South African birth certificated needed - lawyer or company recommendation

@outsidethebox

I had to go through this last year when coming to Portugal.

For the unabridged birth certificate go with fasttracking.co.za - excellent service, communication and fast results. https://www.fasttracking.co.za/fees - the expedited service includes DHL and is R2850. (Owner's name is Adri) (mine took a few days - so estimate 2-3 weeks including shipping)

For the Criminal Record check use Clearance Central - https://clearancecentral.co.za/ - mine took < 2 weeks including the Apostille but recently (Nov 2021) I used them too to Apostille the certification of validity for my SA drivers license and DIRCO was super backlogged (took a month +/- to Apostille). This will also set you back around R2800 for the police cert and Apostille. I am not sure though how this will work if you are outside of SA in terms of the collection of fingerprints. Call the owner Hamilton - he is excellent and will advise. I believe the above is the best price vs. time vs. service ratio that you will find out there.

And yes - these processes through normal channels take many months (if you are lucky enough to get a result). Rather pay than waste months stressing and waiting.