Birth Certificate Questions (Again!)

[kackie]

Leaving very soon and am concerned the birth certificates I received from the county health department of vital statistics won't be sufficient to board.

We have the wallet sized ones that let us on in January, NO RAISED SEAL.

Has anyone else had a problem with birth certificates that are the wallet size. They do not list the names of the parents on them, however they are official.

Opinions appreciated. I think we will have to make a trip to the Capital to get the long forms though........

Kathy

 

[outahere]

I don't have my last set of cruise docs handy, but as I recall, they specifically stated that birth certificates needed to have a raised seal. My $.02 worth....... I would get ones with raised seals, that way there is no question. When we went on the Wonder at the beginning of this month, they were checking identification very carefully, even our passports.

 

[DISNEYGATOR]

my birth certificate is certified but it doesn't have a raised seal, and I didn't have any problems with it, but you might want to call DCL to double check. But if your state doesn't do raised seals, then there isn't much they can say I suppose..

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

We are on the October 6th cruise and with our information there is a revised immigration information form enclosed and it says "Birth Certificate (original with raised seal) and a Picture ID issued by Local, State, or Federal government (for children under 18, only a birth certificate is required if traveling with a parent/legal guardian)

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

I want to also add that as I was putting the documents back in the folder I see there is a very big bright orange sticker on the folder that says the same thing so it is obvious that this is information that they want you to be aware of.

 

[mog]

I think I asked this before, but at that time, no one had seen one like I'm talking about. My father's birth certificate was a free one issued to him while he was in the military. It is on a green form with a raised seal, but the information is hand-written, not typed, or computer. At the bottom it says "this information is certified to be the correct information that is on file with the state..." It says it's certified and has the raised seal, I'm just a little nervous I guess because it is handwritten. Anyone have any insight??
He was born at home - not in a hospital. I wonder if that would have anything to do with it?

 

[hydster]

and we have been on a couple of cruises (none disney however) since 9-11 and they havent questioned anything but because of new restrictions we got passports instead! Ours are the wallet size birth certificates laminated in plastic and since they are laminated they would have a hard time having a raised seal because it is in plastic! When I travel however I take a copy of the Vital Statistic's phone number with me in case there is a problem we could try that route (if it is on a weekday when we board) and they could talk to them about it but so far we havent had any problems with our b/c post 9-11 or before. We have been on 3 cruises since and no problems but I dont know how Disney is. I hope it goes well for you but I wanted you to know that you arent the only one without raised seals!
Heidi

 

[BethC1952]

My father-in-law has no picture ID. He's never driven in his life (a good thing, too!), so we decided to get him a passport for our December trip.

I took a day off yesterday to take him to get his picture taken and to apply for the passport. My mother-in-law handed me all of his documentation. He has his original birth certificate (he's 76 years old) and it's handwritten with no raised seal, but I had called ahead and knew that this would be accepted.

What I didn't know (until I saw the certificate yesterday) was that, since the ink was slightly faded, my mother-in-law had traced over the name "so that they could read what it said"! So that saved me a trip to the county administration building! Needless to say, in 10 business days (and $15.00 later) the new birth certificate will be arriving!

Beth

 

[kramer_clan]

The issue of the raised seal has come up very regularly on the boards.

Some states do not use raised seals any longer. As long as the certificate does say "CERTIFIED COPY", you should be fine. I have the wallet size from the State of Maryland and it has the state seal within the certificate, but no raised seal.

I had no problems getting my two children on the cruise last month.

Vicki

 

[mog]

Which is why I'm concerned about my dad's. It doesn't say "certified copy". It has a raised seal and says "this is certified to be the information on file with the state...", but it is handwritten and therefore can not be a "copy" of the original. I am beginning to think this may be a problem! It seems like everything I have read indicates it isn't the raised seal that determines acceptability, but the fact that it is a certified copy of the original.

 

[kackie]

I went ahead and drove the hour and half to the capital and got the "long form" birth certificates for the whole family.

Interestingly, the employee asked, "Are you going on a Cruise?" I said yes and she gave me a letter to take with my Birthcertificate. We are a state with NO RAISED SEAL, only Certified Copy with the "special" black light check. The letter states that "raised seals" are too easy to duplicate and therefore they use the newer technology.

The letter looks very official and is on DHEC letter head and gives a name to contact if there are any questions regarding your Bcertificate.

MY POINT: Must have been a problem for a someone, if they have a letter ready to give you in case there are any questions.

Very interesting, BTW, we are all getting passports to quit worrying about this issue for the future.
Kackie