[sld]

HI! My husband was born in Nj and we now live in CT. Is it true we have to get the birth certificate from Trenton? And certified there? Are we getting the Apostille seal from there? Confused!!! Help anyone

[DeeVee]

The birth certificate comes from the state in which he was born (NJ), and has to be certified (apostille) in that state. You can do it by mail if it's too far to drive. Also, when the documents are authenticated, they need to go to the Guatemalan consulate that has jurisdiction in the state where the docs originated (which may or may not be where you are living now).

For example, we live in TN now, but DH was born in NYC and I was born in CT, and we were married in NY. So we had to get my birth cert from CT, and then send it to the secretary of states office in CT for apostille, and then to the Guatemalan consulate in NYC for authentication. All of our notarized docs (like POA, declarations), originated in TN, so they had to get apostille in TN, and then sent to the consulate in Atlanta for authentication. (The Guatemalan consulate in Altanta has jurisdiction in TN, but the consulate in NY has jurisdiction in CT).

I hope that's not too confusing! The good news is the turnaround time was quick for all of this (just a few days if you use overnight mail and include a pre-paid mailer to return the docs).

Dee

[sld]

Thanks that helps. Did you use Vital cheks as a service? It says you have to sign a letter but how do you do that on the computer?

[DeeVee]

Hmmm...I'm not sure what Vital cheks is. I contacted the dept. of vital records (or whatever they call it-- something like that in both states. In CT I had to print out a form on line and mail it in. For NY I applied for the birth certificate and marriage certificate on line.
Then after I received everything, I had to send it to the sec. of state offices for apostille (you'd think they could take care of that in one step for you, but they don't!)

I hope that's helpful.

Dee

[missy7]

I needed my BC and MC from NJ last fall for our adoption. I originally used Vital Check and it was a nightmare. They did not tell me that NJ is months behind processsing requests and there was no way to expedite it. I ended up flying from St. Louis to NJ and back one day to go in person. If you go to Trenton in person you can have it in a few days. I was told by the people at vital records you need a long form for international adoption and that takes a few days. I gave them a fed ex envelope and they mailed it back to me. It took 31/2 months to get them from vital check. Glad I didn't wait.


Melissa

[DeeVee]

Oh Melissa what a nightmare just for a BC and MC! SLD, since you live in CT it might be easier to just drive to NJ one day.


FYI, NYC would not give me my DHs BC, even though they were sending our MC to the same address. They would only send it if the request came from him or his parents. You might want to check that with Trenton so you don't waste a trip.

[Maggie Beth]

Just remember that for Guatemalan adoptions it is called certification/authentication, not an apostille... This may make a difference, so be sure you mention which country you are adopting from when you take these docs to the sec of state.

[sodor]

i second everyone's advise, I went to Trenton, if there is any way to do the trip, it is sooooo worth it (finacially and timewise), quick and easy and we had our BC in 2 days, otherwise we were told it would be a few month wait.
Lauren

[LisaDR]

I went in the fall to trenton after getting ones from the county I was born in. there was a question whether they would accept the county one...so I drove to Trenton and waited 2 hours and got enough copies to wall paper my room before I left. If they still provide same day service you can run it over to the SOS office which is only a couple of blocks away. Depending on there mood and begging they might do their apostille/authentication immediately but don't count on it...... I was there 2x week from dec-march! I 'd bring a fed ex envelop in the event they won't authenticate it immediately for you otherwise it is 5 days by regular mail and that's if you pay for expedited service which is 20 a doc versus regular service 5 for adoption (upwards of 2 weeks @ SOS)..... also the form at the state asks what country the adoption is for so they know what to doPS I had some problems with them adding/removing staples so I began to send things with paper clips and a note please to attach any extra documents with staples....

[SmileLaughLearn]

We're in CT too, and my dh was born in NJ. We did use Vital Check and ordered over the internet. Within a week of ordering, you have to fax proof of identification to NJ vital records (that was easy-- you print out a form after you submit the order). They ask why you want it, and you check international adoption, so they send the right one (with a raised seal). We paid for expedited service, and got it in less than a week. The only difficulty was that it's delivered by UPS, and you have to sign for it in person--you can't just sign the slip and leave it--so I had to drive to the UPS office to pick it up, since we both work--and our UPS isn't open on Saturdays.

We did have to order them twice, because the first ones came smeared (like it was a bad photocopier), but the second ones were just fine.

Good luck!