Passport Help Needed!

[Wally12]

A lady (she's 67) in our group of 15 headed to Mexico at the end of May received a letter back from the Passport Agency saying that her birth certificate is invalid, and claims there is no record of her despite the fact she has a social security number. Apparently her mother did not file for a birth certificate for her until she was 4 or 5 when it was time for her to go to school. And when she did file it, she put the step-dad's name on the certificate instead of the biological father (the family says she probably didn't know who that even was, and all of the siblings have different fathers). The hospital where she was born burned down a long time ago, so there is nothing there. The only living "witness" to the birth is a sister who is 13 years older, and all she says is that she drove the mother to the hospital and dropped her off, and picked her up after the baby was born.

So, any ideas on what we could do or where we need to go to get this taken care of? We have to pay the trip off soon so we need to get this done ASAP.

 

[ctrawick]

I can only guess someone has called them, right?

Do I remember correctly that you can also use a drivers licence type card to get into Mexico? Is that still around and/or did it only apply to driving in vs on a cruise?

 

[Wally12]

Yes, they have called but didn't really receive much help from the passport agency. They need some other type of verified documentation.

 

[BluegrassPoke]

Yes, they have called but didn't really receive much help from the passport agency. They need some other type of verified documentation.

Call an immigration attorney.

 

[Wally12]

I'm not sure they're wanting to go that far into it. I called them earlier and they were headed to the Department of Vital Statistics in OKC to see what they could come up with.

 

[EvilPOKES]

Maybe the state health department can assist. They're a mega pain in the ass, but I needed a birth certificate and that's where I had to go (if they were born in Oklahoma).

 

[FalseGod]

Deport her!

 

[squeak]

You could call Travisa.

 

[Ostatedchi]

Seriously call your state representative. Their staff can generally smooth through things like this.

 

[hollywood]

If she knows the county of her birth, it should not be a problem. She can probably get a certified copy online, or simply go to the county's office and get it in person.

It doesn't really matter that that man listed as her father may or may not be her biological father, this isn't an inheritance issue, it's one of merely establishing her identity. Also, birth certificates granted years after birth, also should not be a problem as they were sworn to by testimonial at the time of application/grant.

If the state/county provides her with a certified birth certificate, I don't know how the Federal Govt could claim it is invalid.

(BTW, my mom had the same problem as when she was born, more people were born at home than in hospitals and birth certificate applications filed years later were fairly commonplace. In addition, the man listed on her birth certificate, who was actually her stepfather, was not her "real" father. But point being, it was always accepted as being "legitimate" for establishing citizenship and ID.)

 

[Wally12]

An update to this...

Today they went to the Dept of Vital Statistics to see if they could find any birth records. All they could find was a copy of the delayed certificate she already had, and they gave her a birth affidavit to be filled out by her older sister. Tomorrow they are taking all of the paperwork to the regional passport agency in Dallas to see if they can get it expedited, or at least tell her if she has the necessary paperwork so she can decide if she wants to pay the remaining balance on the trip or just not go. I have no idea how the govt determined the birth certificate to be invalid, but they claimed the year was wrong. Ok, so if you know the year is wrong then there must be some paperwork on your end proving this, no?