How do I verify a birth registration certificate online?

Go to the official verification page and supply two things — the seventeen-digit registration number and the date of birth. If they match, the registered person’s details are displayed; if not, it reports that no record was found.

The commonest reason for a record not being found is not forgery but age. Many handwritten certificates were issued before the online system, and those were never entered into the database. In that case you go to the local registrar’s office to have the record digitised.

The date format trips people up too — enter it in exactly the order the page asks for, or a correct record will still fail to match. The number must be the full seventeen digits as well; a shorter number on the certificate is itself a sign of the older format.

It is worth saving the verification result page, since many institutions want proof of verification alongside the certificate. Do not enter the number on third-party websites — the official page is the only reliable place.

Sources:

• Verify a birth registration record
• Birth and death registration portal