Are We In A World Of ...?

[hammerinfrank]

Scheduled to sail to Mexico on 10/7. My fiance has waited until now (Fri, 9-29) to attempt to get a copy of her birth certificate as her second form of identification and the county recorders office is unable to find her in their database. This means: no passport OR government id w/picture and birth certificate. Are we doomed? We have so been looking forward to taking our first cruise since we booked in February and now it seems like everything is beginning to unravel. Any suggestions?

[Navy_Chief]

Scheduled to sail to Mexico on 10/7. My fiance has waited until now (Fri, 9-29) to attempt to get a copy of her birth certificate as her second form of identification and the county recorders office is unable to find her in their database. This means: no passport OR government id w/picture and birth certificate. Are we doomed? We have so been looking forward to taking our first cruise since we booked in February and now it seems like everything is beginning to unravel. Any suggestions?

 

A couple of questions come to mind, is this the county/state of birth? If not, how about going back to the clerks office in the county/state of birth. You may also try the hospital of birth for the records. Keep in mind, it will take about 8 weeks to process your passports, you still have a little time to get this done.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The way I read this, OP is leaving on the Oosterdam on Oct 7 -- next Saturday.

 

No time to get a passport.

 

[hammerinfrank]

A couple of questions come to mind, is this the county/state of birth? If not, how about going back to the clerks office in the county/state of birth. You may also try the hospital of birth for the records. Keep in mind, it will take about 8 weeks to process your passports, you still have a little time to get this done.

 

Thanks for replying Bob. She is 1 of 12 children all born in the same city. All of her siblings are recorded but the clerk was unable to find record of her. The clerk tried searching her last name by spelling it various ways but still had no luck. I'm thinking this must be the birth recorders error but at this point, it really doesn't matter. As far as "still have a little time to get this done", the ship sails next Saturday. I told her to go to the hospital where she was born to see if they can find record of her but that won't happen until Monday

 

Frank

[Navy_Chief]

I was thinking October 2007 :D and if it is next week, well you may be out of luck then. It could be an expensive "Lessons Learned" why you shouldn't wait until the last minute to ensure you squared away the paperwork. Wish I could be more help.

[hammerinfrank]

Is this a HAL or a customs issue?

[Krazy Kruizers]

immigration

[Copper10-8]

Is this a HAL or a customs issue?

 

INS/Homeland Security - I'm afraid you're too late, Frank

[WNYCRUISER]

I would be at the hospital in person first thing Monday morning. And possibly the other of you could go to the county office. The birth certificate at this point is your only hope. Explain your situation, have them look up everything forward, backward and sideways. Bribe them with chocolate if you have to!

 

Please let us know how you make out!

[Charliesmom]

When my mother died, the state could not find a record of her birth. My husband then went to the City Hall and a helpful clerk there went through the records looking for other spellings and found her records pretty quickly. The doctor had misspelled my grandfather's last name. I suggest trying several different alternate spellings to see if you can come up with the right one. THEN contact HAL and let them know the spelling on the birth certificate, as name on passenger manifest and birth certificate must match.

 

Roberta

[happy cruzer]

Hi, You've been given good advice to try to find the paperwork. As a backup, you might want to think who could go in her place. Maybe your mom or another friend. Might start getting their paperwork in order. I'm not sure what is needed to do a substituition (you can search on here, I know it's been discussed how to sub a passenger) and when but it would be better than losing two fares. Good Luck!

[jtl513]

Just a thought: go to the public library and look up the microfilmed newspaper birth announcements to see if there's a clue there of a name misspelling.

 

Good luck!

[torpeedo]

After you get back ( hopefully ) make a point to get a passport. It is a very valuable piece of identification and if you like to travel, it will be important. A passport is good for 10 years and worth the effort to get one.

[peaches from georgia]

I hate to ask the obvious question, but why in the world did she wait until the very week of the cruise to obtain a 'must-have' document? Did you know she had been procrastinating? We all know how government/county/city offices can screw up or work at a snail's pace, especially when the error could have been made years and years ago. Remember it has to be a certified copy or the original which can take time under the best of circumstances.

 

I do feel sorry for you, but this is just an example of why getting a passport and getting it early is the way to go. Once she does get her birth certificate get that passport immediately! ;)

[hammerinfrank]

I hate to ask the obvious question, but why in the world did she wait until the very week of the cruise to obtain a 'must-have' document? ;)

 

Great question peaches from georgia and if it weren't for the fact that I enjoy my life and prefer to continue breathing, I'd ask her.

[CCCM]

Do they still have the old paper records (books)? Usually they are somewhere, basement, storage. You can go through those by hand and they are usually chronological. Everyone has given great ideas.....

 

Agree, not a good time to ask. She probably feels crappy enough right now.

 

Good Luck!

[OldCodger73]

Even though hospital birth records are not official documents and are unusable, I would still go to the hospital and see if you can find the listing of her birth. This might give you a clue as to how the name was spelled.

 

Also from a genealogy research standpoint you might consider these avenues to explore. Are her parents still alive? If so, perhaps they can shed some light. Another question is was she perhaps adopted and never told about it? What about her siblings, can they shed any light on why her birth isn't listed. Some weird things sometimes happen-- for example I had a relative who for the longest time I thought was my uncle. But it turned out he was really born out of wedlock (isn't that an old fashion term) and was really my cousin and was adopted by my grandparents. I'm not saying anything like that might be the case here but at this point you're really grasping at straws.

 

The final question, you do have trip insurance, right?

[hammerinfrank]

 

The final question, you do have trip insurance, right?

 

Yes, we do have trip insurance and no birth secrets.

[hugger]

look under her first name or even her middle name to look her up. Might be that someone inadvertanlty put her under one of those listings rather than using her last name. I had this happen to me when I was 16 and going for my first driver's license they couldn't find me. And, I needed a birth certificate to obtain a driver's license in Michigan. I thought all states required this? Guess not

 

Anyway, try using her first and middle name to look her up in the county records.

 

Lot's of times people use a relatives last name for a middle name of their child - someone could have filed it under that.

GOOD LUCK

[sail7seas]

I'm very vague about this but if her parents are still alive, perhaps they can swear an avidavit of her birth date; a priest/minister who may have known her since her batptism or such could swear an affidavit; her siblings........ maybe such documents could be used in the hopes of the city/county issuing a birth certificate?

 

Does she drive? How did she prove her age to get her license?

 

Does she remember ever having a birth certicate in her possession but can no longer find it? If she ever remembers having one or having seen one her parents may have, then she is in the county/city records and someone has to do the painstaking work of finding her in the records.

 

 

[sail7seas]

Hugger.....I was writing while your message posted but the driver's license angle occured to me as well.

 

[jtl513]

I find it hard to believe that she's never needed a copy of her birth certificate at some previous point in her life - to register for school, or start a new job, or get a driver's license, etc. Have you rummaged through her Mom's "important papers" and "memorabilia box" thoroughly?

[jtl513]

....

[Kolleen]

We were taking a last minute trip to Europe a couple of years ago and my husband is adopted and had no birth certificate or passport. His mother accompanied him to the passport office with all of her id and he took what he had, drivers license etc. She was able to verify his identity and he was issued a passport. They also took my daughters Disneyland i.d. as picture i.d. when she was 13. Are you anywhere near a passport agency?

[jtl513]

My wife went to the State Dept site ( http://travel.state.gov ) and found this regarding getting a passport without a birth certificate:

 

What do I do if there is no birth record on file for me?

If you were born in the U.S. and there is no birth record on file, you will need several different documents to substantiate your citizenship. You will need:

A letter from the Vital Statistics office of the state of your birth with your name and what years were searched for your birth record. An official of the Vital Statistics office needs to issue a letter of no record found.

In addition, you will need early public records to prove your birth in the U.S.

I know that there's just a slim hope of getting a passport that way in 5 days, but maybe INS (or Homeland Security or whoever) will accept a notarized letter of no record found from the appropriate Clerk of the Vital Stats office, along with whatever else you've got ... baptismal certificate, a notarized letter from the hospital if they've got records, whatever ... as proof of citizenship. You should try to determine that before flying to San Diego, though!

 

Again, good luck! :p