Why do they take your birth certificate when you get a passport?

[Mom21]

The 3 of us went today and got our passports. I took our birth certificates. I thought they would just verify the info and give it back. Nope. They said they would mail it back with the passport. Normally not an issue, but my dd is starting an activity in 2 weeks where I need her birth certificate to verify age. Hopefully they will wait the 8-10 weeks for me to get it back.

 

[kelleigh1]

I don't know why they take them, but it might not be a bad idea to get a notarized copy to keep in a separate file for incidents such as this.

 

[DVCLiz]

Just contact the Registrar of Deeds in the town she was born and get a duplicate. I live in the same town, so I just went down to the courthouse one day and got five certified copies of all of our birth certificates. I think they were about $2.00 apiece. Much easier than having just one floating around. I think you can even order them on-line.

 

[mickeyboat]

I was surprised when they took mine, too.

It only took about 4 weeks for me. I have several copies of the girls' birth certificates, and can get one for DH pretty easily. But I really need to get another copy of mine.

Denae

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I would call your state records dept., not sure what the actual name is, but each state has one. Anyways, have the records dept send you a certified copy of your dd's birth certificate. I have one and it came in handy when I got my passport. Unfortunately I don't know how long it takes to get one to you, but you could ask about having them overnight one to you. Hope this helps.

 

[wnissen]

The reason they have to take the birth certificate is because of the patchwork of agencies that issue them. Frequently it's the county, other times the city or the state, there are just too many issuing agencies to expect the drone at city hall to be able to recognize them all. Imagine the job of a bouncer at the door of a bar checking drivers' licenses. Except instead of a handful of state drivers' licenses, there are 3,142 different kinds. (That's one for every county in the U.S.). There would be no way to reliably authenticate that many different kinds of licenses.

The State Department has a much better shot at accurately verifying a birth certificate if it has it in hand and can compare it to the genuine article.

Walt

 

[disneysteve]

They need the orginal because a copy isn't considered a valid form of ID because it doesn't have the embossed government seal.

Also, make sure you have an actual official state birth certificate and not just one from the hospital. Many people go to get a passport only to find out that their "birth certificate" is just a give-away form from the hospital.

 

[Beth76]

Click here to find out where to get another copy of the BC. Should only take about a week or less.

 

[disneysteve]

The 3 of us went today and got our passports.

By the way, where are you all going? Please share

 

[Mom21]

Thanks everybody. We did send the original so we should be ok. I am going to ask and hope I don't need one before it gets back. I do plan to get duplicates as that is a good idea for the future.

As far as where we are going, we don't have definite plans. My sister is moving to Barbados in August so I plan to vist there in the winter. We are also thinking about visiting Panama in July. We want to buy land there for retirement (7 years for hubby).

 

[paslea_pooh]

The 3 of us went today and got our passports. I took our birth certificates. I thought they would just verify the info and give it back. Nope. They said they would mail it back with the passport. Normally not an issue, but my dd is starting an activity in 2 weeks where I need her birth certificate to verify age. Hopefully they will wait the 8-10 weeks for me to get it back.

This is so funny, we are going thru the same Exact thing. We went for our passports 3/18, about a week ago I got an appointment to register my DD for Kindergarten. They need to see her birth certificate (no surprise), I still haven't gotten our birth certificates back in the mail. I was told that they send the birth certificates back First, then the passports come.

I just called the School Board today and she said I can Still register her but will have to show her birth certificate before she attends school, which will be in Sept.

I think you'll be okay.

BTW, we're going to Cancun Can't Wait !