Proving and protecting your identity

Order a birth certificate

New Zealand birth certificates are a record of birth. You can order a birth certificate online. It costs $33 for a standard certificate.

Get a marriage certificate

Your New Zealand marriage or civil union certificate is an official record of your marriage. It costs $33 to get one sent to you.

Get a death certificate

You might need a death certificate if you're administering someone's estate or applying for a funeral grant from Work and Income or ACC.

Name change certificate

A name change certificate is official evidence of a name change. You can order online and it costs $33.

• What is a name change certificate
• How to order a name change certificate

Access to your birth, marriage and name change records

Birth, death, marriage, civil union and name change records are a public register — anyone can generally request copies of someone's information. You can see who's accessed your records since 2009 or block access to them if your safety is at risk.

• Get a non-disclosure direction

Translating official documents

If you need a document translated into English or another language, you can organise the translation yourself or use the Department of Internal Affairs Translation Service.

• Translating documents into English
• Get a translation to use in another country

Use your NZ documents overseas

Check which countries require New Zealand documents to be officially authenticated or apostilled by the Department of Internal Affairs' Authentication Unit.

• Authentication Unit document requirements
• Verify an apostille

Use RealMe to prove your identity online

Use RealMe to prove who you are online and securely access many government and private sector services online.

BDM service timeframes

Check this page regularly for up-to-date BDM processing times.