Tag: passport photo for child born abroad

How to obtain a passport for a child born abroad

Published on in photography, travel by Paspic

Traveling is easier than ever before and it is not uncommon for US citizens to be born abroad. Fortunately, US embassies and consulates make obtaining a birth certificate and passport for a child born abroad very easy. There are only three steps for obtaining your child’s passport and birth certificate if the baby was born abroad.

1) Parents must obtain form FS-240 from the embassy or US consulate. The FS-240 form is called a “Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (CRBA)” and if accepted, it documents that the child born abroad is a US citizen. To obtain a CRBA, the US citizen parent or parents of the child must simply present their passport at the embassy and request the CRBA.

2) At the same time parents complete the CRBA, the parents can apply for the child’s passport. The application requires the parents fill out Form DS-1350, “Certification of Report of Birth”. In addition to filling out the application and paying a fee, two baby passport photos are required. The child passport photos must meet passport photo specifications.

For adults — people 18 years of age or older — born abroad to US citizens, applying for a birth certificate and a passport requires a “Certificate of Citizenship to document acquisition pursuant to 8 USC 1452.”

When applying for a birth certificate for a child born abroad, there are a few things to remember:

• The US embassy or consulate will only provide one certified birth certificate. If the birth certificate is lost or stolen, the parents of the child must apply for a replacement. However, parents may request several copies of the birth certificate, though the birth certificates will not be certified.

• There are several US territories that do not require a CRBA: Swains Island; Puerto Rico; American Samoa; the US Virgin Islands; Guam; the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands after January 8, 1978 (8PM EST); The Panama Canal Zone before October 1, 1979; and the Philippines before July 4, 1946. People born in these territories are considered US citizens.

4 surprising facts about passports

Published on in photography, travel by Paspic

When you’re applying for a new passport, you may only be thinking about a couple of things: do I look good in my passport photo? Is my child’s baby passport photo still valid? But there are a few things that may not even cross your mind when it comes to passports and passport pictures. Here are four of the most surprising facts we found about passports.

1: Germany and Sweden have the most powerful passports

According to the Passport Index, they each have a visa-free score of 158. America is in a five way tie for 4th place, meaning that if you hold an American passport, you have access to 155 countries without a visa. According to these same rankings, the least powerful passport belongs to Afghanistan.

2: Your passport is electronic

If you received a new passport after August of 2007, that means you are the recipient of a new and improved e-passport, which comes embedded with a special chip that’s designed to deter hackers and identity thieves.

3: Passports used to accommodate even the busiest jet setters

Don’t have enough room in your standard issue 28-page passport for all the countries you’ve visited? Before 2015, you could actually request a longer, 52-page passport when you were renewing, at no additional cost. Or you could add pages to your current passport up to a total of 76 pages! These days, you can no longer add pages – but to make up for it, all US passports are now issued with 52 pages instead of 28.

4: That patriotic art took 6 years to make

Have you ever noticed the artwork on the inside pages of your passport? If you have one of the newer versions issued since 2007, every page is decorated with the most American of designs, from Mount Rushmore to bald eagles and more. And this patriotic makeover didn’t come easily – a committee of six important people spent six whole years developing the page designs, which were all part of an overall theme entitled “American Icon.” So next time you open a page to get stamped, take a second to appreciate how much effort went into making that page a reality.

Photo: Passport by seantoyer licensed under Creative commons 2