A certificate is an official government-issued record of a person’s birth, death, adoption or marriage printed on security paper and includes deeply engraved ‘blind’ embossing, Watermark, and engraved texts.
The certificates were introduced by the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) on May 7, 2001 to eradicate fraudulently produced certificates. These fraudulent produced certificates are often used to obtain genuine documents needed to create new identities.
The RGD is aware that persons continue to find creative ways to create a new identity, hence, we are vigilant at all times. To protect against fraud the RGD implemented a Verification System in 2007, which allows persons to verify information that appears on the computer generated certificate.
While the Agency is not in a position to advise the discontinued use of the black and white certificates that cease circulation in 2002, we do encourage our customers to apply for the computer-generated copy with special security features, widely accepted to transact business and which are harder to duplicate unlike the black and white hand written version.
We still have persons who make the mistake of using the Certificate of Registry ‘pink slip’ as evidence of registration; please note it is not a birth certificate. We, therefore, ask that persons take the pink slip to any RGD office islandwide. The birth registration number printed on it will be used to find your record in our database and used to produce a computer-generated birth certificate.
If you are still in possession of the black and white handwritten birth, death, adoption and marriage certificates apply now for a replacement computer-generated certificate. Applications can be made online at www.rgd.gov.jm or at any of our ten (10) office locations islandwide.
For additional information, contact any of our RGD offices at 876 619-1260 or 876 749-0550; Email: [email protected] visit our website at www.rgd.gov.jm; Facebook @rgd.jamaica; twitter and Instagram @rgd_jamaica
