Vault Copy a Birth Certificate – What is It and Do I Need One?

If you are South African born and are applying for British citizenship, applying for a British Ancestral Visa or are wishing to apply for or wanting to renew your British passport, you will require a Vault Copy of your Birth Record or Vault Birth Certificate.

This certificate is a compulsory requirement for first time passport applications as well as where South African born British passport holders have allowed their British Passports to expire for longer than 5 years.

What is A Vault copy of one’s Birth Record or Birth Certificate?

South Africa, somewhat uniquely in the western world captures a citizen’s birth through a pre-printed form which the newborn’s parents fill out by hand, one per child, and this constitutes the single most accurate record of one’s birth.

This document is stored in a vault at the South African Home Affairs HQ in Pretoria, hence the name Vault Certificate or Vault Copy of a Birth Certificate and the document never leaves their vault. A Vault copy of a Birth Certificate is a certified copy of the hand written form and is required by various foreign institutions as definitive proof of one’s birth registration.

Whether a person intends immigrating or applying for foreign citizenship, this document is required together with an unabridged Birth Certificate. The Vault copy of one’s Birth record with it’s characteristic pink stamp is the British Government’s preferred proof of one’s birth registration due to the reliable source of one’s registered biological parents.

Vault Copy of Birth Certificates applications take notoriously long to process and Q-pro advises that clients requiring this document contact us in good time. Q-pro can normally source these documents in 14 days providing all application documentation is in order.

Please feel free to fill out the form below if you require a Vault Copy of your Birth Record or Vault Birth Certificate and a qualified consultant will contact you to discuss your requirements.