RGD Can Facilitate Addition of Father’s Name to Child’s Birth Certificate

The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has indicated that it can facilitate the addition of a father’s name to a child’s birth certificate or certificate of registration.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Deputy Keeper of Records, Charlton McFarlane, says that exercise, known as the ‘Addition of Father’s Particulars’, is now an itemised process on the list of RGD services provided.

“What we have seen over the years is that more fathers are adding their names to the certificates of children. We are now at about 73 per cent of babies being registered with their father’s name. For someone who wishes to add the father’s name to the certificate, what we are doing is to allow persons to come in and complete the status form,” Mr. McFarlane said.

He was speaking during the Nationwide News Network (NNN) radio programme ‘Ask the Minister’, on Tuesday (July 4).

Mr. McFarlane said it is important that both parents agree on having the father’s name added to the child’s certificate.

“As much as we try to ensure that our documents are absolutely accurate, if you do not do DNA testing then you cannot necessarily be absolutely sure. So, we ask both parents to come in and agree and to have that agreement witnessed by a Justice of the Peace (JP), or notarised, and once that is done, we go ahead and process the addition of the father’s information,” he explained.

Important points to remember in the application process include the child’s birth certificate or certificate of registration, valid identification (ID) for both parents (voters ID, passport, driver’s license). IDs for all the Declarants must also be provided for processing an application.

All signatures must be the same as those on IDs. All errors must be crossed out and initialed by the same signing Notary Public/JP.

Additionally, the dates signed by the Notary Public/JP must be the same as the date signed by the Declarants.

All photocopied IDs and supporting documents must be certified by a Notary Public or JP.

Mr. McFarlane said another case where the father’s name may be added to the child’s birth/registration certificate is where the mother is absent.

“The law speaks to situations where the mother is missing [or] the mother can’t be found, [or] where the mother is no longer involved with the child, and resting on the strength of that piece of legislation, we also can go ahead and add the father’s particulars,” he explained.

For more information on this process, visit www.rgd.gov.jm.