Problem with birth certificate

[Jeano222]

My sister has a certified birth certificate with raised seal. In 1932 when she was born you did not have to have first or middle name for them to issue a birth certificate in Minnesota, so it says Baby Girl ****. The state cannot change it. She has gotten social security, Medicare, driver's license, marriage license, etc, using that, BUT is it enough to board the ship. Royal Caribbean could not tell me, as they had not heard of this scenario before. We sail in 5 weeks. Are we screwed?

[pg.]

since I am Canadian, my advise may not work, but if I was your sister ,, and lived in a town with a passport office, I would go down and see if I could get an expediated passport..

[Jeano222]

She lives in a small town, and after calling the courthouse, they told her that even expedited service would not get the passport in time. Plus if cruise line has a problem with birth certificate then the passport agency would have the same problem too. Royal Caribbean says certfied birth certificate and photo ID which she has both. The only thing I think we can do at this point is to take everything she has at check in and if they say no, then we don't cruise.

[cherylandtk]

Wow, have not heard of that one before. I would suggest that she definitely take her Drivers License and marriage certificate along. The BC proves that "baby girl" is a US citizen; your sister's only problem will be in proving that she is the baby girl on the certificate.

 

The marriage license and DL (with matching birthdate) should help in that regard, but if she has any other legal document showing that she is the child of the parents named on the birth certificate, bring that along.

 

Good luck and let us know how it all works out.

[paul929207]

See could try to get a voter registration card. This is accepted as proof of citizenship.

 

Paul

[Jeano222]

Just got off the phone again with Royal Caribbean and she told me they had a seminar by Homeland Security where the issue of birth certificates or lack of affects older American Citizens. Some seniors were born on farms by midwives and no record. My sister has documention of everything she has needed to satisfy the government such as Social Security, Medicare, IRS, driver's license, etc. I have also contacted the church registrar where she was baptized to get documention from that, even though that is not accepted it is just additional documentation and RCCL/Security look at this as a whole. Had I known when I asked my sister if she had a certified birth certificate that it it said Baby Girl, I would not have put us into this predicament. The idea about Voter Registration I had not thought of so I am letting her know to get that right way. Thank you so much for everyone's help on this. I will update more later.

[indie]

my wife told me that her cousins birth certificate says "Baby Girl Canty"

 

and she was born in 1981.

[melika091900]

is it because there isnt a name picked for the child at birth or something ???

gosh , im suprised they dont change it after you have a name,

thats not right, they should have to issue another Birth certificate with your actual name on it , especially now a days , you need that, but i guess since those other places took it for drivers license etc its ok ,,

we had that issue with my husband, since at birth he had a different name and his parents changed it 1 yr later, so he has 2 birth certificates from samoa,

so when i had to request his , 2 came and also a letter stating the name change, thank god it was good, we had to get him a passport ,,

but good luck to the OP sister... i hope they take it ,

i would bring everything ,

but when did you book this trip ?? shouldnt she have thought of this sooner about the name thing? no offense im not trying to sound rude or anything , but i would get a copy , and then try to get the expidited passport, regular passports take 2 months, so im sure you would get it in 5 weeks, at least try ....... \

good luck

melissa

[Jeano222]

Yes, you can get name changed on birth certificate but it requires attorney and the wait time is 10-12 months, as it is a legal court procedure. I had no idea until this morning that on her birth certificate it said Baby Girl ****. She is trying to get an expedited voter registration card just for additional documentation. I called our local passport office here and was told they have suspended expedited passports due to the huge backlog. I don't know if other people are being told that too. In any event, 5 weeks is not enough time, even if the birth certificate was not a problem.

[derrick22]

My father was born in 1928 in NY and his birth certificate stated "baby boy Derrick". I think they hadn't decided on a name yet.

He did not know this until he applied for Social Security. He had to have it corrected and didn't have any problems.

Hope it works out.

Denise

[Court's DH]

We sail in 5 weeks. Are we screwed?

 

No... all your sister needs is a passport. They usually take quite a while to be issued, but for a little extra (not really outrageously expensive) you can choose an expedited process that gets you the passport in about two weeks. Plenty of time. Happy sailing!

 

G.