# Old NSO Municipality generated and new PSA Government birth certificates



## amcan13 (Sep 28, 2021)

I don't know if it applies here but when I was talking with my lawyer about our adoption he mentioned that we needed things like my wife's Philippine birth certificate and our marriage registration. We had the old NSO copies already. He said that some officials were rejecting the paperwork because the NSO was replaced by the PSA and they wanted to see ones from PSA only. We are going to request new copies to be safe.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

amcan13 said:


> I don't know if it applies here but when I was talking with my lawyer about our adoption he mentioned that we needed things like my wife's Philippine birth certificate and our marriage registration. We had the old NSO copies already. He said that some officials were rejecting the paperwork because the NSO was replaced by the PSA and they wanted to see ones from PSA only. We are going to request new copies to be safe.


It's a process and yes the PSA (recognized government certificate on file) replaced the locally generated birth certificate NSO from the Municipality.

The PSA is recognized by the government and on file but the NSO birth certificates aren't, they are only obtained locally from your Municipality.

My legally adopted kids have these NSO birth certificates not recognized by the government any longer so in order to change their names to mine, even though the old NSO birth certificates were changed to my name, I'd have to hire a lawyer and get another Judgment to change their names because the Judge that signed the adoption in 1993 is no longer living Lol..., This would cost me thousands and thousands of pesos, so the only hope my adopted kids have in order to get any ID is to get a Philippine National ID with I think their original names before the adoption.

What a boom business for lawyers because you have to pay to get this done, it takes months, something like 10 months and in my case done Manila.

Hopefully someone else can shed more light, the good news like everything here is money fixes everything.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

You'd take the old birth certificate NSO, to the Municipality that your wife was born in and ask for an endorsement or for the newer PSA birth certificate.

The NSO birth certificate is only obtained by the Municipality that the citizen was born in, but the PSA can be obtained from any location.

Try to remember all this in the adoption and to verify that your children's names are changed.

Another possible hicku-up would be that the wife's or later on the children's name misspelled or wrong middle name ect...(very common issue) stand by for a long process with the lawyer and a Judge all paid by you.


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## amcan13 (Sep 28, 2021)

The PSA has a website where you order the documents and they mail them to your house. Cost looks to be 330 peso per document. I will order ours and see how it goes. The payment options are limited.


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## amcan13 (Sep 28, 2021)

I have ordered my wifes birth certificate and our marriage certificate from the psa government website. I am not sure I can post the link.
The site was very easy to use. It tells you before you order what information you need and who can order documents. It allows for someone to order for another person but requires some evidence from the document owner.
They deliver internationally or in the Philippines. the estimated delivery date is about 8 days. We will see how that works out.
You order all documents at.once them submit for payment. Not a lot of payment options, I ended up using a credit card since I didn't want to deal with any banks. I had a problem with one card and it was declined. I have a feeling the charge from the Philippines looks suspicious. My second card declined also but it setup to allow me to pre-approve the charge and resubmit. so my order was accepted.
We are just waiting for our home delivery. As always I expect the delivery person will have to call so make sure your cel number is current. I still don't know how anything get delivered without street names or house numbers. PSA Link


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

amcan13 said:


> I have ordered my wifes birth certificate and our marriage certificate from the psa government website. I am not sure I can post the link.
> The site was very easy to use. It tells you before you order what information you need and who can order documents. It allows for someone to order for another person but requires some evidence from the document owner.
> They deliver internationally or in the Philippines. the estimated delivery date is about 8 days. We will see how that works out.
> You order all documents at.once them submit for payment. Not a lot of payment options, I ended up using a credit card since I didn't want to deal with any banks. I had a problem with one card and it was declined. I have a feeling the charge from the Philippines looks suspicious. My second card declined also but it setup to allow me to pre-approve the charge and resubmit. so my order was accepted.
> We are just waiting for our home delivery. As always I expect the delivery person will have to call so make sure your cel number is current. I still don't know how anything get delivered without street names or house numbers.


There will never be any problems with posting government links. I went ahead and updated your post with the link.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

We have ordered certificates from the UK to be delivered to the UK with no problems. I suspect it's much more complicated in the Philippines.


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## amcan13 (Sep 28, 2021)

The new documents arrived via LBC to our house today. A bit over the 8 days but really good for the existing conditions.
So it works as advertised. 
The documents look like the old ones just a different shade of yellow. Of course they have the official seals and all.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

amcan13 said:


> I don't know if it applies here but when I was talking with my lawyer about our adoption he mentioned that we needed things like my wife's Philippine birth certificate and our marriage registration. We had the old NSO copies already. He said that some officials were rejecting the paperwork because the NSO was replaced by the PSA and they wanted to see ones from PSA only. We are going to request new copies to be safe.


Technically, NSO documents are completely valid and never expire. Same with PSA documents. The reason that government agencies and employers are requiring PSA copies is only because they are newly printed. Not because they thing the NSO copies are invalid or expired. The thinking is, more chance for older wrinkled and worn NSO copies to be tampered with. Unfortunately, Filipinos have a rep for tampering and counterfeiting, so the agencies and employers are just playing it safe.

Good to know that the online system worked and that you got the new ones quickly. I'm planning to order 5 copies each of everything before we move to the U.S. Four BCs and marriage docs. I guess I will be looking at a good chunk of pesos, but better to get them here.

Here is an article about certificates. Color has nothing to do with anything.









Do PSA Birth Certificates Expire? Guide to Birth Certificate Validity - FilipiKnow


PSA Birth Certificates do not expire. They have lifetime validity as stipulated in Republic Act No. 11909Senate of the Philippines. (2022). Permanent Validity




filipiknow.net


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

M.C.A. said:


> It's a process and yes the PSA (recognized government certificate on file) replaced the locally generated birth certificate NSO from the Municipality.
> 
> The PSA is recognized by the government and on file but the NSO birth certificates aren't, they are only obtained locally from your Municipality.
> 
> ...





M.C.A. said:


> You'd take the old birth certificate NSO, to the Municipality that your wife was born in and ask for an endorsement or for the newer PSA birth certificate.
> 
> The NSO birth certificate is only obtained by the Municipality that the citizen was born in, but the PSA can be obtained from any location.
> 
> ...


I think you got something wrong. NSO was never a local office. National Statistics Office was merged in with other national statistic offices to become PSA. Here is something about it on the Tokyo PH Embassy website:






Announcement: Replacement of the NSO by the PSA | Philippine Embassy – Tokyo, Japan


Republic Act No. 10625 (Philippine Statistical Act of 2013) was signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III on 12 September 2013. The law’s […]




tokyo.philembassy.net





I'm confused. You said your kids have NSO birth certificates with their name corrected to your name. These do not expire (see my other post) and NSO data didn't just get thrown away. PSA took over the NSO functions and your corrected data would be at PSA, available for printout with the PSA stamp.

Are you sure you have the NSO birth certificates? Maybe you only have the local municipal BC.

In 2014, NSO was still around and my 7 year old's BC is NSO. I had her Philippine passport renewed 2 years ago at DFA and they accepted this one. That may have changed now.









My 5 year old was born in 2016. This is what her PSA BC looks like.









If your kid's BCs don't look somewhat like either of these, you probably only have the local BC.

If you have NSO copies with the corrected names, you should be able to go down to PSA and get new copies with the corrected names. Or order online. NSO is PSA. One and the same but combined with some other agencies.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Forgot to mention. The title of this topic is misleading and might cause misunderstanding.

_Old NSO Municipality generated_

Ain't no such thing. NSO National Statistics Office was always a national network of offices. The local NSO branch office might be the first one to handle the municipal BC and enter it in to the national database, but other than that, NSO/PSA birth certificates are not local municipal birth certificates. I have both for my daughters. The local one I got at Olongapo City Hall and the NSO/PSA BCs we got at the NSO office which later became a PSA office.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

DonAndAbby said:


> I think you got something wrong. NSO was never a local office. National Statistics Office was merged in with other national statistic offices to become PSA. Here is something about it on the Tokyo PH Embassy website:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I wish it was just that easy but the Judge that finalized the adoption died years ago (we have all the adoption paperwork) so we have to get a new ruling on the birth certificates at a cost of 7,000 pesos per child plus travel costs back and forth from Manila and months to accomplish this. ( Buracracy)

We adopted our two kids in 1993 and so the older NSO birth certificates don't look anything like the newer PSA copies and are nearly worthless now they are locally generated and not kept on Government file like the newer process of the PSA documents, the NSO birth certificates were only available in the Municipality the citizen was born in.

You can't make any major changes such as adoptions name changes unless cleared through a judge, and like I mentioned if the Judge dies you have to get a new ruling that is costly and takes months.

I was still active duty military and not living in the Philippines when we adopted our two kids, they were babies at the time and the US wouldn't give me a Visa (I had passports) to get them out, at the time the law for the US territory I was living in "Guam" required a home study and performed by the Catholic church for $25,000 [email protected] On an enlisted pay grade, well I retired here many painful years later. 

The birth certificates were changed after the adoption but the Municipality NSO office didn't record or submit them, same guy works there, he refuses to fix his mess.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

M.C.A. said:


> The birth certificates were changed after the adoption but the Municipality NSO office didn't record or submit them, same guy works there, he refuses to fix his mess.


Wow! So sorry to hear this detail! Indeed, what a mess he made!


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

My wife only had the BC issued by the midwife, MIL never submitted it to the municipality so never recorded at the NSO Manila. We had to travel to her place of birth to make a late recording of birth. A week later the BC was available in Manila. (1995).
Another problem is people having their name changed by the family after birth, you can imagine the problems when they get a BC only to find they have a different name.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

DonAndAbby said:


> Wow! So sorry to hear this detail! Indeed, what a mess he made!


Yep... My kids all grown up now have trouble gaining ID cards, they had to revert back to their original names. The lawyer that oversees several of the NSO/PSA offices in our region is still around, his signature is on both Birth Certificates the original before adoption and then the new name after adoption, he just rolls his eyes if my wife goes in for help and so now she refuses to use the office but the last time she enquired he said we had to get another judgment on the birth certificate issue because the initial judge died.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Gary D said:


> My wife only had the BC issued by the midwife, MIL never submitted it to the municipality so never recorded at the NSO Manila. We had to travel to her place of birth to make a late recording of birth. A week later the BC was available in Manila. (1995).
> Another problem is people having their name changed by the family after birth, you can imagine the problems when they get a BC only to find they have a different name.


There's been an unfair bias in our Municipality when it comes to my adopted kids, my last name is a very obvious Western-sounding one. My Daughter finally was able to get her Philippine National ID card by getting a voter ID certificate and then having to use her birth name up until then she was not allowed any form of public assistance with our 3 grandkids even though her husband was out of work due to Covid, she didn't get any of the monetary assistance so I'm very grateful for the introduction of the Philippine National ID card it alleviates the bias in some of the individuals within the Municipality and for sure the Barangay.

So the end result is that my daughter and her husband, my 3 grandkids one is 5 months old all live with us, they can't even find jobs due to either my last name or they know she's my daughter and then the husband had a falling out with his employer who destroyed his reputation by accusing him of theft of property but they had purchased the property from another resident in the Municipality. (another long drama story)


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Gary D said:


> My wife only had the BC issued by the midwife, MIL never submitted it to the municipality so never recorded at the NSO Manila. We had to travel to her place of birth to make a late recording of birth. A week later the BC was available in Manila. (1995).
> Another problem is people having their name changed by the family after birth, you can imagine the problems when they get a BC only to find they have a different name.


My wife's parents were not detail oriented, apparently. On her BC, her first name was missing a letter at the end, and for her middle name the put just an initial, O.

She finally decided to get it fixed after we married. It took 1-2 years of phone calls to the local registrar in her home town on Bohol. Always excuses, excuses why he could not get it done. I think he wanted a payment but he finally gave up.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

There was the belief in the Philippines that if a child was sickly they thought they had a bad name so they just changed it. All their school documents at barangay level documents would be in their new name. It was until they needed a national level document such as a passport that problems started to arise.


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