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If you could not fulfill the standard passport requirements to prove your citizenship, probably yours is one of the following cases:
Case one.
You were born in the US but you do not have a birth certificate.
If this is your case, you have two options:
You can submit an Birth Affidavit, Form DS-10, signed by any older blood relative with knowledge of your birth. This affidavit must be notarized or bear the seal and signature of the acceptant representative of the passport agency.
You can file an Evidence of No Record together with as many documents evidencing your date and place of birth as you can. You can get the Evidence of No Record at the Office of Vital Statistics of your place of birth, and it specifies your name, date of birth and the years in which a search for your birth record was conducted. Among the documents you can use to prove your date and place of birth, you can use your baptismal certificate, a hospital certificate of life birth, a census record, your early school record, your family bible record or your physician's records of early care. These documents must be dated within your first five years of age.
Case two.
You were born abroad and do not have a consular certificate of birth abroad on file.
If this is your case, you have two possibilities:
If only one of your parents is an American citizen, you can claim your citizenship by filing:
- your foreign birth certificate
- a proof of citizenship of your American parent
- an affidavit in which your parent lists the places, dates and periods in which he or she has been before your date of birth.
If both of your parents are American citizens, you can claim your citizenship by filing:
- your foreign birth certificate
- your parents' marriage certificate
- a proof of their citizenship
- an affidavit in which your parents list the places, dates and periods in which they have been before your date of birth.
Case three.
You were born abroad, you have a consular certificate of birth abroad on file, but it has mistakes.
In this case, you need to submit a written request accompanied by certified copies of all documents you deem necessary to effect a name change for this record. You must include the original Consular Report of Birth, FS-240 document, its replacement or a notarized affidavit regarding this situation.
Case four.
You were adopted by at least one American citizen.
Pursuant to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, you acquired the American citizenship automatically if you were adopted by an American Citizen (regardless of if by birth or naturalization); provided that:
- the adoption procedure was final before you turned 18
- you reside in the United States under legal and physical custody of your American parent(s)
- you were lawfully admitted into the country as an immigrant under lawful permanent residence (LPR)