Date & place of birth
Place of birth and gender in passport
The Australian Passports Determination 2005, Section 7.2 requires the place of birth and gender in an Australian travel document to be the same as appears on the person’s cardinal document i.e. Australian birth or citizenship certificate.
Under ICAO standards, Australia issues machine readable travel documents recording the place of birth. There is no provision for applicants to translate their place of birth from that appearing on their cardinal document or have no place of birth recorded on a travel document.
Citizenship certificate does not show place of birth and gender
For clients who have a newer style DIAC citizenship certificate which does not show place of birth and gender must present their original full birth certificate with English translation where this is appropriate.
Where an applicant is unable to present their full birth certificate the applicant, may present their foreign passport. A copy of the biopage of the foreign passport is to be attached to the application form.
If unable to present a birth certificate or foreign passport the applicant must complete a B11 form attesting to all the information contained in section 2 of the form i.e. full name, date of birth, town and country of birth and gender. In addition to the B11 statement, any other documentation available that supports the B11 statement (e.g. foreign driving licence) must be copied and attached to the application form.
Suburb or city as place of birth?
Where the applicant presents an Australian full birth certificate or Australian citizenship certificate, the place of birth shown on the certificate, regardless of whether it is a town, city or suburb, must be recorded on the application and in the passport.
Amending place of birth
Applicants may amend their country of birth or spelling of the town/city of birth. The town/city/country of birth may only be changed to reflect the details recorded on their Australian citizenship or birth certificate. In limited circumstances, and at the discretion of the APO, applicants may amend their country/town of birth where there has been an officially recognised change.
See also “ Amending personal details: PC7 renewal ”.
Date of birth
The date of birth must be shown in the travel document in the following format: DD MMM YYYY, e.g. ‘19 MAR 1961’.
In the case of passport renewals, the date of birth as set out in the previous full validity passport should be included in the new passport.
However, where an applicant has amended their date of birth on the renewal form, cardinal documents should be provided in order to amend the applicant’s record.
Incomplete date of birth on cardinal document
If there is an incomplete date of birth on the cardinal document (i.e. citizenship certificate or birth certificate):
- The application may be accepted with the proviso that the applicant’s date of birth will appear exactly as stated on the cardinal document (e.g. XX XXX 1944); or
- The applicant must request a new certificate with revised details from the issuing authority.
In all cases, the cardinal document must show at least the year of birth to be acceptable.
Applicants must be referred to DIAC if they wish to change the date of birth on their citizenship certificate.