Getting an Apostille

[Fusilado Kent]

Hey all. My son Liam was born January 30th at Centro Medico, and now that the dust is settling I'm trying to go through the Kafka'esque process of getting his Mexican Birth certificate here in GTO, then his CRBA/passport in San Miguel.

Before any of this can move forward I have been told I need an Apostille (which is a certification for my birth certificate), and subsequent translation. Has anyone gone through this process and can give me some advice? I've been looking on the web, and it looks like I have to either mail in or have someone bring in my BC in either Washington or New York (where I was born). Is there anyone in GTO that deals with these sorts of things?

[laconstance]

Getting an apostille is pretty easy, and it can all be handled by mail in most cases. The easy explanation of the process is: Get a new certified (notarized) copy of your birth certificate from the county in which you were born. Then, that copy must be sent or taken to the Secretary of State of the state where you were born. Basically, the apostille certifies that the person who certified your birth certificate in the first place had the authority to do so. There are fees involved, usually fairly modest. I'd start by calling the county clerk in the county in which you were born to find out what is required to get a copy of the birth certificate. Then, the clerk's office can send it on to the Secretary of State of the state for apostille, and the Secretary of State of the state can return the whole shebang to you. You would need to include not only the fees, but postage paid addressed envelopes for each stage of the apostille journey.

If a translation is required, that probably means a translation by a certified legal translator. Unfortunately, I have no experience with that and can't tell you where to find one. Might be a question for Ed Clancy at the Consul in San Miguel de Allende.

[doncoulter]

First, ditto everything laconstance says.

Regarding the translation, generally the agency that requires the apostille will tell you which translator to use. When I got married, the Registro Civil in Guanajuato insisted that the translation be done by a particular person who worked at the Centro de Idiomas at the university. The translation was a very simple job (and, really, unnecessary, as any fool could have understood my extremely short and simple birth certificate), but the RC would accept no substitute for its official translator.

Of course, as with all things bureaucratic, here or elsewhere, YMMV.

Don

[mr bill]

Hola Kent - CONGRATULATIONS!

la constance's info is pretty accurate and the process is straight forward. You are lucky that you only need an apostille as we had to do that [for me] and a "legalization" for Meow [as Thailand doesn't apostille]

The paperwork seems endless - because of problems on the long form Mexican birth certificate which required corrections and then confusions between the city and the state Registros Civiles -and- added the fact that we wanted only one Apellido [another petition and form] it took us around 6 months to have the twins recognized just as Mexicans. Next step was CRBA* and US Passports. You need to have an appointment with Ed Clancey [the baby has to go too] - email 1st for all the requirements and make sure your paperwork is correct before going to SMA [took us 3 trips]. Processing time is not too bad - maybe 60 days. You are probably too young to need to add your child to Social Security -STOP- Before SMA you need Mexico City for SSN's and Carlos Nava - Federal Benefits Counselor- at the US Consulate [aka the 'Embassy' but you deal w/ the Consulate which is embedded within the building - Governments deal with Embassies - the hoi polloi deal with Consulates] - Carlos met us half way in Morelia for paperwork [on a day of one of the big shoot outs] Great guy and very proactive. He also filed our kids with the VA as dependents and now after some 30+ months I'm happy to say the VA has gotten around to believing us [nice back pay on the day the Sequester went into effect]

Re the CRBA - you have to prove to them that you are a bona fide Gringo. I had to provide my High School and College transcripts which were fairly easy to get and then fill out a form listing all of my exits and entries from/to the USA --------------- ALL OF THEM for close to 50 years.

Mexican Passports - now that's a snap. Armed with short form Mexican Birth Certificates [obtainable at the city Reg Civil] you go to Realtiones Exteriores in Leon: In by 10 out by 2 with passports in hand [they are valid only for a year]

Contact me directly for more info

Bill

re Don's comment "... (and, really, unnecessary, as any fool could have understood my extremely short and simple birth certificate)"
The recognized official translator at the University had problems with Meow's birth certificate and the moon phases it listed so he issued an offical redaction.

[Fusilado Kent]

Thanks guys, this is all very helpful. Since I'm trying to do this all from here I'm just wondering if it's going to be a problem having a friend go to the county clerk in Manhattan to get a new birth certificate (also for some odd reason I believe I need something called a letter of exemplification from them since my BC was issued from NYC Dept of Health). Also I keep emailing Ed Clancy but he hasn't got back to me yet. I guess I'll start calling over there.

Bill, that sounds like hell with all the paperwork on the twins, glad to hear you got through it.

[mcontreras]

Congrats!

It could be a bit tricky to have someone else pick up the BC for you, but you could always call ahead and ask the office if they need a note from you authorizing them to do it. It would be easier to ask them to mail it to the SofState for you, if you can.

We just finally registered our son (8 mos) to get his Mexican BC, and now we have an appointment at the Embassy in Mexico City in a few weeks.

The list of official translators available and accepted by the Registro Civil is available at their offices. If they won't give you a copy, go to the main office (Encantador), and ask to see it. There you can annotate the numbers and addresses for someone close to you. Or if you want to avoid the RC, go to the UofG and ask for an official translator, the receptionist was quite helpful :) though the office was tricky to find.

PS If you and your wife don't mind used baby clothes, we'd be happy to pass some along.

[WRT]

Kent,

You could also try the mexican consulado office in laredo texas. They have worked wonders there for me in the past. They are fast.

Fastest place to process the passport is in leon downtown. Like Bill says same day service.


I have also had to process paperwork at the registro civil without being present. All you need is a letter authorizing someone to go pick up the paperwork. I emailed in the request and called in and my buddy was able to pick up the documents from the registro civil for me.

Saludos y felicidades
Ponce