestation of birth 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 Attestation of Birth Letter and NPC Birth 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 known as the ‘Attestation of Birth Letter’. Note that this Attestation of Birth Letter 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. To get this attestation of birth letter from the NPC, you must first process 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 your father or an older male relative (brother or uncle).

Contact Antarch Consulting for Assistance With Authentication of Birth Certificate or Attestation of Birth Letter

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.