Certificate of Live Birth (N. Carolina)

[kaj2870]

Thanks, KAJ. I have always thought Brother- In- Law was BIL and Mother-In-Law was MIL. I am still learning these abbreviations, I guess???

 

Hope you have a great cruise!!

Oh shoot, please forgive me, Rala. This family of mine is about to drive me to drinking, climbing the walls and pulling my hair out:) Yes, BIL is Brother in Law and MIL is Mother in law. SORRY

[kaj2870]

I agree. Kaj, I'm from NC and have used the original certificate of live birth (with raised seal) for both of my children. The last time was in April, which puts one of the Certificates of Live Birth at 13 years old. On my last cruise, 11 of the people from NC used COLB, some much older than 13 years. Also, RCCL/US Govt will accept the wallet sized lamented version if it has an official ink/stamp seal under the lamenate (3 of our NC folks used that).

 

As posted above, that all changes at the end of 2006 though: http://travel.state.gov/

I've never heard of a certificate of live birth having an expiration date neither. Needless to say, I just cancelled the order and will go with what we have. I'm tired already of the running in circles. It's time for a drink and I don't even drink! That's bad:)

[kaj2870]

My husband was born in North Carolina and we've used his original Certificate of Live Birth issued in the 1950's every time we cruised. In fact he recently had a passport issued using this. All it had to have was the raised seal.

 

By the way, we ordered new copies of our birth certificates a few months ago just to have backups. We live in Virginia, just north of the NC line. My birth certificate arrived from Hawaii in 2 weeks. His took 8 weeks to get here from NC. I think they walked it over the state line to us!!

I'm glad you had better luck than I did in dealing with the NC Vital Records. I think the confusion was when the woman asked me the date of when the copy of the B/C was requested. I told her it was in 1998, my BIL was born in 1993 (yep he's 24 years younger than my husband)

[kaj2870]

Wow! I'm from NC and have never heard such a thing! Wonder what the lady you talked had to drink for lunch :)

I used mine which was older than 5 years many times and then got both DD & I passports using mine that was considerably older than 5 years and hers as you described the one they have. I only paid about $10 or $12 when I got a copy of her BC about 7 years ago.

Shoot, it wasn't even lunchtime. She probably just got to work because I called at around 8:30 this morning and ordered a new B/C at around 9:00 through Vitalcheck.com. I just cancelled the order and will just go with what I have.

[kaj2870]

Kaj,

 

Hope you get the birth cert in time. The cost does sound a bit high to me too, And I also have never heard of a birth certificate expiring, the person expiring, YES, but not the certificate.

 

So for now relax, and know that you will have a wonderful time once you set foot onboard and so will your family. I think a family cruise vacation is great and it allows you plenty of quality time together, like at dinnertime and seadays. And you will probably want your family to cruise together again. Maybe the first time sailing together is the hardest, so just prepare yourself to answer lots of their questions and be patient, after all you are the experienced cruiser and after their first cruise they will all know what to do for the second one. So relax and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

 

Annieeee

Thank you Annieeee for the encouraging words. I'm trying to hang in there and be patience. The thing is, they expect me to do everything for them. Shoot, when my DH and I cruised for the first time in 2002, I knew nothing about cruising. Thank God, I came across Cruise Critic. The thought just hit me, how did I come across Cruise Critic???:p I definitely can't wait to do the "I'm-on-the-ship-now-dance". I pray I survive the plane ride as I've never flown before. DH and I always drove from Baltimore, MD to Florida for our past cruises.

[kaj2870]

I have the SetSail pass for DH, DS, BIL and myself printed out. The other 12 will have to fill out the necessary paperwork once we get to the port.

[RoofingPrincess]

Kaj, you need to use the code that's in the box labelled "bbCode", since these message boards use vBulletin. I figured it out by trial and error initially, and then my DS gave me the "duh" look - evidently he could tell just by looking at the board that it's vBulletin.... :o

[Rala]

kaj, not to worry. I know exactly how families can sometimes drive you crazy. You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relatives, right!! You are a good soul to be doing all this for them. Sounds like it will work out. Again, I wish you a wonderful and relaxing cruise!

[RoofingPrincess]

I know exactly how families can sometimes drive you crazy.

It's a really short trip, we can walk!!:p

[kaj2870]

kaj, not to worry. I know exactly how families can sometimes drive you crazy. You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relatives, right!! You are a good soul to be doing all this for them. Sounds like it will work out. Again, I wish you a wonderful and relaxing cruise!

 

Bless your heart, Rala for the encouraging words. I still need that drink though:D

[kaj2870]

It's a really short trip, we can walk!!:p

RoofingPrincess - Thanks for the TickerFactory tip. I had no idea what I was doing. Speaking of driving, we were planning driving when it started out with 14 of us going. I started thinking **#$ NO! We're flying and I've never flown before. I just know that I wasn't trying to be squashed up in a 15 passenger van with 14 people and luggage for 17 plus hours! It was enough when DH and I first drove to Ft. Lauderdale in 2002 and again 2004 with my DF and DS.

[poptartno1]

I've never heard of a birth certificate with an expiration date. I think you're being given bad information. Look at the one you have. Does it have an expiration date on it? If not then the woman you talked to is full of beans. I was a TA for years and I've heard it all, but never anything like this.

 

I had my original copy from NC from 1954; the year I was born. I didn't want to chance losing it; sentimental value.:) I sent for my copies on February 7th of this year. Luckily, I decided to give up on them and go ahead an use my original for applying for a passport. Received the passport....still no birth certificates from NC!

[kaj2870]

Kaj, you need to use the code that's in the box labelled "bbCode", since these message boards use vBulletin. I figured it out by trial and error initially, and then my DS gave me the "duh" look - evidently he could tell just by looking at the board that it's vBulletin.... :o

Thanks, RoofingPrincess!

[kaj2870]

I had my original copy from NC from 1954; the year I was born. I didn't want to chance losing it; sentimental value.:) I sent for my copies on February 7th of this year. Luckily, I decided to give up on them and go ahead an use my original for applying for a passport. Received the passport....still no birth certificates from NC!

Oh my goodness:eek: I'm glad cancelled the order through vitalchek.com. I know the cost to obtain one in person the same day is $30.00. Did you call the NC Vital Records to find out the status of your copies? If not, the number is 919-733-3526> I definitely wouldn't give up. I've called there about 5 times today and the last go round, I told the Rep. that my BIL doesn't need to request another copy of his Certificate of Live Birth. I was certainly hoping I wouldn't have to drive my MIL to NC before our cruise!

[Annieeee]

Thank you Annieeee for the encouraging words. I'm trying to hang in there and be patience. The thing is, they expect me to do everything for them. Shoot, when my DH and I cruised for the first time in 2002, I knew nothing about cruising. Thank God, I came across Cruise Critic. The thought just hit me, how did I come across Cruise Critic???:p I definitely can't wait to do the "I'm-on-the-ship-now-dance". I pray I survive the plane ride as I've never flown before. DH and I always drove from Baltimore, MD to Florida for our past cruises.

 

Next time, skip the pane ride and go out of Baltimore! The Grandeur of the Seas is a lovely ship, and you board right at Locust Point! I sailed out of Baltimore twice last year and loved it! I do not like take a plane, but will when necessary. But just knowing that all I had to do was get in the car and be at the terminal in 20 mins was great, sure beats the stress of knowing you are gonna have to get on a plane to take a cruise. And next year, I see that they will be doing 2 different 9 night cruises, the one to the Caribbean and then also one to New England/Canada with a 5 day Bermuda run in between. Oh yeah! I am gonna start packing now! lol

 

Annieeee

[poptartno1]

Oh my goodness:eek: I'm glad cancelled the order through vitalchek.com. I know the cost to obtain one in person the same day is $30.00. Did you call the NC Vital Records to find out the status of your copies?

 

Yep! Called back in March and they said there was a "waiting list". We were on the list, but not to expect them before mid to late April. That's when I decided to go ahead and use the original certificate I had. I plan to call and find out what's going on, since I paid for the things even though I don't need them now!

[NCmom]

I deal with the NC vital records almost every day--and I wonder why my hair is gray. For most purposes, if you need a certified birth certificate (or certificate of live birth), you are much better off contacting the county in which you were born, than vital statistics. The county will charge you about $10, plus a possible handling charge.

 

I love trying to get vital stats to issue a new birth certificate following an adoption--the way they process the requests is to put all of the requests for the same county in one pile, and then they process all the birth certificates from that county at the same time.--I would have adoptions that had been finalized in June, and adoptions finalized in December be assigned birth certificates the same day.

[kaj2870]

Oh my goodness:eek: I'm glad cancelled the order through vitalchek.com. I know the cost to obtain one in person the same day is $30.00. Did you call the NC Vital Records to find out the status of your copies?

 

Yep! Called back in March and they said there was a "waiting list". We were on the list, but not to expect them before mid to late April. That's when I decided to go ahead and use the original certificate I had. I plan to call and find out what's going on, since I paid for the things even though I don't need them now!

I suppose it wouldn't be any different if you went to Raleigh, NC and get in person? I don't know what we will do if BIL can't get on the ship with his Certificate of Live Birth! He's only 12 years old and would be so heartbroken if we can't take the cruise (and he wouldn't be the only one).