How to AUTHENTICATE your Certificate of Live Birth or Naturalization Certificate

Order a certified copy of your CoLB or, follow these instructions if you were naturalized.
MUST HAVE ORIGINAL NATURALIZATION CERTIFICATE. THE U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES (USCIS) can copy the document and certify it as a true copy.

SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT HERE TO GET CERTIFIED TRUE COPY HERE:

https://my.uscis.gov/appointment

If your mother and/or father was issued a certificate of live birth and/or a birth certificate after you were born, take the original(s), color-scan THE FRONT SIDE (and back if it has a number on it) onto your computer, and KEEP the original(s) in a safe place. You will never send out these original certificates.

Order a CERTIFIED COPY of your CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH (Long Form), NOT THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE,

Some states have them at the county where you were born, other states keep them at the State Vital records office/unit/agency, or state’s center for health statistics.

I ordered mine from VitalChek.com. Its website will say “birth certificate” but you have the option of getting the CoLB. The reason your requesting, that you tell VitalChek, will determine which one they’ll send you.

If you are currently domiciled in, or INHABITING the state you were born in, I heard you might be able to get a certified copy of your CoLB from a court in the birth county, or from the vital records agency of your birth state itself. DO YOUR RESEARCH FOR YOUR BIRTH STATE; OBTAINING THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT BE DIFFICULT. I SUGGESTED VITALCHEK BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE. T’was $48 for 1 copy through VitalChek; expensive but worth it in my opinion. Order 2-3 copies if you have money to blow, keep in mind you’ll have future mailing expenses shortly after you receive it.

Verification of your identity may be requested. If you get it locally, research/call to ask what the acceptable forms of identification are. Just give them what they want. There is a page on VitalChek that specifies their acceptable forms for identification.

This is a very small step. Put in your zip. Don’t use colons in your name. Don’t sign with UCC 1-308. Don’t put C/O next to your “address,” DON’T raise any red flags.

When/if they ask you for the reason you are ordering your “Birth Certificate”, tell them authentication/apostille, or dual citizenship (the latter worked for me). Whatever reason you give them make sure that you get the LONG FORM (aka CoLB). If you use VitalChek, make sure that on the next page it says “Long form” or “Birth Long.” If it does not say the word “Long” they’re going to send you the short form, which is the birth certificate.

The CoLB has all the vital info on it (state file no.) and is more powerful in my opinion.

Should take about 7-10 business days for it to arrive, depending on how far you live from the state you were born in.

If you get it from your county, then you want to get it Authenticated by the county’s superior court clerk or whatever option they have at the county level. AUTHENTICATE FOR A NON-HAGUE COUNTRY.

Regardless of whether or not you’re waiting for the CoLB to arrive in the mail, you should probably also begin collecting your social security cards. You can get up to 10 in your lifetime and 3 per year. Go to your local social security office, fill out the ss-5 form for replacement. Don’t raise any red flags. Just say you’re a U.S. citizen. Don’t put colons, C/O, or UCC 1-308.

MOST PEOPLE GOING DOWN THIS ROAD WERE BORN IN the USA, AND ARE DEALING WITH CoLB’s. IF YOU WERE NATURALIZED HERE, obtain a CERTIFIED TRUE COPY of your naturalization certificate, and authenticate at the FEDERAL LEVEL ONLY (skip state authentication).

They shouldn’t give you trouble unless you raise red flags. If they do not cooperate, contact the proper authorities.

AT THIS POINT, YOU SHOULD HAVE ATLEAST 1 CERTIFIED COPY OF YOUR CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH IN YOUR POSSESSION

SIDE NOTE (NOT PROCEDURAL):
Examine the similarities and differences between the CoLB issued to your mother/father shortly after you were born, and the certified copy of your CoLB that you just got.

Your certified copy should have the full state file No. on it. The original one issued to my mother and father did not have the full file number, just the first 3 digits. Only the certified copy (in my case) says “INFORMANT” next to my mother’s signature.

In my case, the certified copy has the STATE REGISTRAR’S SIGNATURE, saying

“I CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF THE ORIGINAL CERTIFICATE ON FILE OR THE VITAL RECORDS FACTS ON FILE IN THE OREGON CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS.”

THE ORIGINAL (issued to my mother and father a few weeks after I was born) is signed by the COUNTY Registrar, and says:

“THIS IS A TRUE AND EXACT REPRODUCTION OF THE DOCUMENT OFFICIALLY REGISTERED AT THE OFFICE OF THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY REGISTRAR.”

Color-Scan the front (and back if it includes any numbers) of the Certified Copy of the CoLB (or naturalization certificate) onto your computer.

GOOGLE: Birth State name secretary of state authentications
Find out the authentications office mailing location/address and how to properly spell it.

T’will likely be handled by the department that does apostilles.

Look for authentication service fee, & forms of acceptable payments (money orders, checks, usually acceptable)

Also look to see whether or not they have a form for you to fill out to send with your certificate of live birth to be authenticated.

GOOGLE: updated list of countries that are, and are not MEMBERS OF THE HAGUE CONVENTION.

YOU WANT AUTHENTICATION FOR A NON-HAGUE MEMBER COUNTRY. I USED TAIWAN. I heard Indonesia is also NON-HAGUE, and is therefore good FOR AUTHENTICATION. LOOK AT AN UPDATED LIST BEFORE YOU PRINT ANYTHING OUT.

AGAIN, pick a country NOT on this list.

https://www.gsccca.org/notary-and-apostilles/apostilles/hague-apostille-country-list

YOU DO NOT WANT AN APOSTILLE, THEY ARE FOR HAGUE MEMBER COUNTRIES.

If you live in your birth state, and close to a Full-Service Secretary of State, go there in-person with your certified copy of your CoLB, form(s) they request to be filled out prior to your arrival at the SoS office (if applicable), and a payment form (checks & money orders usually acceptable; find out the cost by calling them or going online) and ask for the index department and specify that you want to authenticate your Birth Certificate.

They might give you a form to fill out. Basic info, common sense. Again, do not raise red flags, as far as they know, you don’t know the difference between the CoLB and birth certificate. Put A NON-HAGUE country for the country your document is being authenticated for.

If you choose to mail, check to see whether or not your state provides you with a form to fill out. You are getting 1 document authenticated. Regardless of whether or not they provide a form for you to fill out, draft a cover letter. Here is the one I used. Also available as a template in this folder as a file titled “1-BIRTHSTATESoSCOVERLETTER.docx”:

John-Henry Doe
1234 North Any Street, Apt. xx
Any Town, Any State xxxxx

(xxx) xxx-xxxx
[email protected]

January 20th, 2018

Oregon Secretary of State
Corporate Division, Public Service Building
255 Capitol St. NE, Ste. 151
Salem, OR 97310-1327

Birth Certificate Authentication Cover Letter
Hello,

Enclosed in this envelope is a certified copy of my certificate of live birth, ordered from the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division through VitalChek. The receipt I have says it’s from The state of Oregon, Department of Human Services – Center for Health Statistics.

I’ve also included a $10 money order, payable to the State of Oregon, and a return self-addressed stamped envelope.

Please authenticate the certificate of live birth for Taiwan, and return with the money order stub.

Number of documents 1 X $10.00 = $10.00

Sincerely,

John Henry Doe

If you don’t authenticate in-person, determine your mode of mailing. You can do registered or certified mail. It really doesn’t matter with who its mailed; I personally went with private carrier UPS. I like their cardboard legal envelopes. I specified that I need a pre-paid return envelope so they folded up the empty self-addressed return envelope and put it in the envelope going to my birth state Secretary of State

List of items inside envelope given to UPS worker:

1. Certified copy of Certificate of Live Birth (actual piece of paper you just got from vitalchek, or county/court)
2. Authentication service fee (I used a Money order, was $10.)
3. Authentication request Cover letter
4. (OPTIONAL) if they have a form for you to fill out, include it; however, you should be fine with the cover letter you drafted.
5. Return envelope addressed FROM BIRTH STATE SoS, to YOUR ADDRESS (or UPS store if that’s what you prefer). UPS should do this for you. Just pay for the return envelope & mailing service.

You should get tracking numbers regardless of which mode of mailing you choose.

Some states are adopting “uniform international apostille standards,” meaning that REGARDLESS of whether you requested an APOSTILLE or AUTHENTICATION, the certificate stapled/annexed to your certified copy of CoLB, LOOKS THE SAME. Though it might say “apostille” at the top, IT IS AN AUTHENTICATION AS LONG AS YOU REQUESTED AUTHENTICATION FOR A NON-HAGUE MEMBER COUNTRY.

AT THIS POINT, YOUR CoLB HAS BEEN AUTHENTICATED AT THE STATE LEVEL.

Color-scan the front onto your computer
Now it’s time to authenticate at the FEDERAL level. You’re going to do the same thing, except, you MUST fill out the DS-4194. HERE IS A SCREENSHOT OF AN EXAMPLE OF THE DS-4194 FILLED OUT:

DS-4194 template also available in this folder titled “2-TEMPLATE-DS-4194.PDF”

I’m not completely sure whether or not a DS-4194 is required to authenticate a Certified True Copy of your naturalization certificate, but I’m almost positive you still need to fill this out. If I were doing this, I would select INS papers for document type. RESEARCH OR CALL THEM TO MAKE SURE.

Get a fresh pdf from google. Fill it out and print it.

NEXT:
GOOGLE: US department of state authentications
Determine authentication service fee and acceptable payment methods.
I used a POSTAL Money Order. (t’was $8.00 when I did it, ‘tis probably still the same)
I also included a cover letter I drafted, also available as a template in the file titled “3-USDoSCOVERLETTER.docx” Here it is:

DATE: February 3rd, 2018

FROM: John-Henry Doe
123 North Any Street Apt. 1A
Any Town, Any State xxxxx-xxxx

             [email protected]
             cell: (xxx) xxx-xxxx

TO: Office of Authentications
U.S. Department of State
CA/PPT/S/TO/AUT
44132 Mercure CIR PO BOX
1206 Sterling, VA 20166-1206

REQUEST FOR AUTHENTICATIONS SERVICE COVER LETTER

Greetings,

Please authenticate for Taiwan and return with the 2 plastic cover sheets and cardboard piece to keep the papers safe. I have included the DS-4194 form and the payment form of an $8.00 U.S. Postal money order made payable to the U.S. Department of State. The return delivery method is via a self-addressed UPS envelope and the tracking number is listed on the DS-4194 form. Thank you!

Sincerely,

John Henry Doe

AGAIN, DO NOT RAISE ANY RED FLAGS. AUTHENTICATE FOR THE SAME COUNTRY YOU REQUESTED WHEN YOU AUTHENTICATED AT THE STATE (and county, if applicable) LEVEL.

NOTICE THE WAY THAT THE U.S. DoS ADDRESS IS SPELLED OUT. DO RESEARCH ON THEIR WEBSITE TO VERIFY THE SAME ADDRESS, AND MAKE SURE THE MAIL SERVICE CARRIER WORKER WRITES IT THE SAME WAY TO MAKE THE PROCESS GO FASTER. (UPS WORKER MESSED THIS ONE UP FOR ME). I DON’T THINK YOU CAN USE FEDEX FOR DoS Authentication.

List of items in envelope I gave to UPS worker for mailing:

1. Certified copy of CoLB (with stapled/annexed state authentication certificate)
2. Determined payment method. I used POSTAL money order (you can get these from the Post Office or USPS, BUT THEY CHARGE A LITTLE EXTRA) You can also pay with a card over the phone.
3. drafted cover letter
4. filled out DS-4194
5. Return envelope

When you get your packet from the department of state, it will be annexed with a brass rivet, to your state-authentication certificate, which is ANNEXED/ATTACHED/STAPLED to your (county certificate, if applicable, and the) certified copy of your certificate of live birth.

If you were naturalized, you will only have the Authentication certificate annexed to the Certified True Copy of your naturalization certificate. The authentication certificate will also bear the great seal of the United States of America, and the U.S. secretary of state’s signature.

AT THIS POINT, YOU HAVE AUTHENTICATED YOUR CoLB (OR NATURALIZATION CERT.) AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL.

Color-scan it onto your computer

DO NOT REMOVE, STAIN, OR MARK THE CERTIFICATES. PLACE PACKET IN PROTECTIVE COVER SHEETS

“deed, n 3. At common law, any written instrument that is signed, sealed and delivered and that conveys some interest in property” [Black’s Law Dictionary 7th Edition – p. 423].

“TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETINGS.”