Birth Certificates

A birth certificate documents the name, date of birth and place of birth of a person. It is issued by a government registrar. In many countries the birth certificate is a proof of age and nationality. Government and private organizations such as the passport office, schools, colleges, government pension’s office, government healthcare department, banks, driver’s license office, etc. require a copy of the birth certificate.

The concept of a birth certificate is not new. Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Persians have followed the practice of registering births since ancient times. These countries registered births for tax purposes and to determine number of people available for military service. The church too has been maintaining records of birth. In recent times, the practice of formal registration of birth by government agencies started with the United Kingdom in 1853.

Most countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’s (CRC) decision to register every child immediately after birth. Article 7 states “All children have the right to a legally registered name, and nationality”; and article 8 states "Governments should respect children's right to a name, a nationality and family ties”. The United Nations CRC is pushing to register all children because children without birth certificates are more likely to find themselves without access to health care, civil rights, education or inheritance laws. As per UN estimates, 51 million births are unregistered every year.

When certified translation of birth certificate in required?

Applicants, who wish to immigrate to the United States of America, must submit their application and supporting documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in English. In case the birth certificate is in a language other than English, then a certified translation of the birth certificate must be submitted. Not just for the USCIS, the certified translation of the birth certificate is also required for US colleges, US schools, US Courts, US Passport office and other public and private organizations.

Alternative in case a birth certificate is either missing or it contains inadequate information?

If an applicant’s birth certificate is either unavailable or the information in it is inadequate; in such cases the applicant can submit secondary evidence and affidavits as per rule 8 CFR 103.2(b)(2) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Immigration regulations/Powers and duties; availability of records. The rule also states how to demonstrate a record is not available.

Examples of secondary evidence of birth are school records, adoption decrees and baptismal certificates. In addition, two notarized affidavits from close relatives (parents, close relatives) or friends/neighbors who were present at the time of birth, also needs to be submitted. The person making the affidavit must state how he/she knows the facts of the applicant’s birth and how he/she knows the applicant’s family. The secondary evidence must contain the applicants name, date of birth, place of birth, names of both parents and seal of the issuing office. The affidavits should be accompanied by a "Certificate of Non-availability" issued by a competent governmental authority stating that the applicant’s birth certificate does not exist and the reason it does not exist.

Birth certificate format required by the USCIS

The US State department’s Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) specifies the documents required and available from each country All the below information must be present in the birth certificate.

- Applicant's full name, including first, middle and last names
- Applicant’s date of birth (Month, Day and Year)
- Place of birth (City, Province/State/District/Region, and Country)
- Mother’s full name (first name, middle name, last name). No initials
- Father’s full name (first name, middle name, last name). No initials

English certified translation of birth certificate

Our teams of professional and experienced English language translators specialize in documents that are required by the United States government and other US based public and private organizations. We provide English certified translation of birth certificate for the following major languages - Arabic, Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Certified Translation Company is experienced in translating documents for US organizations including USCIS, US colleges, US schools, US courts, etc, we create certified translations of birth certificates in the format that is required by these organizations. USCIS regulations related to translation certification are cited in Federal Regulation 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) of U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Immigration regulations/Powers and duties; availability of records.