Caelen was born in the US and he's never been off American soil. He has an American birth certificate, a Social Security Card, health insurance, and he's sporting a Bernie Sanders button on his Ergo carrier like a local. Like many American babies, he's the first generation born here to two Green Card holders. Caelen is also allowed to become a dual Canadian citizen so as soon as we had his birth certificate and Social Security number we applied for a Canadian citizenship and passport. There are no consular services here so Joel had to take the application into the Canadian Embassy office in San Francisco to have his application witnessed and checked for accuracy and then sent to Canada. Low and behold, those applications were returned citing a lack of photo ID. Photo ID is something hospitals make for each baby born in an institution but for a baby born at home or a birth centre, there is no ID card given. This wasn't a problem for this application when we did it for Austen in Singapore. We don't really want to have Caelen traveling on a US passport as it separates our family but it seemed like the only way to get his Canadian passport would be to get the American one first. We had to apply in person so the clerk at the passport office could see and photograph Caelen. A few weeks later THAT application was returned with a letter stating there isn't sufficient evidence that he was born in the United States. They rejected both his birth certificate and Social Security card stating that he needed additional evidence due to the fact that he was a non institutional birth. [headdesk] They sent a list of additional pieces of evidence needed to support his citizenship claim. On the list were two items that are actually illegal for me to obtain or mail to them. Armed with a stack of visa bills, receipts, letters from Joel's employer and my midwife, we've sent off a parcel to the Department of State. Now we wait.
To be continued...
What were the illegal items?? I wonder if we're going to have to deal with this.
ReplyDelete1) The parent's Green Cards - you can't legally walk around without carrying it with you at all times unless you are under 18 so they can't expect you to send those.
Delete2) Insurance letters stating the baby's name, date of birth and location of birth -- I called Aetna and they said they can't legally send a document with that many identifying pieces of information due to identity theft
With a hospital birth you get a photo ID for the baby from the hospital. With a home birth you, your partner and baby register at Vital Statistics with a letter from the midwife who attended. The letter is enough for the birth certificate to be issued and then you can apply for a SSN with the birth certificate.
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