Birth Certificate Drahmz

Aweh, guys!

When we first were looking into emigrating to the Netherlands, we knew we needed certain documents, namely our unabridged birth certificates and marriage certificate and they needed to be apostilled. An apostilled document has a seal that legalises South African documents in the Netherlands and confirms they are true. The front cover is bound with a green ribbon that will show if the document has been tampered with. This is usually done by DIRCO in Pretoria. However, we needed to get the documents before we could apostille them.

So, we dutifully went to Home Affairs in Randburg sometime in November thinking it would be enough time… heh. We were told it would take 8-12 weeks as it was the holiday season. Fair enough. We waited and waited, and eventually Hubby got an SMS saying that his birth certificate was ready. I had still received nothing. The document I was most anxious about was our marriage certificate as I was worried that they would doubt we were married (turns out they weren’t concerned if we lived in sin as long as we stated it upfront).

In February we decided to cross our fingers and Hubby went to check that the documents were ready. He returned with his birth certificate and our marriage certificate (much to my relief) but my birth certificate still wasn’t available. We were planning to fly out at the end of March, so this made me worry. We went back mid-March and still nothing. They gave me a number to call to follow up on the status of the certificate. I tried calling several times, but it was engaged. Just wonderful!

At this point, Hubby used some wonderfully colourful language and said we would sort it out with a company like DocAssist once we were in the Netherlands. In mid-April, once we were a little more settled, I contacted them, and they told me to call Home Affairs on a different number and get a reference number. This was difficult as I was out of the country with no way to call, but my best friend, Anne, called them and got the reference. Yay, Anne.

I passed the reference number onto DocAssist and in just a few days they said it was ready for collection. Great. So, I asked them when they would go and collect it. Turns out they don’t do collections. I was getting rather annoyed. I had paid around R1500 and at this point it seemed like a waste of money but it’s basically to grease the sticky wheel of Home Affairs and it did include the apostille and shipping to the Netherlands. So, I asked my lovely sister, Cait, to go and collect it on my behalf which she did. Yay, Cait.

Cait then had to mail the document to them which they then sent to DIRCO to apostille. About a week later, I received notification that my birth certificate was in the mail with a tracking number. Sure enough, about two weeks later it arrived.

This was a wholly frustrating experience and I highly suggest getting your documents from Home Affairs as far in advance as you can. It took six months to sort out. If you are even contemplating emigration, get it done now and have it apostilled just before you leave.

Luckily the Dutch government were very chilled about receiving the documents at a later date as they are understanding that some governments work at a (much) slower pace than others, but I really did not want to test that patience on something as crucial as my validity in the country.