Now that you’ve grown older, being an adult means processing your own papers without your mom being forced to do everything for you. This includes collecting all your legal documents to use as valid proof of your identity when applying for various government-issued IDs and papers. But this can be a grueling task for any person to face, especially when you realize that some important documents have gone missing. So if you fail to provide an acceptable birth certificate, then obtaining an affidavit of birth would be necessary. The affidavit will serve as an official substitute for the original birth record so that your application may be processed successfully.
An affidavit of birth is a legal statement that provides details surrounding the circumstances of a birth to prove one’s identity or citizenship in case a birth certificate is unavailable. Depending on the policies and practices in the given area, those who have requested for the affidavit may be asked to fill out a form, while other regions would simply hand-draft the affidavit with the necessary details.
People use a birth affidavit for a variety of reasons. For one, not all birth certificates may be used to confirm one’s identity or citizenship due to the lack of information presented in the document. In circumstances like these, you must have an affidavit of birth to establish your identity.
If you do have any concerns with your birth certificate or further questions regarding the affidavit, then you may raise your inquiries through state departments and other government officers that are responsible for handling various legal affairs, such as citizenship and immigration matters.
When applying for a job, a passport, a visa, or a green card, you’d be asked to verify your birth information through various documents. But if you happen to have lost your birth record, or found out that it is incomplete, then you can use an affidavit of birth to justify this information.
There are cases where an individual’s original birth record does not match the rest of their personal documents. There are also instances where some vital information about the infant may not have been recorded during the time it was issued. Say for example, if the document does not contain your full name, or if it indicates that it has been taken out of the original record or that it is simply “an excerpt,” then the birth certificate may be deemed as insufficient, and would not be accepted by any agency.
A missing entry in the document may cause numerous problems in the long run, especially when proving one’s identity. Various studies have proven that this has become an increasing problem over the years, everything from an infant’s ethnicity to one’s maternal and/or paternal background.
It’s impossible to correct these mistakes without undergoing a lengthy legal process that can cause a significant amount of time and money to correct. But if you have the right documents to support your claims, then an affidavit of birth may be used as a valid document.
You must be thinking, how do people manage to lose something as significant as a birth certificate?
Surprisingly, people tend to lose important documents all the time. Some individuals may have lost their birth record due to a house fire, a flood, a tornado, or any natural calamities that might have taken away some of their personal belongings. Since a birth certificate is basically a piece of paper that could easily be misplaced even when kept in a folder or envelope, it’s likely that the person may have lost the record while decluttering their stuff or while moving from different houses over the years.
So if you need to submit the original copy of the record but can’t seem to locate it at the moment, than an affidavit of birth may be used as an alternative.
There are some agencies that request clients or customers to submit more than a single document as part of their requirements. For instance, given that a passport serves as a government-issued ID, an applicant should be able to submit a number of valid IDs documents as evidence of their identity. Unfortunately, there are some people that possess birth certificates that do not comply to government standards. So if you fail to present the necessary documents to cover the said requirements, then you can opt for a birth affidavit for additional proof instead. But be sure to verify with the agency whether the document may be accepted before you have one issued. Otherwise, you might end up wasting a good amount of time on something that won’t be accepted.
