As Leilani told us (en español aqui) back in April, a Puerto Rican law declared all birth certificates issued in the U.S. territory before July 1, 2010 invalid. Last week, the deadline was moved from September 30 to October 30, 2010 by their governor.
The new law was enacted to strengthen the issuance and use of the vital document in Puerto Rico since birth certificates were being used for identity theft. Unfortunately to enact this law, Puerto Rico had to invalidate all birth certificates.
If you have a Puerto Rican birth
certificate, you will need to request a new one. Puerto Rican government officials have been swamped with birth certificate requests.
At the moment, the government recommends that only people who have a specific need to conduct a transaction that requires a birth certificate–like a passport application–in November, December or January,
request a new birth certificate right away. People who want to
obtain copies of the new birth certificates for their records are
encouraged to do so at a later date. To get a new one, you can send in an application or apply online.
P.S. Have you heard about the GovGab birthday contest yet? If not, check it out! Your story could be published on our blog!