A digital birth certificate is a digital version of a paper birth certificate. You can add it to your wallet in the Service Victoria app.
There are 2 ways to get a digital birth certificate:
If your child is older or you don't live within these areas, you’ll need to use your child’s original paper certificate when enrolling them in kinder.
- when you register your child’s birth
- later via Service Victoria, if you already have their paper birth certificate and they were born on or after 19 February 2019.
You can order a digital birth certificate when you register your child’s birth.
If you’ve already registered their birth and have their paper birth certificate, you can apply for a digital birth certificate for your child through your wallet in the Service Victoria app.
To get started, create a Service Victoria account and download the Service Victoria app in Google Play or the Apple app store.
To add a digital version of your child’s birth certificate to your wallet, you’ll need:
- an original paper copy of your child’s Victorian birth certificate
- a certificate issued on or after 19 February 2019
- two additional IDs such as a driver’s licence, passport or Medicare card. One must have a photo. ID names must match a parent name on the original birth certificate
OR
- an already verified digital identity in your Service Victoria account
Get a digital birth certificate
Once you’ve applied and gone through all the steps, your child’s digital birth certificate should appear in your wallet within 30 minutes.
To add a digital birth certificate for your child to your digital wallet, we’ll need info from the paper certificate including its certificate number.
You won’t need a paper certificate if you order a digital birth certificate when you register your child’s birth.
Paper birth certificates are issued in Victoria through the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
To get or update your child’s paper birth certificate, visit Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria.
We’re trialling digital birth certificates to get feedback from parents, caregivers and kinder providers.
As part of the trial, you can use your child’s digital birth certificate as ID when enrolling them in kinder in select council areas:
- Casey
- Mitchell
- Wyndham.
If your child is older or you don't live within these areas, you’ll need to use your child’s original paper certificate when enrolling them in kinder.
In the future, we’ll be rolling out the initiative to all kindergartens in Victoria.
You can easily share your child’s digital birth certificate to the kinder you’re enrolling your child in.
To do this securely:
- Show the digital birth certificate in person at the kinder. They’ll do a visual check and scan the certificate’s QR code through the Service Victoria app. A green tick will verify the certificate is valid.
- If the kinder asks for a copy of the certificate, you can also share it as a PDF. This is not an official version, but some organisations may need to keep a record of the certificate on file for regulatory reasons.
Only share this PDF with people and organisations you trust. You can also share the PDF with a trusted parent or guardian. However, this is a non-official version and can't be used by them to apply for kinder. To get a digital birth certificate to use for kinder enrolments, they will need to set it up through their Service Victoria wallet.
The Victorian birth registry is large and complex. It has information going back over 100 years. We’re working to make all of the data accessible so that everyone can eventually get a digital certificate.
For now, children that meet our trial’s eligibility criteria can get a digital birth certificate.
Yes. When you use your child’s birth certificate, Service Victoria gets your info from Births, Deaths and Marriages and sends it straight to your phone.
People who need to check the certificate will do a visual check or scan a unique QR code that shows them real-time information This means it would be very hard for anyone to forge thea digital birth certificate.
Because your details go straight to your phone, we don’t need to store any of your personal information.
To update details on a birth certificate, visit Births, Deaths and Marriages.
If you’ve changed your child’s name through Births, Deaths, and Marriages, the change of name will also be updated on the digital birth certificate.
Without this official change of name process, the details will not be updated on the digital birth certificate.
Your child’s other parent can share the digital birth certificate with you as a PDF. However, this is not an official version and can’t be used to apply for kinder.
If you’re a listed parent on the birth certificate, you can add your child’s digital birth certificate to your own wallet in the Service Victoria app.
Not yet. Currently, only children born on or after 19 February 2019 are eligible for a digital birth certificate.
If you’ve gone through all the steps to add your child’s digital birth certificate, it should appear in your wallet within 30 minutes.
If the digital birth certificate doesn't appear in your wallet, refresh your app and ensure you have the latest version.
If it still doesn’t appear, there may be a technical error or an issue with the information provided. We’ll notify you in your digital wallet on what to do next.