Malaysia issued handwritten birth certificates until 1994, but social media posts claiming those documents are no longer valid are false. The National Registration Department (NRD) refuted the claim, saying it has never asked the public to replace their certificates unless they have been damaged -- a process citizens have described online as straightforward.
An explanatory video shared May 6, 2026 on TikTok claims in Malay that handwritten birth certificates are no longer valid and urges the public to update them.
It adds that many people only realised they had to replace the document when it was needed for official government matters.
Every child born in Malaysia to at least one Malaysian parent must be registered to ensure their identity and citizenship status are recognised (archived link).
The Southeast Asian country issued handwritten birth certificates from 1955, when Malaysia was still under British rule, before switching to a computerised system in 1994 (archived link).
Similar posts spread elsewhere on Facebook, Threads and X. Comments suggest some users believed the claim.
"If you don't replace it, they might void your identity card", one user wrote.
Another said: "It needs to be changed because the government wants to enter the data into the system according to the state of birth to make government-related searches easier".
However, the government has issued no such instruction.
A Google keyword search found the NRD dismissed the claim on its official Threads...
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