What Type of Birth Certificate Do You Need for a Passport?

For a U.S. passport, you need a certified long-form birth certificate issued by the city, county, or state vital records office where you were born. If you’re wondering what kind of birth certificate you need for a passport, the short answer is one that shows six specific things: your full name at birth, your date and place of birth, your parent or parents’ full names, the registrar’s signature, the issuing office’s official seal or stamp, and a filing date within one year of your birth.¹

All six elements are required. A certificate missing even one, such as the registrar’s seal, will be rejected. If the certificate was filed more than a year after your birth, it counts as a delayed certificate and faces extra scrutiny.

Documents That Won’t Be Accepted

Several documents look official but don’t meet the standard. Hospital souvenir certificates, the decorative ones handed to parents in the delivery room, are not government records. Short-form or abstract certificates, which many states issue as a condensed version, usually leave off at least one of the six required elements.²

Photocopies and notarized copies aren’t accepted as your citizenship evidence either. You have to submit the original certified document or a certified copy carrying the official seal or stamp. Digital or mobile birth certificates don’t qualify. Only a physical paper record will do.

You will still need to include a plain photocopy of your certified birth certificate alongside the original when you apply, but that photocopy is a supplement, not a substitute. The original is returned to you after processing.³

Puerto Rico Birth Certificates

Puerto Rico invalidated all birth certificates issued before July 1, 2010 as part of an effort to combat identity theft and passport fraud. The State Department will not accept a pre-July 2010 Puerto Rican birth certificate as primary citizenship evidence.⁴

If yours predates that cutoff, order a new one from the Puerto Rico Demographic Registry before applying. This catches applicants off guard, particularly those who used an older certificate for a previous passport without any trouble.

If Your Name Differs from the One on Your Birth Certificate

Your passport is issued in the name on your application. When that name doesn’t match your birth certificate, you have to bridge the gap with paperwork. How much depends on whether the difference is minor or significant.

Minor Differences

Certain variations are treated as immaterial, and you generally just need a government-issued ID showing the name you want on the passport. That includes spelling changes that don’t alter pronunciation (“Ann” to “Anne”), adding a middle name, reordering given names, or using initials in place of full names.⁵

Significant Differences

Anything beyond those minor variations is a material name change and requires formal documentation submitted alongside your birth certificate:

A marriage certificate if the change resulted from marriage
A court order or decree for a legal name change, or a divorce decree
A Certificate of Naturalization if the name change happened during naturalization
State law documentation if the change happened by operation of law

An amended birth certificate alone generally isn’t enough to document a material change unless it shows that a court order was used to update the record.⁵

If You Don’t Have an Acceptable Birth Certificate

Not everyone can produce a certificate that hits all six elements. Older records may have been lost, destroyed, or never filed. The State Department has a process for these cases, but it takes more paperwork.

Delayed Birth Certificates

A certificate filed more than a year after birth can still be accepted, but only if it lists the records or documents used to create it and includes either the birth attendant’s signature or an affidavit signed by the parents. If those pieces are missing, you’ll need to supplement with secondary evidence.¹

No Record on File

If no birth certificate exists at all, start by requesting a Letter of No Record from the vital records office in your state of birth. The letter must be issued by the state, include your name and date of birth, list the years searched, and state explicitly that no certificate is on file.²

Then gather early-life records that corroborate a U.S. birth. Acceptable secondary evidence includes hospital birth records, baptismal certificates, medical and school records, and similar documents created within roughly the first five years of life. Affidavits from people with personal knowledge of the facts of your birth are also allowed, and you may need to include a completed Form DS-10 (Birth Affidavit).¹

If You Were Born Outside the United States

A U.S. state birth certificate isn’t available to citizens born abroad, and it isn’t what the State Department expects from them. If you were born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent, the primary document is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA). Without one, you’ll need to submit your foreign birth certificate showing your parents, evidence of your parent’s U.S. citizenship, your parents’ marriage certificate if they were married, and a statement from your parents about when and where they lived in the United States and abroad before your birth. Foreign-language documents require a professional English translation with a notarized letter certifying accuracy.²

Naturalized citizens submit an original Certificate of Naturalization in place of a birth certificate.¹ Children adopted internationally who acquired citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act should submit a Certificate of Citizenship from USCIS if one has been issued; otherwise the applying parent has to provide the full and final adoption decree, proof of the child’s admission as a lawful permanent resident, evidence of the parent’s U.S. citizenship, and evidence that the child lives in the parent’s legal and physical custody.⁶

Fixing Errors Before You Apply

If your certificate has a misspelling, wrong date, or other factual error, correct it before applying. A passport issued from a flawed birth certificate creates problems that compound over time.

Contact the vital records office in your state of birth in writing, explain what’s wrong, and describe the correct information. You’ll typically need identification and supporting documents that establish the correct facts. Fees and processing times vary by state; expect at least several weeks, and some states charge around $20 for a correction to a record more than a year old. Once the correction is on file, order a fresh certified copy for your application.

How to Order a Certified Copy

Order from the vital records office in the city, county, or state where you were born. Most offices accept requests online, by mail, or in person. You’ll need to provide your full name at birth, date and place of birth, and your parents’ full names.

Fees vary by jurisdiction, roughly $10 to $30 or more for a standard certified copy. Many states offer expedited processing for an added fee, cutting turnaround from several weeks down to about five to seven business days. When you order, ask specifically for the long-form or full-form certificate. That’s the version with everything the State Department requires.

Submitting the Birth Certificate with Your Application

Submit the original certified birth certificate along with a clear, single-sided photocopy on standard 8.5-by-11-inch white paper. Include a photocopy of the front and back of your photo ID as well.²

If you apply in person at a passport acceptance facility, bring both the original and the photocopy. If you’re mailing a renewal on Form DS-82, use USPS with trackable delivery. UPS, FedEx, and DHL don’t deliver to P.O. boxes, and the mailing address is one.⁷

Your original certificate is returned, but separately from the passport itself. The State Department sends the new passport by trackable delivery and mails your citizenship evidence back by First Class Mail, arriving up to four weeks later. If four weeks pass and nothing has arrived, call 1-877-487-2778.⁸

Make your own photocopy of the certified certificate before mailing the original. The weeks between surrendering the document and getting it back are exactly when things occasionally go missing, and having a copy on hand saves you from starting over.

1
eCFR. 22 CFR Part 51 Subpart C – Evidence of U.S. Citizenship or Nationality
2
U.S. Department of State. Get Citizenship Evidence for a U.S. Passport
3
U.S. Department of State. Apply for Your Adult Passport
4
U.S. Department of State. New Requirements for Passport Applicants with Puerto Rican Birth Certificates
5
Department of State. Name Usage and Name Changes
6
U.S. Department of State. Obtaining U.S. Citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act
7
U.S. Department of State. Renew Your Passport by Mail
8
U.S. Department of State. After You Get Your New Passport