In their ongoing rush to digitalize nearly all state and local services, Norwegian authorities are no longer sending birth certificates when babies are born. New parents will only receive a digital confirmation of the new arrival on the Altinn website that’s used for most communication between citizens and public authorities.
News bureau NTB reports that the traditional birth certificate known as a fødselsattest has been eliminated, replaced by the online confirmation that the child’s birth has been registered and that the child has been issued the all-important fødselsnummer in the Folkeregister. That’s the equivalent of a Social Security number in the US.
The new confirmation will contain the same information as the old birth certificates but gone is the formal stamp and handwritten signature of the issuing public servant.
newsinenglish.no staff