# Apostilled birth certificate



## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

We live full-time in Mexico, which is where I have my original US birth certificate.

Getting our ducks in a row for our upcoming visit to SRE - I need to have this birth certificate apostatized. I have the application in my hand. It requires a prepaid envelope - for the return of the document from the US. It can be US postal/FedEx/UPS or DHL - but remember I am currently in Mexico.

I suppose I could take this form, and my birth certificate and send them to a friend in the US and ask her to get a return envelope for me. And then ask her to forward that (and my materials) to the State Dept of Treasury. But that seems terribly inefficient and potentially costly/untimely.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation ?


----------



## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

I called the Secretary of State of the state I was born in (Iowa) and they generated a copy of my birth certificate with an apostille and mailed it to any US address I chose for one set price. I paid by credit card on the phone with the person I spoke to. You would have to decide how to forward it from the US mailing location to your location in Mexico but there are several different options for that. 

I happened to be going soon to visit family in the US so I had it mailed there and I didn't have to deal with the last forwarding issue. 

In fact, now that I think about it, I had them make 2 copies because it didn't cost much more and I figured I might need another one some day.


----------



## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

circle110 said:


> I called the Secretary of State of the state I was born in (Iowa) and they generated a copy of my birth certificate with an apostille and mailed it to any US address I chose for one set price. I paid by credit card on the phone with the person I spoke to. You would have to decide how to forward it from the US mailing location to your location in Mexico but there are several different options for that.
> 
> I happened to be going soon to visit family in the US so I had it mailed there and I didn't have to deal with the last forwarding issue.
> 
> In fact, now that I think about it, I had them make 2 copies because it didn't cost much more and I figured I might need another one some day.


Thanks - my wife was born in Ohio and was able to simply talk to someone over the phone to request her certificate. I was born in NJ and on a simple reading of what you need to verify your identity - I don't see how I could possibly meet their requirements. I even talked to them this afternoon and the person suggested to use a third party (vitalcheck) and perhaps that would work. 

For those that follow - I have my original 60+ year old certificate - but at least in NJ they will only apostatize one which is certified within 10 years...


----------



## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

Man, that's kind of absurd, why would they make it so hard? I don't have any other helpful suggestions. I did have a bad experience with vitalcheck where they took my money, did nothing and ignored my attempts to resolve the situation, so I'd save that option as a last resort.


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> We live full-time in Mexico, which is where I have my original US birth certificate.
> 
> Getting our ducks in a row for our upcoming visit to SRE - I need to have this birth certificate apostatized. I have the application in my hand. It requires a prepaid envelope - for the return of the document from the US. It can be US postal/FedEx/UPS or DHL - but remember I am currently in Mexico.
> 
> ...


FedEx has an option to send a pre-paid envelope with the original letter. Perhaps DHL does also.


----------



## wkelley (Mar 13, 2016)

We've recently been getting a number of our documents with apostille certificates before our move to Mexico. Pretty simple...at least in the states. Normally requires a letter and the document you want to get certified and send it to the dept of state, in your state of residence. There are a number of services who will do this for you but the charge is about $200.00. A simple google search will pull up many. I'd recommend using a US address or mail forwarding service. The normal fee for an Apostille is about $20.00.


----------



## Jim from Alaska (Feb 20, 2017)

Is this another thing that needs to be done to get a permanante? If so can somebody explain what exactly needs to be done because I don't have an actual paper copy of my birth certificate (I was born in Oregon)and what about a marriage certificate, does it need to be apostilled also? Who actually does the certification?


----------



## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

Jim from Alaska said:


> Is this another thing that needs to be done to get a permanante? If so can somebody explain what exactly needs to be done because I don't have an actual paper copy of my birth certificate (I was born in Oregon)and what about a marriage certificate, does it need to be apostilled also? Who actually does the certification?


From what I've read on this forum and other sites, an apostille birth certificate and probably marriage certificate will be necessary at various points when applying for (and possibly when renewing) resident status in Mexico. 

Wikipedia explains the background of apostille documents: 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention

And here is a link to getting an Oregon birth certificate apostilled. 
Oregon Secretary of State: How to Get an Authentication (or Apostille)

Canada is not a signatory to the convention, so we don't have to (cannot) have our documents apostilled. However, it just occurred to me that since I was born in Nebraska, I WILL have to do this myself some day.


----------



## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

In the nearly five years we have been here no one has ever asked for our marriage certificate (in any form). Which is good because we were married on St Croix USVI.

I ended up going through VitalChek for my NJ birth certificate. $27 for 2 copies, $7 processing and $26.50 UPS shipping to our Mexican home. I scanned a) my passport b) recent CFE bill and c) a bank statement. I submitted the request on the 22nd and it is arriving here today, the 27th. Then I will turn around and send it to be apostized.

We are RPs. We didn't have to go through any of this stuff for that. What we did have to this year was to have our birth certificates translated for IMSS. That was 200 pesos each. We called INM who were kind enough to send a list of 'approved' translators in our area. We will have to have our apostized certificates translated as well.

btw - just about every document that has our Mexican address formats that address differently. CFE is different than Telmex which is different from the bank. Some include the colonia, others omit it. We 'inherited' some of the addresses from previous owners (CFE). Perhaps over the 20 year period this house has been here some of the address information was changed (like by the government) ?


----------



## Jim from Alaska (Feb 20, 2017)

ojosazules11 said:


> From what I've read on this forum and other sites, an apostille birth certificate and probably marriage certificate will be necessary at various points when applying for (and possibly when renewing) resident status in Mexico.
> 
> Wikipedia explains the background of apostille documents:
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention
> ...


Thank you or mucho gracias


----------

