Obtaining Passport for a US Citizen Child - Birth Certificate

[LBeachey 45]

I am beginning the process of getting my daughter's passport. She was born in the US and therefore is a US citizen.

Her Birth Certificate should be sufficient to establish both her US citizenship and since it lists my wife and I, it will serve as establishment of parentage.

The instructions say that it needs to be an original certified copy.

My question is will they keep it or do we just need to present it when applying? Or in other words do I need to get another copy since we only have the one copy. Anyone's experience here is appreciated.

[PuraVidaAmor 1]

I am beginning the process of getting my daughter's passport. She was born in the US and therefore is a US citizen.

Her Birth Certificate should be sufficient to establish both her US citizenship and since it lists my wife and I, it will serve as establishment of parentage.

The instructions say that it needs to be an original certified copy.

My question is will they keep it or do we just need to present it when applying? Or in other words do I need to get another copy since we only have the one copy. Anyone's experience here is appreciated.

Hello, we just applied for a child's passport here. yes, they need the original and only use it until the passport is issued. They will return it. In fact, it is practice to return the passport and birth certificate back in separate envelopes. I always assumed, maybe read it somewhere, that this process was to ensure that if 1 envelope was lost, the other document was still available to have for citizen documentation.

Good luck!

[CowBoE 429]

I am beginning the process of getting my daughter's passport. She was born in the US and therefore is a US citizen.

Her Birth Certificate should be sufficient to establish both her US citizenship and since it lists my wife and I, it will serve as establishment of parentage.

The instructions say that it needs to be an original certified copy.

My question is will they keep it or do we just need to present it when applying? Or in other words do I need to get another copy since we only have the one copy. Anyone's experience here is appreciated.

They say they will return it, and in our case, they have returned it,

but these things can always get lost.

That said, I initially got 10 birth certificates for each of my children after they were born

but over time, they all got somehow used up (perhaps original certificate was turned in

instead giving schools, and other place when a copy was sufficient)

and we were down to one final copy that was getting worn out,

so I purchased 3 more copies each (via online).

Not cheap though...I think I paid $15 per certificate, plus $20 express shipping

as they offered no other shipping method.

So I paid $65 x 2 = $130.