Getting a Certified Birth Certificate in NYC

scott_clark said:

Go to the NYC Health Dept--Dept of Vital Records. 125 Worth St. Usually same day production or at least it used to be.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/vr-order-other.shtml

mjh said:

Yes, I did this for myself and later for my son. Saved us time and aggravation for a few extra $$.

GGartrell said:

scott_clark said:

Go to the NYC Health Dept--Dept of Vital Records. 125 Worth St. Usually same day production or at least it used to be.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/vr-order-other.shtml

I've had to go here twice. Quick and painless.

HarleyQuinn said:

GGartrell said:

scott_clark said:

Go to the NYC Health Dept--Dept of Vital Records. 125 Worth St. Usually same day production or at least it used to be.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/vr-order-other.shtml

I've had to go here twice. Quick and painless.

Me too !!

@PeggyC And this is the place you want to go

Chalmers1 said:

I got my Brooklyn birth certificate in January by making an online request using this link (which I think is slightly different than Scott's link above). http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/vr.shtml

I think I received it in a few days, not weeks.

mjh said:

HarleyQuinn said:

GGartrell said:

scott_clark said:

Go to the NYC Health Dept--Dept of Vital Records. 125 Worth St. Usually same day production or at least it used to be.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/vr-order-other.shtml

I've had to go here twice. Quick and painless.

Me too !!

@PeggyC And this is the place you want to go

But she lives in Connecticut!

PeggyC said:

Strange... I visited all kinds of official government sites (Tom Reingold, I know Brooklyn is part of NYC... I lived there for more than 10 years!) and all of them had wait periods of several weeks. I will check the links you provided, although they look VERY familiar.

PeggyC said:

Yep, I think I've got it now! Thank you so much for the help. Another friend recommended them, too, and that's the way we will go. YAY! Another problem solved. Phew.

mammabear said:

PeggyC said:

Yep, I think I've got it now! Thank you so much for the help. Another friend recommended them, too, and that's the way we will go. YAY! Another problem solved. Phew.

Are you sure you are getting a certified copy?? For driver's license, passport, etc, it needs the raised seal.

mammabear said:

PeggyC said:

Yep, I think I've got it now! Thank you so much for the help. Another friend recommended them, too, and that's the way we will go. YAY! Another problem solved. Phew.

Are you sure you are getting a certified copy?? For driver's license, passport, etc, it needs the raised seal.

A miracle occurred yesterday.

Since our move a little over a week ago, we have been going through boxes like maniacs. Mr. PeggyC went to look at some of the boxes of his wine books for some study materials, and he opened a box at random. In the box he found a book on French wine he thought might be good to read.

He removed a bookmark that was in the book, and ... it was his birth certificate!!!!!

Wow! Talk about serendipity! So glad he found it and you don't have to hassle getting one now!

Wow! That was one valuable bookmark. Glad the problem is solved. But I think you have the right to needle him about this on occasion.

Vital Check is the official on-line source for the City of New York birth certificates. Definitely the site to use.

Joan, if you read back, you will see that was the first thing we tried.

But because he goes by "James" rather than "Jaime" in the vast majority of his identifying documents, Vital Check would not (or could not) process a new birth certificate, because the original was made out in the name Jaime. (Although, and this cracks me up, they misspelled Jaime on his birth certificate, so his "real" name is apparently Jamie. You can't make this stuff up.) We would have had to apply for a new one by mail, which we have been trying to do, but for some reason the application we asked for has not arrived after three weeks. We were planning to just bite the bullet and drive down to Brooklyn, but we found the original before we got completely desperate.

At least we are now able to get his CT driver's license and a new passport. The passport and birth certificate will be in my keeping at all times, probably under lock and key.

EBennett said:
.. But I think you have the right to needle him about this on occasion.

Oh, hell, yeah.

Name errors on birth certificates and undocumented change of name or inconsistent use of the same name/spelling can cause real problems when applying for replacement official documents. There is usually some kind of notarized affidavit process in place to cover such a situation but it can be both time consuming and cumbersome. Finding the original document makes it so much easier. Now that you have the original with the official name at birth indicated, I wonder if it would make sense to order one or more raised seal copies in case the original original goes missing again.

Yes, that sounds like a very good idea, since we do have the original. I'll look into getting a few more copies. Thanks, Joan.

Turns out getting copies of this birth certificate will get us nowhere. Damn thing has a typo on it. His birth name was Jaime; the clerk typed in Jamie. Meanwhile, he didn't like "Jaime," (probably got teased at school for it) so at 8 years old he began calling himself James. That got into his school records, it's the name he used for Social Security, and all his other documentation for the past several decades, from employment records to IRS tax returns.

Anyway, we took the birth certificate and his old license and Social Security documents and a few pieces of mail with the new address to DMV, and they turned us away.

We are now in a position where he either has to change his name on absolutely everything to Jamie, or go to probate court and change his legal name from Jamie, which he has never used for anything, to James.

Off to probate court we go tomorrow. Will we get what we need before his license expires at the end of this month? God only knows. And what will we do if he doesn't? I shudder to think.

I'm so sick of this whole saga I could spit.

And it's so strange to me that no one made any fuss about this until now. I'm guessing that since 9-11, national security has been tightened to such an extent that any little discrepancy is now a red flag. Oddly, the discrepancy in his documentation is not small at all... but no one cared before. Unbelievable.