Today I’m going to detail the necessary paperwork if you’re an American and had a baby born in Mexico. The many steps involved and how we got our Baby Boy a passport! Take a dose of patience with you!
How to get a Mexican Birth Certificate
This post is a tad overdue, but anyway. A week after Baby Boy was born we had to take him to the registro civil– civil registry- to get him his Mexican birth certificate.
It required paperwork galore, and we managed to get lost about 3 times on the way, but once we were there it was relatively painless.
We sat for an hour while they processed our paperwork, and then at the end we all had to sign the certificate (M and myself, plus 2 grandparents that came as witnesses, plus Baby Boy).
Baby Boy gave his thumb print; it was cute. (They also offered to take these pictures for us)!
A couple days later M had to go back and get our certified copies so that we could move on to the next step.
To Get a Birth Certificate (Acta de Nacimiento) You Need:
- Certificate of Birth from the hospital
- 2 witnesses (you can “trade” with someone else waiting in line and be witnesses for each other)
- Proof of address of the parents (like a utility bill)
- Official ID of the parents (like your passport)
- Parents’ birth certificate
- Parents’ marriage certificate if they are married
- Photo copies of everything listed above!
Take all of these to one of the locations of the registro civil, between 9 am and 3 pm. Once you have the original you can request certified copies.
Note:
We have heard from friends that in some hospitals you can pay a broker to do this for you, but you need to bring documents like your passport with you. (Also you would need to have decided on baby’s name ahead of time).
Getting a Passport for Baby
A week later we went to the American consulate to apply for his report of birth abroad and American passport.
The situation is a mess there, and I don’t want to get into details but it can raise the blood pressure of the coolest cat. The wait was not at all short and then we still had to come back another day to bring new pictures because ours had a slight shadow.
Passport pictures + sleepy 2 week old baby= really really hard to get. It took us over a week of trying to get another picture that was acceptable. But now our documents have arrived, so we are ready to leave the country for our coming-up trip.
So that’s our not-so-interesting story of how our little guerito got his documentation.
How to Get a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Equivalent of American birth certificate):
To get a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, which is like a birth certificate, from the embassy, and apply for a passport you need to do the following:
- Make an appointment (We needed to make ours months in advance…).
- Fill out the form but do not sign.
- Fill out passport application, but do not sign.
- Bring documents:
- Hospital birth certificate
- Original birth certificate from registro civil
- Proof of citizenship and ID for parents (like your passports)
- Proof of residency in US for parents (like school or employment records)
- Original Marriage certificate if married (and translated into English)
- Pregnancy records (like ultrasound pictures)
- Passport pictures
- Bring copies of everything!
- Bring a method of payment
- Both parents need to be there in person.
Note:
I highly suggest checking the link above for the most current information, and to access the forms. Also, patience, lots of patience.
