How to Get a Passport With No Birth Certificate in India

This guide is for anyone who has no birth certificate at all. That is common for people born in rural India before civil registration became strict, or whose birth was simply never recorded. Here is the short answer: you do not need a birth certificate to get an Indian passport. Since the passport rule changes announced in December 2016, you can prove your date of birth with any one of eight documents, such as Aadhaar, PAN, a voter ID, a driving licence or a school certificate. A Non-Availability Certificate, or NABC, and late birth registration are needed only when none of those documents exists, or when another authority insists on a real birth certificate.

First, one key difference. If your birth was registered but the office is sitting on your certificate or wrongly refused it, a record does exist, so you file an RTI for a birth certificate to pull it out. This page is the opposite case: no record was ever created, so there is nothing to extract. You either use another date-of-birth proof, or you create a fresh record through late registration.

Run this quick check before you spend a rupee or a day of leave.

• Your birth was registered, but you do not hold the certificate. A record exists. Order a certified copy from the issuing office. If they delay or refuse without cause, escalate with an RTI application. See also birth certificate application delays.
• Your birth was never registered, but you have another ID with your date of birth. For a passport, stop here. Use that Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, driving licence or school certificate directly. No birth certificate and no NABC needed.
• Your birth was never registered and you need an actual birth certificate. This happens with some foreign visas, courts, or a department that will accept nothing else. Get a Non-Availability Certificate to prove no record exists, then register the birth late under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.

A Non-Availability Certificate, also called a Non-Availability of Birth Record certificate or NABC, is an official statement from the local Registrar of Births and Deaths that a search of the birth register found no entry for you. It is issued by the same municipal, panchayat or registrar office, empowered under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, that would otherwise have issued your birth certificate. The right to have the register searched sits in Section 17 of that Act.

An NABC is not a birth certificate. It does not certify your date of birth. It only certifies that no record exists. That is why most authorities ask for an NABC together with an affidavit or another dated document.

1. Search the register first. Ask the hospital where the birth took place, and the local Registrar of Births and Deaths, to search the birth register for that year. In a city the registrar is your municipal office. In a village it is the gram panchayat or the block office. Get the no-entry-found result in writing.
2. Apply for the NABC. Submit an application to the same registrar, municipal or panchayat authority. Many state municipal portals now take this online, while smaller offices still work at the counter. There is no single national form, so use the format your local body gives you. This is the document searchers call the non availability of birth certificate format.
3. Attach identity and address proof. Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card, PAN and a school certificate, if you have one, help the office confirm who you are.
4. Attach a self declaration or affidavit stating that your birth was never registered and that no birth certificate is available. Your local authority or a notary can give you the standard wording.
5. Collect the certificate after verification. Fees and timelines are set by each state, so they vary. Ask your office for the exact fee and the likely date when you apply.

Tip: Keep two or three self-attested copies of every ID and of the NABC itself. Passport, bank and consulate offices often keep the original.

If any office stonewalls your NABC or your late-registration request, a right to information request often unlocks it. The RTI Playbook walks you through drafting one that gets a reply.

When an authority will accept nothing but a birth certificate, you cannot stop at an NABC. You register the birth late, called delayed registration, under Section 13 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. The rule works in three bands, by how much time has passed. The longer you wait, the higher the approval you need.

• Within 30 days of the missed reporting window, the registrar can register it on payment of a late fee.
• After 30 days but within one year, it is registered only with the written permission of the District Registrar, on payment of the fee and a self-attested document in the prescribed form.
• After one year, it can be registered only on the order of a District Magistrate, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate, or an Executive Magistrate authorised by the District Magistrate, along with the fee. This band was updated by the 2023 amendment to the Act.

Most adults who were never registered fall in the after-one-year band, so they need a magistrate order, not just a counter visit. For example, someone born in a village in 1985 whose birth was never recorded will usually need this route to obtain a genuine certificate. State registration is being digitised, so check your state portal for the current online steps before you travel to an office. See the bare Act at India Code, Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.

For a passport, the Ministry of External Affairs accepts any one of these as proof of date of birth. This replaced the older rule that forced everyone born on or after 26 January 1989 to submit a birth certificate. The document you use must actually show your date of birth.

Source: Ministry of External Affairs, Announcement of new Passport Rules, 23 December 2016.

Two more points from the same rules help people with thin paperwork. Orphaned applicants who have none of the documents above can submit a declaration from the head of their orphanage or child care home, on official letterhead, confirming the date of birth. And the passport form annexes are now a self declaration on plain paper, with no swearing before a notary or magistrate needed for the form itself.

If you are new to the process, start with how to apply on Passport Seva. In a hurry, read applying for a Tatkal passport.

• Any existing ID that shows your date of birth: Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, driving licence, or a school or matriculation certificate.
• A written no-entry-found search result from the registrar, if you need the NABC.
• A self declaration or affidavit that your birth was never registered.
• Address proof for the passport application.
• Matching name and date of birth across your IDs. If they differ, fix them first in the right order, using name and date mismatch correction.

Yes. Since December 2016 you can prove your date of birth with any one of eight documents, including Aadhaar, PAN, a voter ID, a driving licence, a school or matriculation certificate, a life insurance policy bond, or a government service record. A birth certificate is only one option, not a must. This is set out in the Ministry of External Affairs announcement of new passport rules, dated 23 December 2016.

No. An NABC only states that the birth register has no entry for you. It does not certify your date of birth. That is why authorities who need proof of age ask for an NABC plus an affidavit or another dated document, or ask you to register the birth late and get a real certificate instead.

No special rule applies to you now. The old rule that only birth certificates counted for people born on or after 26 January 1989 was dropped in 2016. Everyone, whatever their birth year, can use any one of the eight accepted date-of-birth documents.

Then delayed registration needs an order from a District Magistrate, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate, or an authorised Executive Magistrate, along with a fee, under Section 13 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. For a passport you can usually skip this and use an existing dated ID instead.

The passport form declarations are now a self declaration on plain paper, with no notary or magistrate needed. For date-of-birth proof itself, the eight standard documents cover almost everyone, so a bare affidavit is rarely the way in. Use a dated ID wherever you can.

• Ministry of External Affairs, Announcement of new Passport Rules, 23 December 2016.
• Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, India Code, Sections 13 and 17.
• Passport Seva portal, passportindia.gov.in.