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hi all

could somebody help me with a question re birth certs. for the skilled independent visa, do i need to submit an abridged certificate (most common in sa) or do i need to get the full unabridged cert from home affairs?

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hi all

could somebody help me with a question re birth certs. for the skilled independent visa, do i need to submit an abridged certificate (most common in sa) or do i need to get the full unabridged cert from home affairs?

thanks mila,

more home affairs aggravation!!

regards

beebs

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Hi Beebs,

You can always use a company like Bunnyhop to avoid the frustration associated with home affairs :whome: . We used them and received our certificates within a week :ilikeit: .

Regards,

Mila

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Hi Beebs,

Phone Mrs Aukamp at Head office in Pretoria and ask for some help, she was great with us, I cannot remember her number but look it up.

Nicki

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a tricky one to solve!

I was born in what was Rhodesia, is now Zimbabwe, in 1971. I am almost afraid of trying to request my unabridged birth certificate from them as I may have to wait a decade or be told that there is no copy of it - what else could go wrong - all sorts of things in politically unstable Africa? But, I'm not confident of being able to contact Zim's Dept of Home Affairs and even less confident of being able to get anything out of them.

Has anyone else had to get their Rhodesian / Zimbabwean birth certificate?

I have an original one that my mother gave me, it has the full names of my parents on it, place, and date of birth, but I don't know if that satisfies the requirements of "unabridged". Do you think that will do?

Thanks,

TereMel

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Hi,

We applied for holiday visas to Aus last year and my husband used his handwritten birth certificate from Bechuanaland (now Botswana). As long as the birth certificate shows all the details - parents details, etc they will accept it. We are using the same birth certificate for our applications now and have been told that it is acceptable.

I have just contacted bunnyhop for an unabridged marriage certificate (didn't know there IS such a thing!) - no reply yet so can't tell you about their pricing.

Good luck with your docs!

Zorba

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The unabridged marriage certificate also is from the infamous home affairs, I got our in a week, after much sweet talking and it cost was R 50.00

Nicki

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I

I have an original one that my mother gave me, it has the full names of my parents on it, place, and date of birth, but I don't know if that satisfies the requirements of "unabridged". Do you think that will do?

Thanks,

TereMel

Yup that is an unabridged birth certificate - the South African birth certificates (abridged) usually just have your name, date of birth and gender - no indication of who your parents are. So for migration purposes you need one which gives your parents details (unabridged)

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I have a tricky one to solve!

I was born in what was Rhodesia, is now Zimbabwe, in 1971. I am almost afraid of trying to request my unabridged birth certificate from them as I may have to wait a decade or be told that there is no copy of it - what else could go wrong - all sorts of things in politically unstable Africa? But, I'm not confident of being able to contact Zim's Dept of Home Affairs and even less confident of being able to get anything out of them.

Has anyone else had to get their Rhodesian / Zimbabwean birth certificate?

I have an original one that my mother gave me, it has the full names of my parents on it, place, and date of birth, but I don't know if that satisfies the requirements of "unabridged". Do you think that will do?

Thanks,

TereMel

Hi TereMel - About 18 months ago I applied and RECEIVED mine, my sister's and my father's unabridged birth certs successfully from Zim through the good old unrealiable postal service!

We realized the other day that we will also need my mom's birth and a marriage cert from her first marriage (registerd in Zim) and I have just posted off my request to the Zim Registrar.

Yes you can use Bunny hop - but OMG they are EXPENSIVE!!!! especially if you need more than one cert/more than one copy...

BunnyHop charge around R1600 for one cert - if you do it yourself it will cost around R140 per cert.

I have all the details and can advise if you would like to do it yourself. BUT as a big warning it can take a while and depends a lot on you - the more you gently persuade them to continue looking the better and faster the outcome is.

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I have posted this reply on another topic, but here are the links you can use to download the forms for unabridged documents:

Go to Department of Home Affairs' website and download the documents (you have to complete form BI-154 for birth certificates) - it saves a lot of time when you can complete it beforehand:

http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/documents/bi-154.pdf

And for a marriage certificate go to (form BI-130):

http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/documents/bi-130.pdf

It takes about 3 months to receive your documents, and it costs "only" R50 per document.

If you are in a hurry for your documents, rather try http://www.bunnyhop.co.za They charge a lot more for the documents, but can get it for you in 10 - 14 days!

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Thanks everyone,

I am going to try to use the Zim birth certificate that I already have (possibly with an explanation in an attached letter that I have a difficult situation, and quote the 18 month wait I read about :offtopic: ) in the meanwhile.

But, I will also apply to the Zim Registrar and see if anything comes of it. At least then maybe I will have a receipt number to be able to give in and show that I'm trying!

Cheers,

TereMel

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I have an original one that my mother gave me, it has the full names of my parents on it, place, and date of birth, but I don't know if that satisfies the requirements of "unabridged". Do you think that will do?

TereMel,

I think we're in a similar situation - my Zambian birth certificate looks very similar to what you are describing. Rest assured, you should be just fine.

As long as it has details of your parents on it, you'll be fine. What you might consider - as a kind of "belt and braces" option - is to get the Zim Embassy to verify it by putting an official stamp on it.

Personally I think you should be fine. My Zambian birth certificate looks like it's been dragged through a bush backwards, but I've used it many times for several "official" applications.

Edited by Pygmalion
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Hi TereMel

We used my husbands one from zim that has the details on that you describe and no problems.

So I would not worry sounds like you have the unabridged one. My husbands is light blue in colour if that helps.

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Hi TereMel - About 18 months ago I applied and RECEIVED mine, my sister's and my father's unabridged birth certs successfully from Zim through the good old unrealiable postal service!

We realized the other day that we will also need my mom's birth and a marriage cert from her first marriage (registerd in Zim) and I have just posted off my request to the Zim Registrar.

Yes you can use Bunny hop - but OMG they are EXPENSIVE!!!! especially if you need more than one cert/more than one copy...

BunnyHop charge around R1600 for one cert - if you do it yourself it will cost around R140 per cert.

I have all the details and can advise if you would like to do it yourself. BUT as a big warning it can take a while and depends a lot on you - the more you gently persuade them to continue looking the better and faster the outcome is.

Hi Travlr,

I just got a quote from bunnyhop for documents. They were very quick to reply which bodes well. R470 per certificate (unabridged birth OR marriage), excludes courier/postage/delivery to you. Scary but may be worth it if you consider the alternative!

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Hi Zorba,

Interesting to hear about your quotes from bunnyhop.

I will go and have a look at the site www.bunnyhop.co.za and see what they offer.

In the meanwhile, is this the info that we have gathered between members?

DIY - SA birth cert - R 50.00, Zim birth cert - R 140.00

bunnyhop - SA birth cert - R 470.00, Zim birth cert - R 1600.00

Anyone have contradictory info?

Cheers,

TereMel

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Those are the figures I got as well.

Don't forget the intangibles, like time spent in queues, on the phone sweet talking, rise in stress level :D , etc if you do it yourself :)

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Hi,

I can personally recommend Bunny Hop... I used them to get mine and my husbands birth cretificates and got them within two weeks!! ;);)

I am going to use them again to do our Police Clearance at least I know and trust that they can do the job as opposed to sending them into the great yonder where no one accepts accountability!

Good luck!!

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