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Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021

Certificates - Birth certificates

83: Contents of adopted person’s birth certificate

You could also call this:

"What's on an adopted person's birth certificate?"

Illustration for Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021

You can get a birth certificate for an adopted person if you ask for it in the right way, as stated in section 82. The birth certificate will have information on it as if the adoptive parents were the biological parents. It may also say that the adoptive parents are not the biological parents, depending on what they or the adopted person have asked for. You can only get the original birth certificate if certain conditions are met, as stated in section 11(4)(a) of the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985. The birth certificate cannot have any other information on it, except what is required by section 80(2)(b) or (c). This rule is also affected by the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985. When we talk about adoptive parents, we mean the people who most recently adopted the person, unless the adoption was cancelled.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7357053.

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Topics:
Family and relationships > Children and parentingFamily and relationships > Adoption and guardianship
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Part 3Certificates
Birth certificates

83Contents of adopted person’s birth certificate

  1. The Registrar-General may issue an adopted person’s birth certificate only to a person who requests the certificate in accordance with section 82.

  2. The Registrar-General may issue an adopted person’s original birth certificate only if section 11(4)(a) of the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 applies (which relates to access to an original birth certificate by a social worker).

  3. A birth certificate issued to a person who requested the certificate in accordance with section 82 must—

  4. contain the information that the certificate would contain if—
    1. the adoptive parents were the adopted person’s biological parents; and
      1. the name or combination of names first registered for the adopted person after the adoption had been the adopted person’s registered name or names since birth; and
      2. include (or, as the case may be, not include) an indication that the adoptive parents are adoptive parents, in accordance with the most recently registered of the following:
        1. the wishes of the adoptive parents referred to in section 31(d):
          1. an indication requested by the adopted person or the adoptive parents in an application under section 34.

          2. The certificate must not contain any other information (other than any indication required by section 80(2)(b) or (c)).

          3. In this section, adoptive parents means the adoptive parents who most recently adopted the adopted person (other than under an adoption order that has been discharged).

          4. This section is subject to the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985.

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