CaptnKhaos

Hey everybody! I was hoping to get some advice, and I thought I'd turn here for help.

Short background: My father was born in London, moved to California, married a US girl, they procreated, and volia, I'm here today.

27 years later, I'm very interested in claiming my UK citizen birthright, but it doesn't seem like the embassy is as interested. My birth certificate was lost after one of the many moves my family made during my childhood. I ordered a new certified copy from the state that shows my mother signing it 2 days after my birth. And... thats not good enough. They want the certified copy from 27 years ago.

Hospitals don't keep records this long, I was never baptized, and all the bills are gone. The Original is locked up in Sacramento.

I was planning on calling that 1-900 Passport line on Monday, but I thought I'd turn to the internet for help first. I also saw there was somebody else on here with the same issue, but was able to work it out with baptismal records.

Thanks all!

JAJ

Here's what the Embassy website says about US birth certificates (a particular problem that does not happen in Britain):
http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/passpor...port-documents

British Nationality law requires that all United States birth certificates be issued within 3 months of the date of birth of the child. This is due to the fact that adoptive parents can ask for a birth certificate to be issued showing them as the biological parents of the adopted child. Since we are dealing with a question of nationality through descent we need to be sure that no adoption has taken place. If the birth certificate(s) supplied do not meet this requirement we will require additional documentation. This can be hospital records, medical bills, baptismal records, insurance bills or the hospital card with baby footprints; the provided documents must show the mother’s name.

The problem is that your birth certificate may not prove you are the natural child of the parents shown. And that's evidence needed to prove you are a British citizen.

Now if you cannot get any of the evidence above, then you need to be more creative. This could include:

- a letter from the California birth registry confirming that your birth certificate was not reissued pursuant to adoption; or
- a letter from a reputable attorney in California confirming that state law does not (and has not at any time since you were born) allowed birth certificates to be reissued upon adoption.

Otherwise, a DNA test?

CaptnKhaos

Hrmm, I may go with both option A and B. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of phone calls on Monday!

Ugh, I also had my friend, who was recently laid off and returned back to school do my countersigning. I got a little note that "Student" is not the same as professional. What a drag. They also spilled coffee on it, which actually makes me feel a bit better about it. At least somebody looked at it long enough to ruin it. =)

JAJ

A person may still be a "professional" (even if a student) as long as they have kept their state registration, eg as a nurse, CPA, etc, active.

Mummy in the foothills

Can you find anything else with your birth name that was from way back then?
I know when an adoption does occurs, it takes California a year to mail out a new birth certificate, and also 6 mths minimum to finalize the adoption so a child would be minimum 18mths old with a new birth certificate if adopted.
Do you have original vaccination records (yellow card with the state seal on the front) what are dated and signed for each shot with your name on thew front, that may be worth a try along with your new certified copy of the birth certificate. Does that even show when it was issued on it? I'm pretty sure the ones my kids have just have the date of registration.

JAJ

Also, if the hospital still exists, contact them to see if they have any records from that time?

meauxna

Didn't the other fellow dig up the newspaper announcement of his birth, as evidence?

CaptnKhaos

Apparently there is a whole "baby book" floating around somewhere. I'm sure it is full of evidence, but is packed away somewhere. Probably in storage. It will probably be easier to go to the Secretary of State and have it confirmed that the BC didn't change.

As for the hospital, I called them up prior to sending the first app in, and they told me that there was no way they had anything older than 20 years, let alone 27.

What really blows my mind is that next to my mother's signature is the date which is my DOB +2. Would the adoptive mother be able to change it with a past date attached?

Mummy in the foothills

I just checked out all my kids birth certificates. All issued in California. Original certified copies of birth certificates and re issues (I lost one for a while and ordered another copy) all have my signature on, Adoption birth certificates have my name typed in as I wasn't present at the birth to sign anything. But the date typed in is the actual date the birth was originally registered(I happen to have both bio and adopted kids here in CA)
If yours has your Mums actual signature on, it has to be good enough for them, try it and send it in, see what happens. I don't think they'll know the difference between an original and a re issue.