Birth certificate question

[Daisies]

We are in the process of applying for citizenship for my husband (spouse of Irish citizen, 3+ years residency) but I am confused about birth certs. From my understanding of reading the form, his birth certificate does not need to be sent with the application. But in another area of the form it states you need to have your birth certificate. Can anyone clarify this?

Our issue is my husband doesn't have a birth certificate (African country, was not issued at birth and can obtain a passport without it) and he cannot obtain it without travelling back to his home country.

[meself2]

It used to have a requirement to submit a certified copy of a birth certificate with the application, but I guess it's gone now.
Where does it say it is needed?

[mentalmind]

Where does it say it's not needed?

Page 3 of form 8 says:

In rare circumstances where an
applicant cannot produce their current passport, or a previous passport, birth certificate or other
supporting documents the applicant will be required to provide a full explanation. Such
explanation should, where possible, be supported by satisfactory evidence that they have
attempted to obtain such documentation and correspondence from the relevant authorities or
embassy responsible for the issuing of passports and birth certificates in their country, clearly
stating the reasons the documentation cannot be provided.

page 4 says:

In certain limited and exceptional
circumstances a birth affidavit may be accepted in lieu of a Birth Certificate where you can show
satisfactory evidence that the certificate is not available and cannot be obtained.

Page 21 of form8 says:

Please supply a photocopy of your Long Form Civil Birth Certificate.
If you do not have your birth certificate, you must get it before lodging this application.

So, you have to have birth certificate, if you can't have it then you need to get an explanation from relevant authorities about not being possible to have it.

[Daisies]

Where does it say it's not needed?

Page 3 of form 8 says:

In rare circumstances where an
applicant cannot produce their current passport, or a previous passport, birth certificate or other
supporting documents the applicant will be required to provide a full explanation. Such
explanation should, where possible, be supported by satisfactory evidence that they have
attempted to obtain such documentation and correspondence from the relevant authorities or
embassy responsible for the issuing of passports and birth certificates in their country, clearly
stating the reasons the documentation cannot be provided.

page 4 says:

In certain limited and exceptional
circumstances a birth affidavit may be accepted in lieu of a Birth Certificate where you can show
satisfactory evidence that the certificate is not available and cannot be obtained.

Page 21 of form8 says:

Please supply a photocopy of your Long Form Civil Birth Certificate.
If you do not have your birth certificate, you must get it before lodging this application.

So, you have to have birth certificate, if you can't have it then you need to get an explanation from relevant authorities about not being possible to have it.

I'm going based on the list of documents to be provided (pg 2-3 and pg 6) on the bottom half of page 3 it says "this is usually in the form of a currently valid passport and may include other supporting documents, such as previously held passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate"

[AAP1977]

Hi,

Some Countries in Africa were not issuing birth certificates until the early 1990’s, an example is Nigeria.

Birth certificates were issued from1992/1993, so for anyone born before this time you would have to get an attestation of the birth certificate which you can only get by travelling to Nigeria or by proxy.

An attestation is also like a birth affidavit, so I suggest getting a certified birth affidavit submitted with the application form.

All the best.

[Daisies]

Hi,

Some Countries in Africa were not issuing birth certificates until the early 1990’s, an example is Nigeria.

Birth certificates were issued from1992/1993, so for anyone born before this time you would have to get an attestation of the birth certificate which you can only get by travelling to Nigeria or by proxy.

An attestation is also like a birth affidavit, so I suggest getting a certified birth affidavit submitted with the application form.

All the best.

Thanks for this. I'll look into that.