A digital birth certificate is a digital version of a traditional paper birth certificate. You can add it to your wallet in Service Victoria app.
A digital birth certificate holds the same legal standing as a paper certificate, so it can be used for official purposes like proving identity. You’ll need the Service Victoria app to access it.
Digital certificates aren’t replacing paper certificates. They’re optional and free.
We recommend still getting a paper certificate as some businesses, and other interstate or international governments may not accept a digital birth certificate immediately. This will change as adoption increases.
Digital birth certificates are now available for Victorian children born on or after 19 February 2019.
IAs a parent/caregiver, you can add a digital birth certificate to your digital wallet:
- when you first register your child’s birth through Births, Deaths and Marriages
- later through Service Victoria.
There are two ways to get a digital birth certificate for your child.
- Without the need for a paper certificate through the Births, Deaths and Marriages website at the same time you first register a child’s birth.
- Through Service Victoria after a birth has been registered (requires you to already have your child’s paper certificate.)
If you’re getting a digital birth certificate after a birth has been registered through Service Victoria, you’ll first need a paper certificate as we’ll need some details from it.
If you haven’t yet registered the birth, you can choose to get a digital certificate by itself without the need for a paper certificate.
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 to first prove your identity. To do this you’ll need:
- 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.
Once you’ve applied and gone through all the steps, your child’s digital birth certificate should appear in your wallet within 30 minutes.
A digital birth certificate holds the same legal standing as a paper certificate, so it can be used for official purposes like proving identity. You’ll need the Service Victoria app to access it.
Digital certificates aren’t replacing paper certificates. They’re optional and free.
We recommend still getting a paper certificate as some businesses, and other interstate or international governments may not accept a digital birth certificate immediately. This will change as adoption increases.
Currently, you can get a digital birth certificate two ways.
- Without the need for a paper certificate through the Births, Deaths and Marriages website at the same time you first register a child’s birth.
- Through Service Victoria after a birth has been registered (requires you to already have your child’s paper certificate.)
Getting a digital birth certificate after registering your child’s birth without needing a paper certificate will be available in the future.
You’ll find your child’s digital birth certificate in your digital wallet, in the Service Victoria app.
Open the app and tap the wallet icon at the bottom of your screen to open and find the certificate.
The Victorian birth registry is large and complex. It has information going back over 100 years. A lot of the historical data was recorded in different and inconsistent formats.
On the 19 of February 2019, the Victorian Government moved to a new and modernised system for recoding births. This system is what allows us to create digital birth certificates. All births on or after that date are automatically added to the new system.
We’re working to make digital certificates available for everyone.
Yes. When you use a digital birth certificate, Service Victoria gets the 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 a digital birth certificate.
Because your details go straight to your phone, we don’t need to store any of your personal info.
You can read more about how we use your data in our privacy and security policy.
If there's an error on a birth certificate, you can apply to have it corrected through Births, Deaths and Marriages. They assess all corrections before making them.
If you have a digital Victorian birth certificate for your child, it’ll update automatically when the changes are processed. You might need to refresh your Service Victoria app.
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 for identifying your child.
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.
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 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.