Refugee and Humanitarian Entrants: Replacing Missing Documents

Many humanitarian entrants arrive without birth certificates, passports or qualifications, and Australian bodies are used to that. Your Home Affairs records, an ImmiCard where issued, a statutory declaration and surviving documents with translations usually fill the gap. Before asking the country you fled for replacements, get legal advice: contacting its authorities can affect your protection.

Key takeaways

• For most Australian purposes, your Home Affairs records are the starting point for your identity here.
• Home Affairs issues an ImmiCard to certain visa holders who do not have, and cannot get, a passport Australia recognises.
• A statutory declaration is the usual way to explain missing documents to an Australian body.
• For travel, the Australian Passport Office may issue a Convention Travel Document or a Certificate of Identity to eligible non-citizens.
• Do not apply for a passport or documents from the country you fled without first getting advice from a refugee legal service or registered migration agent.
• Settlement services and the Free Translating Service can help eligible new arrivals with documents in their first period here.

What do Australian bodies accept instead?

Australian government agencies deal every week with people whose documents were lost, destroyed, confiscated or never issued. The details you gave the Department of Home Affairs when your visa was granted, including your name and date of birth, become the basis of your identity in Australia. Medicare, Centrelink, banks and state agencies generally verify your identity against those records, and a visa grant notice is often part of what they ask to see.

Home Affairs issues an ImmiCard to certain visa holders who do not have and cannot obtain a passport recognised by the Australian Government. It is a government-issued card used to prove identity and check visa entitlements, and agencies such as Medicare and Centrelink use it to confirm who you are when you enrol. Humanitarian visa holders overseas may be eligible for one before travelling to Australia. If you think you should have one and do not, ask Home Affairs or your settlement provider.

Where a body asks for something you do not have, such as a birth certificate, the usual answer is to explain in writing why you cannot provide it and what you can provide instead. For Australian bodies, that explanation is often a Commonwealth or state statutory declaration. The Attorney-General's Department explains how Commonwealth statutory declarations work and who can witness them; many witnesses provide the service free. A notary is not needed for this.

Why be careful about contacting your home country?

This is the most important point on this page. If you were granted protection because you fear persecution in your country of nationality, applying to that country for a passport, asking its embassy for a birth certificate, or travelling there can raise questions about whether you still need Australia's protection. In some cases it can put your visa at risk. It can also expose relatives who are still there. The same caution applies to asking a relative or agent to collect documents for you from that country's offices.

So before you contact any authority of the country you fled, even for something that seems routine, get advice from a refugee legal service, a community legal centre or a registered migration agent. Your settlement provider can help you find one. There may be a safer way to get what you need, or you may not need the document at all.

How can you travel without a passport from your country?

Australian passports are for citizens only, but the Australian Passport Office issues travel documents to certain non-citizens. It says a person recognised as a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol may be eligible for a Convention Travel Document, also called a Titre de Voyage. A person about to leave Australia who is stateless, or who cannot get a valid travel document from their country of nationality, may be eligible for a Certificate of Identity.

The Passport Office may ask for proof that you cannot get a travel document from your country, such as a letter from its embassy, and says that if you cannot get such a letter you can explain why on a form. Given the risks above, speak to a legal adviser before approaching an embassy for that letter. These documents do not make you an Australian citizen and do not give a right to re-enter or remain in Australia, and you still need to meet the visa requirements of the countries you visit.

Need	What is usually available	Who to ask
Prove identity for Australian services	Home Affairs records; ImmiCard if eligible	Home Affairs; settlement provider
Explain a missing birth certificate	Statutory declaration; surviving records	The body asking; any authorised witness
Travel overseas	Convention Travel Document or Certificate of Identity	Australian Passport Office
Translate surviving documents	NAATI translation; free service if eligible	Home Affairs language services
Recognition of qualifications	The assessing body's process for missing records	The relevant assessing or registration body
A replacement from your home country	Only after legal advice	Refugee legal service or migration agent

What about translating the documents you do have?

Keep and use whatever survived: an old identity card, a school certificate, a marriage record, documents issued by UNHCR or by a country where you lived before coming to Australia. Even damaged or expired papers can support your account. Australian bodies will usually want an English translation.

Home Affairs runs a Free Translating Service, delivered by TIS National, for people settling permanently in Australia. It says permanent residents and some temporary or provisional visa holders can have a limited number of eligible documents translated into English within a set period after their visa grant. Check whether you qualify before paying for translations. Where you do pay, a translation by a NAATI certified translator is the standard for most Australian bodies. Our guide to NAATI and non-certified translations explains the difference.

What if a birth date or name was recorded wrongly?

It happens, often because documents were missing at the time, or because a date was estimated or a name transliterated in a different way. Your details as recorded by Home Affairs flow through to Medicare, Centrelink, your tax file and eventually a citizenship certificate, so a mistake spreads. If you believe your details were recorded wrongly, ask Home Affairs how to have them reviewed, and expect to be asked for evidence. A refugee legal service or migration agent can advise on what evidence will help and whether a change carries any risk to your case.

When would a notary be involved?

Rarely for Australian purposes. A notary becomes relevant when a document is going overseas: for example, a sworn statement about your identity or family for a family reunion process in a third country, or certified copies of your Australian documents for a foreign university or employer. A notary can administer an oath or affirmation for an affidavit and certify copies of originals they have sighted. They do not confirm that what you swear is true, and they cannot vouch for a foreign document. A JP's certification is accepted within Australia but not overseas. Our guide to statutory declarations and affidavits explains which is used where.

How do you work through a missing-document problem?

1. Ask the body what it accepts. Most Australian bodies have a process for people without certain documents.
2. Gather what you have. Home Affairs grant letters, ImmiCard, UNHCR or host-country papers, and any surviving originals.
3. Get translations. Check the Free Translating Service first, then a NAATI certified translator.
4. Explain the gap in writing. Usually a statutory declaration, witnessed by an authorised witness.
5. Get legal advice before contacting your home country. Through a refugee legal service, community legal centre or migration agent.
6. Use your settlement provider. Humanitarian Settlement Program providers can help you through each step.

What if your qualifications have no paperwork?

Losing a degree or trade certificate can feel like losing years of work, but it does not always close the door. Bodies that assess overseas qualifications for work, registration or further study each set their own rules, and some have a process for people who cannot obtain their records, which may involve interviews, practical assessments, statements from former employers or colleagues, or a statutory declaration describing your studies. Ask the relevant assessing or registration body directly, and ask your settlement provider or the Adult Migrant English Program about pathways. Do not buy a replacement certificate from anyone other than the institution that issued the original; a document that cannot be verified with the institution can cause far more trouble than having none.

What about children's documents?

Children who arrive without birth certificates or school records are treated in much the same way. Schools generally enrol a child on the basis of Home Affairs records and a parent's information, and assess the child's level themselves. Immunisation history can be rebuilt with a GP, who can check what is recorded and plan catch-up vaccinations. If a child's date of birth was estimated on arrival, raise it with Home Affairs early, since it will follow the child into every later record, including a citizenship application.

Common mistakes to avoid

The biggest is applying for a passport or certificate from the country you fled without advice. The second is paying for translations before checking whether the Free Translating Service applies. The third is giving slightly different dates or name spellings to different bodies; keep to the details Home Affairs holds, and ask how to correct them if they are wrong. The fourth is paying a notary for something an Australian body will accept with a statutory declaration and a free witness.

Here is an illustration, not a real case.

Amina arrived on a humanitarian visa with only an expired identity card and a UNHCR registration document. Her settlement caseworker helps her enrol with Medicare using her Home Affairs records, and she uses the Free Translating Service for her identity card. When a TAFE asks for her school records, she explains in a statutory declaration that they were lost, and the TAFE assesses her another way. She speaks to a refugee legal service before considering any contact with her home country's embassy.

In short

Arriving without documents is common, and Australian bodies generally have ways around it: your Home Affairs records, an ImmiCard where issued, a statutory declaration, and translations of whatever survived. For travel, the Passport Office may issue a Convention Travel Document or Certificate of Identity. Before contacting the country you fled for anything, get legal advice, because it can affect your protection. The Home Affairs Humanitarian Settlement Program can help, and our document translation services page covers translating surviving documents.

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