How To Get a PSA (formerly NSO) Birth Certificate

Disclaimer: All procedures and requirements that I will share in this post are my own experience when I obtained my PSA Certificate. I am not, in any way, affiliated with PSA or any Census Serbilis Center.

There are three ways on how you can attain a PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) birth certificate. First is through walk-in or personal appearance at their office. There are several locations throughout the Philippines so you can choose one. Second is through an online application. And the last one is through an accredited PSA stores like SM Business Center.

In my case, I opted for the walk-in process. If you do not want to wait for 5 or more business days, then it is better to go directly to their office and get it yourself.

The nearest Census Serbilis Center I found was in Fiesta Mall, Lipa City. It was a 35-minute drive from home (still depends on traffic). From home, I've already prepared the requirements. I downloaded the form and fill them up.

You can download this form at https://www.ecensus.com.ph/Secure/DownloadApplicationForms.aspx 

Others may or may not accept the form you downloaded, so it is something you need to take the risk. If ever they reject mine, they'll receive a complaint, for sure. But good thing, they accepted it. Just make sure that the only form that you will print is the birth certificate. Others like marriage certificate request form have their own color codes, in its case is pink.

Here are the requirements:
- Personal appearance
- Accomplished application form (they have forms from their office)
- Valid IDs / Government issued IDs (please bring at least 2)
- Fee (Php140)

Upon arriving at the PSA branch of your choice, take the line to the screening section. The teller will just check your form if it lacks information or if you have an authorization letter (if you are to get a certificate of someone). The screening takes only 20 seconds or less.



After that, you can proceed to the payment section. There are several windows but most of the time, only one or two are open, so you need to wait before it's finally your turn to pay. They move pretty fast so you don't need to worry that much. A PSA Birth Certificate costs Php140 (as of December 2017).

What you can do too is, you can have someone lining up on the payment section while you are still on the checking line. That is what I saw yesterday with a mom and her son. But if your conscience tells you that it is not fair, then you can just follow the process.

Once you're done paying, it is then the waiting game. It states in the posts there that it will take two hours before the releasing of your certificate.

To prevent boredom from striking, you can download a movie on your gadget. I actually started the movie since I was in the bus going to Lipa and just continued watching after I'm done with the payment.



After few minutes, my name was called. My PSA birth certificate was ready to be claimed. All in all, I only spent an hour doing the processes and waiting for my papers.

I find that this is the fastest way to get a PSA certificate. Though extra effort and time are needed, you can have that document in not even an hour.

Here's a VLOG I made when I went to the Census Sibilis Office to get mine. Enjoy!