[dtmom2b]

Wondering if anyone here has any experience with this:

We adopted our son from birth at the hospital and didn't assign him a SS number.

Our adoption was finalized in Feb 06 and we won't have the "new" birth certificate until Feb 07.

Now we need to obtain a passport for our son for traveling. Passport requires a SS $ and SS office wont assign a number without a birth certificate. His original certificate won't work because it has been sealed by the courts. Is this crazy???

Anyone have any suggestions? I have now called our adoption attorney and waiting for a call back.

[jaydensmommy]

I don't understand. Why would it take a year to get a new birth certificate if the adoption was finalized in february. Ours only took about a month?

[LotsaLuv2Giv]

I think what you need is called a temporary I.D. number. You have to request one from I.R.S. You can probably get the form from their website. I think it's IRS.GOV. Hope this helps.

[mom2justynsarah]

We went through the same thing with our daughter. Unfortunately we weren't able to obtain a SS# until we had an amended birth certificate. I don't know what else to suggest. Sorry...

[mom2justynsarah]

Originally Posted by jaydensmommy

I don't understand. Why would it take a year to get a new birth certificate if the adoption was finalized in february. Ours only took about a month?

I don't know about anyone else. But in our case, our adoption was interstate. My daughter was born in California. We live in S. Florida. In order to get an amended birth certificate, it first had to go through the Social Security administrative offices in California. That process took 8 months after finalization.

[traceyk]

I called the Dept. of Vital Statistics and had a rush put on our b-cert so we could get the SS#. Also, can you use all your adotpion papers (decree, placement papers) in lieu of a passport since the child is so young????

[rjsmom]

I believe that the laws on this have changed. I can't remember when it went into effect but everyone regardless of age must have their own passport.

Last year when we went to Mexico we were told that the adoption papers could not be used for id even though the adoption was finalized and that we must have a birth certificate.

Good luck.

[lisa in venice]

They like to have a BC but will take other forms of ID. We are in CA and getting the amended BC takes a VERY long time so I used their medical cards and Baptismal Certificates. I had the finalization papers but never had to show them. Give it a try.

lisa

[Nevada Jen]

You can not get a temp ID once your adoption is finalized but you can get a SS# without a birth certificate. So to the SS homepage and get the number of the person to call at the nearest office and explain the situation to them. An adoption decree and a shot record and health insurance card would have worked for us but it would have taken longer to get the SS number. You should get the SS# now so you can claim babe on your taxes.

[SanInUtah]

Originally Posted by dtmom2b

Wondering if anyone here has any experience with this:

We adopted our son from birth at the hospital and didn't assign him a SS number.

Our adoption was finalized in Feb 06 and we won't have the "new" birth certificate until Feb 07.

Now we need to obtain a passport for our son for traveling. Passport requires a SS $ and SS office wont assign a number without a birth certificate. His original certificate won't work because it has been sealed by the courts. Is this crazy???

Anyone have any suggestions? I have now called our adoption attorney and waiting for a call back.

Ughhhh....You'll get the amended BC via mail within a few months, but you can always go down to the courthouse and request a 'certified copy'. It won't be pretty but it will have the raised seal and be notarized. You should be able to just walk in and get it, provided the information is on the county's computers by now.

Just for the record, I've determined that those who fail the civil service exam are assigned to the Social Security Administration's phone lines. If they can't dial a phone then they're issued a name badge and stuck out at the front desk.

We have the cream of the crop here in Utah. I was told, not kidding, that the order of adoption, the amended b.c. (which makes no mention of adoption) were not enough to get a SS number amended. They wanted to see his REPORT CARD!?! Our application was denied because I refused to go get a copy. The guy behind the desk looked at me like a baby trafficker and kept saying things like "...he's not the same race as you." It was all I could do to walk out of there without being arrested.

Rather than amend the SS# we'll probably just have to lie and get a brand new one. That's gotta be fraud, somehow, but right now my son is traceable, with his birthname shown on all SS records. We have an open adoption with the sibs and live 3 states away...but still.

[gigigeorge]

The passport requirment went into effect last year for anyone traveling outside the united states EXCEPT to Canada and Mexico, that goes into effect dec 31, 2006 - we just got back from canada and they didnt require a passport, my stepdaughter's mom has a house in Mexico and they travel there almost monthly and do not have passports for their children (they were lazy about it ...

hope that helps... also when you go with the amended birth certificate to the ss office they won't give you the number there, you have to wait for it to be mailed.... someone mentioned the ATIN (adoption tax id number) that can be used for a lot of things but a passport is unfortunately not one of them !



g.

[gigigeorge]

also had to respond to saninutah ! I think they lame ones are here in tulsa, when I went to get my sons birth certificate, I had to get his immunization records. I had everything else, even had him sitting on my lap - the person behind the counter said "Well he could be anyone... he could be your neighbors kid. You need to have his immunization records to prove he is alive..." seriously... she said that

g.

[traceyk]

Unfortunately you DO need the b-cert for a SS# now. We got our in Feb. and she told me if I had applied before the first of this year they would have accepted the adoption decree, but the regs changed and it requires the b-cert now.

[dtmom2b]

This is so frustrating for all of us!! I hope things will change soon with the SS office. The court does take a long time to "process" the BC and in CA the typical wait is one year.

Just a quick update:
I sent the SS Office an email yesterday and actually received a response today. Now the email said everything the local office said wouldn't work. I am going to print the email and take it with me to another local office and see what happens.

We did have to obtain an ATIN number from the IRS (temporary number) to file our taxes even though our adoption was finalized when we obtained the ATIN number, funny becuase you are not supposed to get an ATIN number from the IRS if your adoption is final. Sometimes the different government departments need to talk to each other.

I have pretty much realized now we will have to wait until we have his revised BC in hand and not travel until then..... just not a fair system!!!

[jaydensmommy]

Originally Posted by SanInUtah

Ughhhh....Rather than amend the SS# we'll probably just have to lie and get a brand new one. That's gotta be fraud, somehow, but right now my son is traceable, with his birthname shown on all SS records. We have an open adoption with the sibs and live 3 states away...but still.

We have had our son since two days after his birth. With regard to the social security number, when I requested one when he was 7 months old, they said the hospital should have applied for one for him. I said well, we don't have one and never received one. We did not mention that he was adopted (it's not on the amended birth certificate) nor that he may or may not have a previous social security number (don't know -- we never received it or heared about one). They didn't ask so we didn't tell.

I do remember though, when my parents got our SS#'s for us kids when we were 8, 10 and 12, they did need our birth certificate as well as either a bapitismal paper or school report card.