EMERGENCY! I need everyone's help!

[momof2minnies]

My DH and my mom's passports have been denied because they do not have a "file date" on their birth certificates. Has this happened to anyone? What do we do? We may have to cancel.If a date was not filed 66 or 46 years ago where are we supposed to get a date from???? OMG I am freaking out.

I called the passport agency and let me say they are NOOOOOOOO help.

I hope someone has had to deal with this and had good results.

TIA,
Linda (11/28 Magic)

 

[LWQuestie]

I think you should speak with the registrar in your birth county. I was born in Suffolk County (Boston) and my birth certificate has a "Date of Record" field. My husband was born in Ashtabula County, OH, and his birth certificate has a "Date Recorded by Registrar" field.

My mom has a little business card version of her birth certificate, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a date of record on it, so we'll need to get a full copy of the certificate before submitting the application.

Now, you don't NEED to have a passport to go on the cruise, so take a deep breath. You don't need to cancel.

 

[dizzi]

This is the best advice i can give you.......

FIND a very smalltown in your area and go to where they would get there passports taken care of........

When i got mine i lived in a smalltown and the one man who ran the place was willing to answer questions and help me out verses, when i was in FORT LAUDERDALE getting my kids and the one man out of 20 people helping didnt know much of anything.

 

[acourtwdw]

Since you are going on a closed loop cruise, your family doesn't need passports. Now, you will get a lot of people that tell you have to have them if there is a problem and you have to fly home from a port and that is true. We have cruised over 10 times and only had passports once, if that makes you feel better. Now, take a deep breath

 

[dvc4life]

If I were you and needed the birth certificate call your state vital records office. They are the ones who can ultimately do something. Here in Iowa the county registrar can't make any changes to a record. If anything needs to be done to amend the record it comes down through the state vital records office.

Just be sure you let them know that you are needing these birth certificates right away for passports.

 

[momof2minnies]

Thank you all for the responses

Linda

 

[alexandmaddie]

If I were you and needed the birth certificate call your state vital records office. They are the ones who can ultimately do something. Here in Iowa the county registrar can't make any changes to a record. If anything needs to be done to amend the record it comes down through the state vital records office.

This is very good advice. I would call the phone number below tomorrow. You may just have souvenir (hospital) birth certificates and just need to get certified copies from Vital Stats.

Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics
150 Mount Vernon St., 1st Fl.
Dorchester, MA 02125-3105
Main Telephone: (617) 740-2600

 

[tikilyn]

I know how you are feeling. The passport agency has been a nightmare for my husband. He was delivered via Midwife in the early 70's in South Texas. So they think he's not a legal citizen; eventhough his birth certificate was registered two days after his birth. I just tell him it's better to be stuck inside the golden cage than outside of it! You should see the stuff they are asking him to provide for proof and even then the person handling his case has told him it didn't matter if he came up with everything they've ask for they were'nt going to give him a U.S Passport! Are you kidding me. He works for the freaking Government and had to have this huge back ground check to even get the freaking job and they didn't have a problem with him. This is a huge problem with the mexican americans here in the south. Just google it.

OP I hope you can get this all worked out!

 

[SKWDW]

My DH and my mom's passports have been denied because they do not have a "file date" on their birth certificates. Has this happened to anyone? What do we do? We may have to cancel.If a date was not filed 66 or 46 years ago where are we supposed to get a date from???? OMG I am freaking out.

It kills me the good people have to go through this but they will let anything into this country. I called the passport agency and let me say they are NOOOOOOOO help. I hope someone has had to deal with this and had good results. TIA, Linda (11/28 Magic)

My Mom's passport was also denied. Her passport was denied because her original file date was more than 1 year after her birth. It's particularly stupid because the U.S. Government that pays her Social Security based on the same birth certificate that they denied for a stinkin' passport.

The good news is that she got a passport prior to her cruise! We submitted the State Dept's request for Census records and they found her family's info. I think it cost somewhere between $40-$60 for the Census check, but it was well worth it for her to get the passport.

I suggest your family members try the same thing.

 

[GymboAddict]

Linda,

Several people have given great advice how to handle! Hopefully you will be able to get the certificates from vital records office.

Don't get discouraged and cancel though!!!! I realize you can't use this as a rule of thumb (so to speak) but we submitted applications to get our kids passports on July 18th and received them back on August 13th. We did not pay extra either. Honestly I was surprised how fast they came back.

I mention this because I noticed your cruise is in November......we leave November 7th. If you can get the birth certificates you need, I think you will have plenty of time to receive your new passports back in hand before you leave.

Hope everything works out for ya'll and you have a magical cruise!

Wendy

 

[tvguy]

My DH and my mom's passports have been denied because they do not have a "file date" on their birth certificates. Has this happened to anyone? What do we do? We may have to cancel.If a date was not filed 66 or 46 years ago where are we supposed to get a date from???? OMG I am freaking out.

It kills me the good people have to go through this but they will let anything into this country.

I called the passport agency and let me say they are NOOOOOOOO help.

I hope someone has had to deal with this and had good results.

TIA,
Linda (11/28 Magic)

As others have noted, you do not have to have a Passport for this cruise.
Long term, it certainly is an issue you should get straightened out for other reasons. Was this denial at the local Passport office, or was your application sent back by the State Department? Going to a small town Passport office would do no good if the State Department was the one rejecting the applications.
Easiest long term solution is to write your member of Congress. That's what their office staff are there for, to fix constituient problems with the government.
I'm assuming your mom is on Social Security and Medicare, so clearly those federal agencies didn't find this an issue.


DW's step-father got into a huge mess all because he lied about his age when he enlisted in the Air Force. He said he was 18, he was just barely
16. He put in his 30 years, and retired, and took a private sector job. He went to apply for Social Security, and Medicare, and for the first time had to show his birth certificate. They said he was 2 years too young, which he was. That triggered a whole mess with the Air Force because he was 2 years too young to retire when he left the Air Force, and they wanted him to refund them a large portion of the pension money they had paid him over the previous 19 years.......it took an attorney, a Congressman and 6 months to straighten out that mess. He also had to get a new drivers license, Social Security card, and a bunch of other legal documents because he discovered the middle name he had been using for his entire life, wasn't the middle name his parents put on his birth certificate, and he was also "Junior", which he did not know, because he was named after his father.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I don't have any advice but GOOD LUCK! I hope you are able to get this resolved very soon!

 

[momof2minnies]

Thank you all very much, right now she is going by way of the census check for her family.Of course we are talking about 1942, she was born at home and hopefully my grandparents filled out their census.What if they didn't then what???

And yes she is on SS and medicare.Her birthdate is 1942, must not have ever been filed until she needed it for something, now the date says 1978 as date filed.We can't figure it out.

Linda

 

[adedward]

There is a hospital birth certificate, no good for passports and will not have a date registered, and the official state birth certificate, that will have a date registered and an official stamp. You must have that one, with the original stamp, go get the passport. You most likely have the hospital birth certificates (like we found out we had). Very official, with tiny footprints? NOT the one you need. Just go to the web site for your state, find vital statistics, and order the correct birth certificates. Looking up family census records will not provide anything official that will be of any help, and will waste lots of precious time.

 

[momof2minnies]

There is a hospital birth certificate, no good for passports and will not have a date registered, and the official state birth certificate, that will have a date registered and an official stamp. You must have that one, with the original stamp, go get the passport. You most likely have the hospital birth certificates (like we found out we had). Very official, with tiny footprints? NOT the one you need. Just go to the web site for your state, find vital statistics, and order the correct birth certificates. Looking up family census records will not provide anything official that will be of any help, and will waste lots of precious time.

My DH does have the official stamp but no date filed.My mom was born it 1942 but the date filed says 1978??????????

 

[adedward]

Yes, the hospital birth certificate also has an official stamp, but it is just the hospital certificate. It will not have the hospital name or anything else on it to make you think it is just a hospital certificate. It looks fully official. I, of course, don't know what you have, but that may be it. It gets filed with the state. So maybe you are seeing the date the hospital certificate went to the state? Check with your state government, they are the ONLY ones who can give you your official birth certificate.

 

[outahere]

My DH does have the official stamp but no date filed.My mom was born it 1942 but the date filed says 1978??????????

Since it appears that you live in MA, I would suggest contacting Senator Kennedy's office. We had some problems getting my son's passport a couple of years ago and I contacted them and explained the situation. It obviously worked because two days later the passport arrived.

 

[GoofyTraci]

Linda,

Several people have given great advice how to handle! Hopefully you will be able to get the certificates from vital records office.

Don't get discouraged and cancel though!!!! I realize you can't use this as a rule of thumb (so to speak) but we submitted applications to get our kids passports on July 18th and received them back on August 13th. We did not pay extra either. Honestly I was surprised how fast they came back.

I mention this because I noticed your cruise is in November......we leave November 7th. If you can get the birth certificates you need, I think you will have plenty of time to receive your new passports back in hand before you leave.

Hope everything works out for ya'll and you have a magical cruise!

Wendy

Wendy,

I just noticed we will be on the same cruise. Have you been over to our cruise meet thread? We are a lot of fun.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1653589

 

[tvguy]

I also think there is a procedure to get a Passport without a birth certificate, because there are still a lot of folks born where births are regularly recorded.

 

[Mom of three]

But if you don't have a passport, will you be able to get off the ship when it pulls into port or do you have to remain on there?