Original Birth Certificate Question

[LemurCat]

I thought that EVERYONE now needed a passport? :confused:

 

Nope, closed loop cruises (leaving and coming back to the same port) are excepted from the WHTI. You can still use a birth cert and DL.

[Synical Investor]

Nope, closed loop cruises (leaving and coming back to the same port) are excepted from the WHTI. You can still use a birth cert and DL.

 

Interesting, thanks for that. Guess we have to see where they are cruising to.

[nrdsb4]

I've only ever seen a certified copy of birth certificates. My friend showed up with his original. It from an US Army Hospital, it says Certificate of Birth, and it has the stamped gold seal. Is this considered the original. I had been hounding him get his passport, but he likes to take risk. Anyone know if this BC is acceptable would be great. :D

 

I was born in a US Air Force Base in California. However, my hospital BC is useless. My parents made sure to get my official certified birth certificate from the county in which the base is located shortly after my birth. That is my only "official" birth certificate. It has a raised seal. However, a few years ago I decided to get another certified copy in case I ever lost the other one, and the newer certified copy has a watermark instead of a seal. Tell your friend to call the county of his birth to order an official certified copy of his birth certificate.

[PlanoDebbie]

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

 

Here is a link to where you can order an original certified BC, regardless of where you were born. If you were born in a foreign country, follow the directions for a Foreign birth. Hope this helps.

 

I give this link to parents who come to register their children at the school I work at. I'm not sure about the other 49 states, but I do know that here in Texas you can go to ANY County Clerk's office and purchase a brand new certified original birth certificate regardless of where you were born in this great state. For example, if I was born in El Paso, I can get a new birth certificate here in Plano. I don't have to go to El Paso or contact their county clerk to obtain a new BC.

 

As others have stated, a Hospital Certificate of Birth is nothing more than a document for your scrap books. You cannot use it to get enrolled in school. You cannot use it to get a Driver's license. You cannot use it to get a Passport.

 

So....when in doubt, get a Passport for traveling. No point in paying a ton of money for a cruise and risk standing on the pier waving goodbye to your family who is up on the Lido Deck without you!

[Chacooe]

Is he going on a closed loop cruise (where he is leaving and returning to the same port, like Los Angeles) then his Original Birth Certificate with a Drivers license will be ok, but if he is starting in one port and ending in another, he is going to need either a passport or the passport card.

[Chacooe]

I remember years ago when you Original Birth Certificate from the hospital you were born is was recognized by the federal government, state government and basically anywhere you would need it for proof of citizenship, but when people started making fake BC that is when all of this changed and our originals were no longer a valid proof of birth. When I applied for both my Social Security Card and my driver's license, my original BC is all I needed, but not now. I just had to put out $65.00 to get a copy of my birth certificate, when I think the original should be just as good. I will say that Carnival accepted it when I cruised last October.

[PlanoDebbie]

$65 to order a new copy of your Birth Certificate??? :eek: Where were you born? The most expensive state that I'm aware of only charges about $30-$35 for a certified copy. Yikes!

[pamouselover]

Neither my original or certified copy of my PA birth cert have a gold seal. Both have raised seals. Then again, I think PA changed their format at some point.

 

Yes, they must have, between 1993 and 1996. My son and daughters are not the same.

Just an FYI, Carnvial informed me that my 16 son can use his BC and student ID.

We are going on a closed loop cruise. Next cruise...yes I am expecting to love this already and book a cruise again. I will just get passports!

[Chacooe]

$65 to order a new copy of your Birth Certificate??? :eek: Where were you born? The most expensive state that I'm aware of only charges about $30-$35 for a certified copy. Yikes!

 

I got mine from the State of Michigan, It is $44.50 to order it online and then they make you pay Overnight UPS charges, otherwise they say that it will take 90 days by regular mail. So if you need it in a hurry like I did, I have to pay the outrageous UPS charges. Even though it says overnight it isn't, I got mine 5 days later and I called UPS about it and they said that they do not count weekends.

[zqvol]

Even if they were born overseas, it still needs to be registered in the US. Maybe the state they resided in when they filed could register it?

 

No it doesn't and in fact it can't be. Reports of foreign births are registered with the US State department. they are handled much differently than are domestic births.

 

The only advice that makes any sense to the OP is have him get a passport and don't be surprised if it takes him 4 or 5 months to track down all the documents he needs and gets it back.

 

I was born in a US Air Force Base in California. However, my hospital BC is useless. My parents made sure to get my official certified birth certificate from the county in which the base is located shortly after my birth. That is my only "official" birth certificate. It has a raised seal. However, a few years ago I decided to get another certified copy in case I ever lost the other one, and the newer certified copy has a watermark instead of a seal. Tell your friend to call the county of his birth to order an official certified copy of his birth certificate.

 

This is exactly correct EXCEPT that the OPs friend was not born in the US,, but overseas, there is a very different process for obtaining those birth certificates.

[Chacooe]

No it doesn't and in fact it can't be. Reports of foreign births are registered with the US State department. they are handled much differently than are domestic births.

 

The only advice that makes any sense to the OP is have him get a passport and don't be surprised if it takes him 4 or 5 months to track down all the documents he needs and gets it back.

 

 

 

This is exactly correct EXCEPT that the OPs friend was not born in the US,, but overseas, there is a very different process for obtaining those birth certificates.

 

The parents have to first register the birth at the Embassy in the country they were in, the Embassy will give them a paper to get the child back into the US and then they have to apply through the State Department. The reason I know this is because a friend of mine has worked for the State Department for over 25 years and has worked in many embassies. When the question came up about President Obama, that is when she explained how it works. The OP's friend will have to go through the State Department for a copy of his birth certificate and that will take some time, unless he has copies of previous papers, then he can send in copies of those and that will expedite the matter for him.

[rocsailor]

I can't belive that these persons will not adhere to the US policy of having a passport, It quite simple to apply and is not that time consuming. They have all the documents to apply, Sure it's a pain but we have to belive who they say there are. Just go with the flow. Just like visas for the different countries we visit, from a cruise are we giong contaminate the whole country? No just policy.:D

[nrdsb4]

 

 

This is exactly correct EXCEPT that the OPs friend was not born in the US,, but overseas, there is a very different process for obtaining those birth certificates.

 

I quickly re-read through the OP's post, and maybe I missed it, but the OP never said his friend was born overseas. He just said in a US Army Hospital.

 

In either case, a hospital BC won't cut it and his friend needs to get to work getting proper documentation.

[zqvol]

I can't belive that these persons will not adhere to the US policy of having a passport, It quite simple to apply and is not that time consuming. They have all the documents to apply, Sure it's a pain but we have to belive who they say there are. Just go with the flow. Just like visas for the different countries we visit, from a cruise are we giong contaminate the whole country? No just policy.:D

 

There is no government policy requiring people on closed loop cruises to have passports.

 

In the this case the OPs friend does not appear to have the required documents either way.

[deepnite10]

i had lost my original BC..no problem though..at the county court house

i had them send me copy with a raised seal..that worked..

 

but, i can t see why so many people are neglecting to get their passports..it s universal idenification and only cost about $10 per

yr..alot cheaper than a driver liscense..

[PlanoDebbie]

[quote name='Chacooe']I got mine from the State of Michigan, It is $44.50 to order it online and then they make you pay Overnight UPS charges, otherwise they say that it will take 90 days by regular mail. So if you need it in a hurry like I did, I have to pay the outrageous UPS charges. Even though it says overnight it isn't, I got mine 5 days later and I called UPS about it and they said that they do not count weekends.[/QUOTE]

Did you order it directly from the State of Michigan Department of Vital Statistics or another website that gets birth certificates for an additional charge? Going through the website I posted earlier, it indicates only $26 to order a Birth Certificate in Michigan. Sounds like somebody tacked on a nice little $18 fee on top of that.

The website I posted is compiled by the CDC and takes you directly to the proper authorities for each state to order the documents from. There's no middle man or extra fees to pay.