Victoria Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates: Fees, Eligibility and How to Apply

A standard legal certificate, birth, death or marriage, costs a flat $59.10 from Victoria's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and almost every certificate order now goes through BDM's online portal rather than by post or in person.

The Registry and Its Governing Act

Victoria's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, known as BDM, administers births, deaths, marriages and registered relationships that occurred in Victoria. The governing law is the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (Vic), confirmed both on BDM's own legislation page and in the Act's current in-force text. BDM also administers the Relationships Act 2008 (Vic) alongside the registration Act, which is why relationship registration and revocation appear alongside birth, death and marriage products on BDM's fee schedule.

Certificate Fees

BDM's fee schedule is explicitly revised every financial year and states it took effect 1 July 2026. The figures below are current as of that schedule, accessed 18 August 2026, and are due for another revision around 1 July 2027.

BDM's own relationship registration and revocation rows separately quote a legal certificate at $57.50 rather than the standard $59.10 used everywhere else on the same fee page. This article does not resolve that inconsistency; treat it as something to confirm with BDM if ordering a relationship certificate specifically.

Postage is charged separately: $10.60 for domestic express post and $58.60 for international express post, and every legal certificate is sent by express post for security. BDM does not sell a paid priority processing tier, so faster postage does not move an application ahead in the processing queue.

Family history staff-assisted searches carry their own fee scale: $65.30 for 1 record, $108.40 for 2 to 5 records, and $151.70 for 6 to 10 records, each including a set number of unofficial certificate images.

Who Can Apply

Birth certificate. Anyone born in Victoria can apply for their own certificate, and anyone can access a historical birth certificate more than 100 years old. Certain other people can apply for someone else's certificate. A certificate can only be issued for a birth already registered in Victoria; an unregistered birth has to be registered first.

Death certificate. In most cases the funeral director applies on the family's behalf as part of their service. A self-applicant must show proof of next-of-kin status, meaning a partner or spouse, child, or parent of the deceased, or hold third-party authority from the next of kin. Deaths registered more than 30 years ago are accessible through BDM's family history search with no proof of identity or eligibility required.

Marriage certificate. Anyone married in Victoria can apply for their own certificate, and anyone can access a historical marriage certificate more than 60 years old. BDM cannot issue a certificate for a marriage solemnised outside Victoria; that request has to go to the registry of the state, territory or country where the marriage took place.

Proof of Identity

Victoria does not use a points-based identity system. It offers two methods. The faster method, online identity verification, requires one document from a primary category (a current or recently expired Australian passport, a current foreign passport with a linked visa, an Australian birth certificate, an Australian citizenship certificate, or an ImmiCard) plus one document from a secondary category (an Australian driver licence, or a Medicare card if the applicant has no driver licence), and at least one of the two must carry a photo. The alternative method, certified copies of documents, requires either two different documents from the primary category or three documents each from a different one of four broader categories that include driver licences, passports, birth and marriage certificates, Medicare cards, and proof of a current residential address such as a rates notice or utility account. An applicant who cannot meet either method can provide certified copies of any identity documents in their name along with a statutory declaration.

How to Apply and Processing Times

BDM states that its services are all available online, and ordinary certificate applications go through its online portal, which requires linking to or creating a Service Victoria account. There is no separate postal or in-person application channel for a standard certificate order; the finished certificate is then delivered by post. The one documented exception is a late or unregistered birth, where an applicant who cannot apply online can request a paper Birth Registration Statement by emailing BDM directly.

The processing clock starts only once BDM has received every required document, and postage adds separately: about 6 working days for standard post or 2 working days for most express post options.

Registering a Birth

Section 18 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (Vic) requires the person responsible for a birth to lodge a birth registration statement within 60 days after the date of birth, with a penalty of 10 penalty units for missing the deadline. The same section requires the Registrar to accept a statement lodged after the 60-day period regardless, so a late registration still proceeds. There is no fee to register a birth, on time or late, confirmed identically on BDM's registration and late-registration pages. Late registration itself requires more documentation, such as a hospital or health practitioner letter, or, where none exists, evidence such as Medicare or Centrelink records, school records or a driver licence showing the child's life in the community.

Service Victoria is currently trialling digital birth certificates, added to a parent's Service Victoria digital wallet and usable to enrol a child in a local council kindergarten, but the trial is limited to the Casey, Mitchell and Wyndham local government areas and to children born on or after 19 February 2019.

Registering a Death

Victoria's model is doctor and funeral-director driven rather than a next-of-kin informant system. Usually the funeral director registers the death as part of their service, after burial or cremation has taken place, working alongside a form the doctor or coroner completes. A family that wants to register a death without a funeral director can contact BDM directly for help.

Under section 37 of the Act, the doctor responsible for the person's care, or who examines the body after death, must notify the Registrar of the death and its cause within 48 hours, a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death obligation carrying a 12 penalty unit maximum penalty. Under section 39, the funeral director or other person arranging disposal must notify the Registrar within 7 days after disposal of the remains, or, if the remains have not been disposed of within 30 days of death, the person with custody of the remains must still notify the Registrar; both carry a 5 penalty unit maximum penalty. Coronial deaths are notified to BDM by the Coroners Court, and a certificate issued before a coronial inquiry concludes is endorsed to show the cause of death is still subject to that inquiry.

A death certificate is one of the standard documents an executor needs to apply for probate. For the Victorian probate process itself, see applying for probate in Victoria.

Historical Records and Closed Periods

BDM's own pages describe closed periods for each record type, and this article treats them as the Registry's stated access practice rather than a separately verified statutory formula, since the underlying Regulations were not checked for these specific figures. The figures are 100 years for births, 60 years for marriages and registered relationships, and 30 years for deaths. BDM's own pages disagree on which date the clock runs from: its restricted-periods page dates a birth from the date of birth and a death from the date of death, with a marriage or registered relationship dated from its registration, while its family-history search page states more broadly that the restriction runs from the date the event was registered. This article could not resolve that conflict between BDM's two pages. The 100, 60 and 30-year figures are reliable; confirm with BDM which date they run from before relying on an exact opening date, especially for a birth or death registered well after it happened. Once a record clears its threshold, it is available through BDM's online family history search as an uncertified historical image for $20 or an official historical certificate for $59.10, with no proof of identity or eligibility required for either.

For an overview of how vital records work across every Australian state and territory, see the Australian vital records hub.