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.
Children born on or after 19 February 2019 who have a Victorian birth certificate and are enrolling in kinder in select council areas, are eligible to apply for 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.
In the future, we’ll be rolling out the initiative to all kindergartens in Victoria.
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 get a digital birth certificate for your child, we’ll need info from the paper certificate including its certificate number.
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.
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.
If you’re applying for kinder outside of these trial areas, you’ll still need to use your child’s original paper certificate to enrol.
In your digital wallet in the Service Victoria mobile app.
Open the app and tap the wallet icon at the bottom of your screen to open and find your digital birth certificate.
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 as a PDF. It’s not an official version, but some agencies may need to keep it on file for regulatory reasons.
It’s important to note, when you share as a PDF, it’s no longer secure, so only send it to 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.
They will need to add the digital birth certificate, through the Service Victoria ap, to add to their wallet.
The Victorian birth registry is large and complex. It has information going back over 100+ years.
For now, the focus of the trial will be on Victorian born children 5 years or younger enrolling in kinder in our trial areas.
In the future, we’ll be working to make all birth registry data accessible so that everyone can eventually get a digital 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 hard for anyone to forge a digital birth certificate.
Because your details go straight to your phone, there is nothing on our servers to put your info at risk.
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, when the change of name updates in the Birth registry, it will also update on the digital birth certificate.
If a person has changed their name but not gone through the official change of name process, it will not update in the registry and it will not be reflected in the digital birth certificate.
Your child’s other parent can share the digital birth certificate with you as a PDF, however it’s 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.