Birth Certificate

[tzolkin]

I think the confusion is some people are talking about an official copy with the seal (what you get after baby is born and if you request it from your state's dept. of vital statistics) and others are talking about a photocopy.

We just had this issue in my family. My mom wants to take my grandparents to Niagra Falls and wanted to make sure they had their birth certificates. My grandma found her "birth certificate", but it was really just a photocopy. She didn't really understand why she has to get another official copy with a seal and why the photocopy really isn't good for anything.

I always worried about losing them. (I'm slightly paranoid about things...) but it's very easy to get another official copy from your state of birth, so I wouldn't hesitate to bring it.

 

[HGD24]

Thanks everyone! Our original has the raised notary stamp on it. Any copies we would get do not have the raised seal, but you can see the seal on the photocopy. Looks like we'll bring at least a copy just to be safe.

Obviously I'm not an expert, but I have a hard time believing this. What is originally sent to parents is the first certified COPY of the bc on file with the county of birth. If that's lost, you order another certified copy, which means the original is copied or another is printed, and then the gov't notaries working in the BC office use their special stamp/embosser that makes it "certified" (not just notarized). If you lose that, you can order another.

Now you CAN generally order NON-certified copies from the offices for a lower cost, but they aren't good for much!

What I meant when I said "any copies that I could get" was that I made many photocopies of our marriage certificate to send to credit card companies, banks, etc and the seal was visible and readable on the photocopy and the photocopies that I made were all accepted by any company that I sent them to.