How important is having a translated birth certificate?

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guess88

Registered Users (C)
I never received one when I became a citizen by default as a minor, wondered if anyone knew how important it is.
 
You will need a translated birth certificate for applying for first US your passport if you were born abroad, your foreign birth certificate is not in English and don't have a certificate of citizenship in your name.
 
Do you have a US Passport? A birth certificate is required to obtain the first US passport if you don't have a certificate of citizenship.
 
Yes, but because I became a citizen by default (when both my parents did) and I never had to go through the process.
 
You would have needed your translated birth certificate + green card to prove that you aquired US citizenship when your parents naturalized (I am guessing this is the case since you don't state exactly how you became a citizen "by default") when your first passport was applied for. Do you remember it or can you ask your parents about it? If you now have a passport and have been able to renew it, you don't need to obtain a translated birth certificate now.
 
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Back then, mid 90's, if you were under 18 and your parents or one parent became a citizen, you did too just for being their child and didn't have to go through anything (assuming you were a resident which I was).

I don't know if I had one or not, I've seen the original and it was handwritten.
 
guess88 said:
Back then, mid 90's, if you were under 18 and your parents or one parent became a citizen, you did too just for being their child and didn't have to go through anything (assuming you were a resident which I was).
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You derived citizenship automatically as a child based on your parents citizenship and other necessary criteria. But you didn't obtain a US passport automatically -- you or your parents had to submit a translated birth certificate (along with the official non-English certificate) with the passport application.

If you need another translated birth certificate, it's easy to get one. Simply take your non-English birth certificate to a qualified company or individual who will create a certified translation.
 
I asked them, I never had to submit a birth certificate for translation, but they both did.

Because I changed my name legally in the courts when I got older, I don't want to translate my birth certificate, it could just create more confusion. Retroactively changing one's name on a birth certificate is something I'm not interested in doing as well.
 
guess88 said:
I asked them, I never had to submit a birth certificate for translation, but they both did.
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That means the passport authorities made a mistake by not asking for the English translation, or your birth certificate has enough English wording on it so the translation was unnecessary. For example, this Puerto Rican birth certificate has wording in both English and Spanish: http://columbianewsservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/birth-certificate.jpg

Because I changed my name legally in the courts when I got older, I don't want to translate my birth certificate, it could just create more confusion. Retroactively changing one's name on a birth certificate is something I'm not interested in doing as well.
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If you need a birth certificate when applying for something with a US government agency, it will have to be an English-translated birth certificate unless it has enough English wording like the example I linked above. A retroactively changed birth certificate is totally unnecessary; you'll use the same old birth certificate with your original name along with the name change court order.
 
There's no English on my birth certificate, it's entirely handwritten in Spanish. From what I've been told, it was never required to have the birth certificate translated to obtain citizenship via my parents, only the green card was necessary.
 
guess88 said:
There's no English on my birth certificate, it's entirely handwritten in Spanish. From what I've been told, it was never required to have the birth certificate translated to obtain citizenship via my parents, only the green card was necessary.
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It is required now. An English translation of yours wasn't requested at that time because the passport authorities made a mistake by not requesting it, or maybe the older rules didn't require it.

It's pointless to worry about this any more. If you need a translated birth certificate in the future, you can get one cheap and easy in the US if you have your original birth certificate. The translation does not have to be done by the country that issued the original certificate.
 
In the 80's, some Latin American countries made them completely handwritten, to the point someone might not believe it's real. They really have made it much harder now, it doesn't seem worth trying to immigrate to the US at this point.
 
So you're not really worried about getting a translated birth certificate, you're mainly worried about your original Spanish-language certificate because it doesn't look official enough? Is it really entirely handwritten including the headings and standard text? If yes, I can see why you would be concerned.

The embassy of your birth country might be able to get a modern one issued for you (in your original name). You probably won't need it more than once in a decade, or maybe never, but it can take weeks to be issued so if you're in a situation where you need it and you don't already have it, that could be problematic.
 
This is one of the strangest threads I've seen for a while. What the HECK are you talking about? Were you a USC born abroad? Were you a greencardholder who DERIVED citizenship? Or are you totally unclear about EVERYTHING?
 
Jackolantern said:
So you're not really worried about getting a translated birth certificate, you're mainly worried about your original Spanish-language certificate because it doesn't look official enough? Is it really entirely handwritten including the headings and standard text? If yes, I can see why you would be concerned.

The embassy of your birth country might be able to get a modern one issued for you (in your original name). You probably won't need it more than once in a decade, or maybe never, but it can take weeks to be issued so if you're in a situation where you need it and you don't already have it, that could be problematic.
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The headings are not handwritten, but everything else is. My concern is mainly if I were to get married in the Catholic church, I would probably need it. As for government identification purposes, I don't think I'd ever need it, except when having to renew my passport in my updated name and the possibility they may request it since I didn't have to send a copy in the past when I became a citizen or when I got my first passport later on.
 
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