Non-Availability of Birth Certificate (NABC)

Your birth record may not be obtainable because of several reasons, such as:

• Your birth was never officially recorded.
• Your birth records have been destroyed in a fire or civil disturbance.
• The appropriate government authority will not issue one.

Please obtain a certified statement from the appropriate government authority, on their letterhead or on a prescribed form if they have one, stating the reason your birth record is not available, does not exist, or no longer exists. This should be from an official ordinarily having custody of such records or from an appointed deputy that, after diligent search, no record of the event is found to exist. It should also indicate whether similar records for the time and place are available.

With the certified statement, you must submit secondary evidence. The affidavits should indicate that no government issued birth certificate is available.

If your birth record has been destroyed, or the municipality or village authorities will not issue one, submit a letter from the municipality or village authorities stating so, along with the secondary evidence. 

If you have not been able to acquire the necessary document or statement from the relevant foreign authority, you should submit evidence that good faith attempts were made to obtain the required document or statement. However, if it is found that such documents are statements are generally available, you must get them. 

There is no set format for non-availability certificate. 

Sample – Non-Availability Certificate – Birth

Many government authorities refuse to provide the non-availability certificate because they have no evidence that the birth of a particular person actually happened there. Therefore, it would be best if you can try to get your birth registered later. Please look at Delayed Registration of Birth section.