N-400: How long for a US baby's birth certificate and other papers?

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

Ok...I know this is a bit off-topic, and my baby is not born yet....(but soon to be)

But I would like to know:

How long does it take to get a US birth certificate after the baby is born?

Anything else I need to know about legal paperwork/documentation for the baby at the hospital?

I know they start the paperwork for the birth certificate, SSN, and other paperwork, at the hospital after the baby is born. But I would like to know how long it is going to take for all of it to be completed and received, especially more so that we are moving soon in the next few weeks in August...yikes....

As well, I am hoping to file my N-400 paperwork by mid-August. So do you think that I will get the baby's birth certificate and other documentation about the baby in time for me to file for such as expected by then? If not, how much longer do I have to wait and/or have to delay my applicaiton by?

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ant

P.S. I forgot to mention that I live in New York State, if that's any help here too.

Edited July 20, 2009 by AntandD

[lucyrich 20]

Contact the county clerk (or equivalent office) of the county where your baby will be born. Each county will have slightly different procedures and timelines, though the basics may be very similar. If you explain that you're in a hurry, they may be able to speed things up for you, or let you pick the certificate up instead of having it mailed, etc.

It took about two weeks for ours to be ready, but we were in no hurry and made no special effort to speed things up. And we were dealing with a completely different set of offices than you'll be dealing with.

My suggestion: the N-400 has no hard deadline, so just deal with it when you can deal with it. If you file before the baby is born, you don't need to include a birth certificate (you might want to bring the certificate to the interview, though). If the baby is born before you file, then for the first couple of weeks, you're going to be busier and more tired than you imagine, and you'll be glad that there's no real problem with letting the N-400 be delayed a few days or even weeks.

The only paperwork you need for the N-400 is the baby's birth certificate. No SSN, passport, or anything else (though you'll probably eventually want these things).

Of course, the birth certificate will be evidence that the baby is a US Citizen due to being born inside the US (per the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution). Depending on the laws of the alien parent's country, the baby may also be a citizen of that country and might be born a dual citizen. You may eventually want to register the baby's birth with the country of the alien parent's citizenship, so that the baby can get documentation of his/her dual citizenship, and can get a passport from the other country. Contact a consulate of that country for details on how to do this.

Congrats on both events!

[NickD 202]

Recall having to fill out the application after spending hours with my wife in the delivery room which is really a bad time to do that. I know my hospital has the applications, they gave those to me, with thoughts now, why we couldn't fill those out before hand. They cheat today with ultrasound, already know what to expect in terms of sex and even how many, can be more than one.

Feel you should be able to go to your hospital and get some copies, recall your license doctor has to sign it. Would be far better to type it. Can also check with your county court house to see if they have walk in service, maybe somebody you trust and walk that in the same day as the baby is born and double check it for errors. Also have them bring in a couple of bucks, nothing there is free so you can get a couple of extra copies. It's against our state law to make copies of either birth or marriage certificates, state wants their share and the USCIS certainly wants a copy of that.

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your quick and helpful replies!

Lucyrich-Good idea about contacting the county clerk in-person (lol..now if only I can find where that is, as it's a different town...will look soon...) and telling them that we're in somewhat of a hurry for the birth certificate. Likewise, we did the same thing for our marriage certificate in the town we got married in, and got that within 10 minutes after the ceremony, instead of it being mailed to us as we needed it in a hurry for (yup, you guessed it...immigration)...lol.."fresh off the press"....Not sure if they do the same thing for birth certificates, but we'll give it a try anyways. Worse case they say no, and we wait.

I agree, the N-400 has no deadline (unline the I-751), so yes, tecnically, I can wait. However, I do not feel comfortable not sending in the N-400 without a birth certificate, as I don't want to get an RFE or have any additional delays because of that. It's bad enough that I'm not sending in a tax return (I don't have any, as I'm not required to file such), but to not have a birth certificate...not good....

Oh yeah, I definitely understand about being more busy and tired after the baby is born, hence I'm trying to get as much of the paperwork done now, so that I don't have to worry about it later. As well, I don't mind a bit of a delay, so that would give me some time to adjust to life with a newborn. Nevertheless, I don't want to delay this any further...as I'm tired of dealing with the USCIS and want to "get this over with", and there are other things at stake too with me not getting citizenship soon (that's another story, won't elaborate here)....

Will get the SSN (which I was told was going to take up to 6 weeks here in NYS), passport (will probably wait until I get a US passport so will do both of our applications together) , and anything else (maybe an EDL too?) later on...but am not much in a hurry here, as like you said, for the N-400 it doesn't require such....

Meanwhile, yes, the baby having a US birth certificate is good enough and is important to get such as soon as possible, especially if other paperwork and/or documents require such as well. After all, without a birth certificate, it's like one never really exists....

As for the baby being a dual citizen of another country (in my case here it would be Canada), I will let them decide later on when they are older. From what I found out, in Canada, a child born abroad to a Canadian parent is allowed up to the age of 28 to decide such, so I will let our baby/child decide such for themselves when they are older and can understand that concept. Regardless, we'll still visit Canada and have them learn more about such, before they take on the rights and responsiblilties of being a citizen of that country. Meanwhile, they can travel with their US identification, so they should be ok for travel there.

Thanks for the congratulations in advance. I'll keep you and the rest of the VJ community updated about that.

In the meantime, it's back to waiting for real labour....ouch....

Contact the county clerk (or equivalent office) of the county where your baby will be born. Each county will have slightly different procedures and timelines, though the basics may be very similar. If you explain that you're in a hurry, they may be able to speed things up for you, or let you pick the certificate up instead of having it mailed, etc.

It took about two weeks for ours to be ready, but we were in no hurry and made no special effort to speed things up. And we were dealing with a completely different set of offices than you'll be dealing with.

My suggestion: the N-400 has no hard deadline, so just deal with it when you can deal with it. If you file before the baby is born, you don't need to include a birth certificate (you might want to bring the certificate to the interview, though). If the baby is born before you file, then for the first couple of weeks, you're going to be busier and more tired than you imagine, and you'll be glad that there's no real problem with letting the N-400 be delayed a few days or even weeks.

The only paperwork you need for the N-400 is the baby's birth certificate. No SSN, passport, or anything else (though you'll probably eventually want these things).

Of course, the birth certificate will be evidence that the baby is a US Citizen due to being born inside the US (per the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution). Depending on the laws of the alien parent's country, the baby may also be a citizen of that country and might be born a dual citizen. You may eventually want to register the baby's birth with the country of the alien parent's citizenship, so that the baby can get documentation of his/her dual citizenship, and can get a passport from the other country. Contact a consulate of that country for details on how to do this.

Congrats on both events!

NickD-I remember being told too, that at the hospital we (along with the medical staff) fill out the birth certificate application form there. From what I've seen of the form, it is somewhat overwhelming (about 10-20 pages long), but nevertheless, it has to be done. Lol...if I'm too unwell to do such, I'm sure someone there can help me fill those out. I agree, why can't we have those forms out beforehand? But then again, we can't, as the baby is not born yet and we don't have the information ahead of time (lol..if only we can see in the future...). I did though, fill out the hospital registration/admitance forms ahead of time...So at least I don't have to worry about them asking about medical insurance while I'm in labour (lol..who wants to be asked such then anyways?).

Yes, ultrasound technology has come a long way now in terms of prediction...Heck, they even have 3-D and 4-D ultrasounds now. But in the end, it is still a "surprise" as to how the baby will really be....So we'll wait and found out during birth..

Good idea too, about getting the copies at the hospital and to do a walk-in at the county clerk. Lol...maybe my husband can do that while I'm in recovery, as I'm sure he'll feel more useful that way instead of waiting around with me in the hospital. Will definitely double check on errors, as we don't want to get that wrong (lol..like my marriage certificate, whereby they forgot to put my middle name). And yes, depending on the cost and time, might want to consider getting extra copies of the birth certificate too, just in case.

By the way, does the USCIS require an original birth certificate to be sent in with the N-400, or will a photocopy suffice? Does the copy and/or original need to be notarized and/or certified too?

Recall having to fill out the application after spending hours with my wife in the delivery room which is really a bad time to do that. I know my hospital has the applications, they gave those to me, with thoughts now, why we couldn't fill those out before hand. They cheat today with ultrasound, already know what to expect in terms of sex and even how many, can be more than one.

Feel you should be able to go to your hospital and get some copies, recall your license doctor has to sign it. Would be far better to type it. Can also check with your county court house to see if they have walk in service, maybe somebody you trust and walk that in the same day as the baby is born and double check it for errors. Also have them bring in a couple of bucks, nothing there is free so you can get a couple of extra copies. It's against our state law to make copies of either birth or marriage certificates, state wants their share and the USCIS certainly wants a copy of that.

Ant

[lucyrich 20]

By the way, does the USCIS require an original birth certificate to be sent in with the N-400, or will a photocopy suffice? Does the copy and/or original need to be notarized and/or certified too?

When filing the N-400 with the USCIS, you can just send an ordinary photocopy, not notarized or certified in any way. That's true of just about any document you send to the USCIS in support of just about any petition. At your interview, you should bring a certified copy of the birth certificate (that's the "original" thing that the county government issues, with a raised seal showing that it's an actual copy of the true original birth record they have and will keep forever in their vault), so they can verify what it is that you made a photocopy of.

You WILL need to send an actual certified copy of the birth certificate, just the way you received it from the county, to the department of state offices when you apply for the baby's US passport. Likewise, after naturalization, when you apply for your own US passport, you'll need to send your original naturalization certificate.

When you get the baby's birth certificate, they'll probably give you the option to order as many copies as you want, but they'll probably charge for each copy. You might want to get more than one, so that you can take one travelling (or send it off to the passport office) without having to worry about losing your only copy.

[jsnearline 2]

I was able to obtain certified copies of my son's birth certificate one week after his birth. That said, it all depends on how quickly the hospital files the certificate with the county or state office that maintains them.

I don't remember the birth certificate application being that overwhelming. It was just one page.

[NickD 202]

Can't see any harm in your hospital giving you the form, ours has stacks of them and it's worthless without the doctors signature on it. But 10-20 pages? Ours was like a half a sheet long.

To find your county court house, just type in birth certificate, your city and state in google, that's how I found out where I had to go in Illinois to get copies of mine, LOL, know where to go to get those certificates for my kids, was a little older then. But your hospital should also know where they send them at your maternity ward, they do that everyday. My wife is a medical interpreter and helps many of her patients fill out those forms.

Wisconsin state prohibits making copies of marriage certificates, not sure about birth certificates, we also got married by a wonderful judge in the next county, and instantly got copies by going one flight downstairs. Really no such thing as a copy, they all look original, think I paid ten bucks for the first one, but each additional certificate was around five bucks, so we got 35 bucks worth.

DOS did lose my birth certificate, no big deal, but you sure worry about your USC certificate, that's around 400 bucks plus a very long wait. You can go to the DOS site at http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/forms_847.html and also fill that out except for the date until you are sure of it and get your photos made. Well, except for your baby, may want to wait until it's born first.

Good luck with all.