A B.C. birth certificate costs $27 by mail or $60 by courier, and a certified copy of a birth registration costs $50 by mail. Order online, at a Service BC counter, or by mail on form VSA 430B.
Applies in: British Columbia
Order online, at a Service BC counter, or by mail to the Vital Statistics Agency in Victoria. The Government of British Columbia order certificates and copies page lists a birth certificate at $27 by mail or $60 by courier, and a certified registration copy or extract at $50 by mail or $60 by courier. The paper form for both is VSA 430B, Application for Birth Certificate or Registration Photocopy.
This guide covers British Columbia ordering only. For the national picture, see the guide to getting a birth certificate in Canada listed under Related guides.
Birth certificate. Ordered online, at a Service BC counter, or by mail on form VSA 430B. If someone asks for a long-form birth certificate, the Vital Statistics page says you usually need the version with parental information. That version is often needed for a child's passport, immigration, or citizenship.
Certified copy or extract of a birth registration. Also ordered on form VSA 430B, which the forms table describes as ordering a birth certificate or certified copy of a birth registration for a person born in British Columbia.
Commemorative birth certificate. Listed in the fee schedule at a flat $50. It is a separate keepsake item, not one of the two working documents above.
Two related forms sit beside the main one. Form VSA 413 is the application for the birth certificate of a person born in British Columbia who has died. Form VSA 410B is the declaration used to cancel a lost or stolen birth certificate.
All standard certificates, certified photocopies, and certified extracts are printed in Victoria and sent by mail or courier, depending on the service you choose.
By mail, a birth certificate costs $27 and prints in 2 to 5 business days, plus mail delivery time. A certified registration copy or extract costs $50 by mail and prints within 20 business days, plus mail delivery time.
Courier delivery costs $60 for a certificate and $60 for a certified copy or extract. With courier service the document prints on the next business day after the request is received. Delivery is through Canada Post Priority, is not available on weekends or holidays, and requires a signature. If no one can sign, Canada Post leaves a delivery notice with pickup instructions, and the post office releases the document only after the applicant shows identification. For apartment complexes, homes with Super Box mailboxes, and basement suites, Canada Post leaves a delivery notice instead of attempting delivery.
Processing times on the page are a guide only. Missing or incorrect information can delay a request.
Online. Birth, marriage, and death certificates can be ordered online, along with registering a child's birth and registering a wills notice. Online payment is by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express credit card. Not all requests are available online; for anything else, use a paper form.
In person. Take your completed form to a Service BC counter. Staff can print the forms for you if you need them to, and they can witness your signature on form declarations.
By mail. Download the form, fill it in, and mail it with payment to Vital Statistics Agency, PO Box 9657 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9P3. By mail you can pay with a money order, cheque, or credit card information.
Most forms on the page are fillable, so you can type into them before printing. The page asks you to check the printed form for spelling errors and missed fields before sending it, because a clean form is processed faster.
The order page opened for this guide gives the fee schedule, the printing times, and the three order routes. It does not state who is eligible to order another person's birth certificate, and it does not state a limit on how many certificates of one type a person can hold, so this guide gives neither rule. It also does not break the birth certificate into named versions beyond the note that a long-form request usually means the certificate with parental information, so no other version names are used here.
| Birth certificate, by mail | $27; prints in 2 to 5 business days, plus mail delivery time |
|---|---|
| Birth certificate, by courier | $60; prints on the next business day after the request is received |
| Certified registration copy or extract, by mail | $50; prints within 20 business days, plus mail delivery time |
| Certified registration copy or extract, by courier | $60; prints on the next business day after the request is received |
| Commemorative birth certificate | $50 flat fee |
Fees are in Canadian dollars, from the Vital Statistics fee schedule on the order certificates and copies page.
$27 gets you a certificate by mail. Courier delivery raises that to $60. A certified copy of the registration costs $50 by mail. The commemorative certificate is $50 flat, whichever way it comes.
The fastest route is online, paying by credit card. Paper works too: hand the form in at a Service BC counter, or post it to PO Box 9657 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9P3. Mailed applications can carry a money order or a cheque instead of card details.
Use form VSA 430B. Its full name is Application for Birth Certificate or Registration Photocopy, and it covers a plain certificate as well as a certified copy of the registration for someone born in this province. A different form, VSA 413, covers the certificate of a person who has died.
Printing takes 2 to 5 business days for a certificate. Mail delivery time comes on top of that. A certified photocopy or extract takes longer, printing within 20 business days before mailing. Courier orders print on the next business day after the request arrives, and courier delivery costs $60.
When someone asks for a long-form certificate, the province says you usually need the version that includes parental information. Parents often need that version for a child's passport. Immigration and citizenship applications can call for it too.
No. This province's forms cover births registered here, nothing else. A birth registered somewhere else in Canada has to be ordered from the province or territory where it was registered.