Correcting an error on a birth certificate
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I need to correct my date of birth on my birth certificate from Jamaica. I left Jamaica as a child and only have proof of my identity from my foreign documents like schools and hospitals. My parents are deceased and I have no others that can testify, or who were present at my birth. How can I correct my birth certificate?
Dealing with your particular situation with an incorrect date of birth — as you say — on your birth certificate when both your parents are deceased and you have no other relatives who can attest to the correct date of your birth places you in a very difficult position. And yet the fact that you left Jamaica as a child and you only have proof of your identity details from your foreign documents, and from schools and hospitals, may assist you.
First, have you checked with the Registrar of Births office in Jamaica about what is in fact recorded in your birth record to ascertain the date therein? I ask this because if the date on the certificate accords with that in the original birth register and the registration form, then that would in fact be your correct date of birth. It is more than possible that the recording of your date of birth after your particulars were being taken after your arrival in the foreign country, when you were being registered at schools etcetera, was when an error occurred. You must therefore contact the Office of the Registrar-General and make absolutely certain that the date on your birth certificate is different from that in the office’s records of your birth. This in my opinion is the first step you must take before you can embark on the making of an application to correct what you perceive as an error on your birth certificate.
If the date in their records accords with the date on your birth certificate, then your other records in the foreign country would be incorrect, and not your birth certificate. If these dates differ, then you must explain your particular circumstance of having no live parents or older relatives who can attest to your actual date of birth from their own knowledge, to the Office of the Registrar-General, and ask for their advice for how you can apply for the error to be corrected and who would be accepted as credible witnesses, or whether you would be required to make a special application or apply to a court of law. The applicable law is the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act and specifically its section 51 (C) which deals with corrections of errors of fact or substance.
The section and subsection requires upon an application by way of a statutory declaration made by you, and also by two persons describing the nature of the error and what the declarants say is the true fact of your case, in asking for the error to be corrected. As I said, the statement of facts in the declarations must be based on these people’s own personal knowledge. If they are not your relatives, then they must be two credible persons who know the facts. The subsection also provides that you must pay the statutory appointed fee for such a service. It also makes clear that such a correction in any of the registry’s books must be made in the margin of the entry (without any alteration of the original entry).
You must, in speaking to the Office of the Registrar-General, explain that you were taken abroad as a child and that your parents are deceased and that you have no other close relatives or other persons who can speak to the date of your birth and that you only have some foreign documents, and ask if you can use these foreign documents to support your application. If you are cleared to make your application as detailed above, your statutory declaration must contain as many detailed facts as you can provide and your foreign documents should be attached. Ask the officer you speak with whether your application would be considered as an acceptable application and what are the chances of its success.
You should try to include copies of your immigration/entry documents; visa applications and visas granted, copies of your various identification documents for schools, or documents of your membership by a church, etc. All these must be certified as true copies for use in any application you make. You should also state clearly why you need this “error” corrected and why you are only dealing with the issue now.
As I said earlier, it is advisable that you contact the Office of the Registrar-General first and relate fully your position to them and pay for a search for your original “birth records” to be checked, to ascertain what date is the date of your birth stated there. If this is the same as that on your birth certificate, that would be the end of your search and the only conclusion would be that any error in your records in the foreign country occurred there and not with the transcription of your birth certificate. Also, if the error of the date on your certificate is the result of a typographical error on its preparation, then the correction would be a much simpler process.
All the very best.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
