Need a passport, be sure you have the right birth certificate

@tammytwo (4298)
United States
May 5, 2009 10:46am CST
My son is going to Switzerland for 10 days this summer. So of course he needs a passport. Well, with his birth certificate in hand and other items we were sure we would need we headed to the courthouse to get it. Well, the one we got when he was little is no longer good for those purposes. We need one WITH THE RAISED STATE SEAL. This would have been nice to know a while back. So we got home and did some research on getting the birth certificate from the state he was born in, which is not the one we live in now. So I order it from usbirthcertificates.com along with a passport special package deal. Well it has been some time so I call the number for the people where I ordered the birth certificate. So they tell me they need a copy of his driver's license. Why didn't it state this when I ordered it? So I sent that to them and now I wait and pray it comes soon so we can get the passport. Let this be a lesson to you if you need a passport. BE SURE TO HAVE THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE WITH THE RAISED SEAL.
3 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
5 May 09
That is just administration gone crazy! I suppose that it is to prevent forgery but who would think that you have to update your birth certificate to a newer version in order for it to be valid! What, too, would you do if he didn't have a driving licence? Is it just naturally assumed that every person over a certain age in the US has one? I would have thought that, with your Social Security Numbers and the ubiquity of computers, a paper birth certificate would now be a thing of the past, anyway!
1 person likes this
@tammytwo (4298)
• United States
6 May 09
Yes, it is all crazy. Sent the copy of driver's license and an email telling the lady to let me know as soon as she got it. She let me know nearly 24 hours later it was too dark and not big enough, even when the size was increased 200%. So had to begin the process all over to make sure she got it again.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
6 May 09
Thanks for sharing this with all of us. I have been through things like that also. I took the copy of the birth certificate, not knowing they needed the one with the raised seal so I had to come home and get that one.
@tammytwo (4298)
• United States
6 May 09
I hadn't updated my son's because I didn't know that was a requirement. Now that I know I will be sure to keep checking every so often to make sure nothing else has changed.
• United States
6 May 09
Thanks for the information. I have to get one and my whole family does too in the next year. We are going on a cruise in November 2010.