Help - Correcting Birth Certificate in PA

[afecad]

Well, I mailed the application and the court order for the correction of my deceased relative's birth certificate at the end of March and they contacted me several days ago saying that it could not be processed. That seems to lend a lot of credence to the timeline I mentioned.

In regards to the attorney you mentioned, I was misinformed by that office on several crucial aspects of this process. Fortunately, I contacted the motions/petitions department in Philadelphia County and was provided with the proper information. So, as with anything in life, YMMV. I made the correct decision not to retain the aforementioned attorney.

I don't know what issue(s) you had an why, IANAL but ICA used this Lawyer with success for others who had vital records in PA. I made sure to ask the question before I retained them for this process and apparently they did some much more difficult delayed birth registrations changes with success. I also had detailed conversations with a clerk at PA Vital Records who told me what I needed to do to get it corrected, not just once but several times and the same person at that.

ELI5...My Grandfather was born in Shamokin, PA, so documents from Italy were not pertinent in correcting the spelling of his first name.

ICA reviewed everything prior to submission and said to proceed. Surely since they do this for a living, they would have noted something wasn't going to pass with PA Vital Records, ICA even called/emailed PA Vital Records, Northumberland County and USCIS and requested everything for me after some documents sent were incorrect or in the improper form.

I did not know the Lawyer was giving out free advice or direction on how to proceed with a Pro Se case?

YSK someone else on here used them with success after I gave out their info and told me how things went and two other people that messaged me in the past month or so are using them as well. No complaints as of yet and all of them are messaging me updates on the progress and none have been contacted by PA Vital Records noting their court order was not accepted, including myself, so I can't support your claim on being "misinformed", but it sounds like you have it all sorted out now.

[qualdom]

I did not know the Lawyer was giving out free advice or direction on how to proceed with a Pro Se case?

Yeah attorneys generally offer consultations....and trust me it wasn't free.

[afecad]

Yeah attorneys generally offer consultations....and trust me it wasn't free.

Yes, I retained lot's of lawyers in the past, I know how they work but it sounds like you went with another Lawyer, glad to see they they solved your problem for you!

[mbastyr@gmail.com]

The PA Birth Record of my deceased Father needs to be amended also. Can anyone provide a link to templates for obtaining a court order from PA for this purpose? Thank you for all your help. It is much appreciated to see others are going through the same thing--and finding success. Thank you.

[afecad]

The PA Birth Record of my deceased Father needs to be amended also. Can anyone provide a link to templates for obtaining a court order from PA for this purpose? Thank you for all your help. It is much appreciated to see others are going through the same thing--and finding success. Thank you.

I used a combination of ICA and another Lawyer in PA to obtain this, did not attempt to do pro se.

If you want to know the lawyer in PA I used, PM me. I shared their contact info with several others who reported success as well. I don't know if they have jurisdiction in your part of PA but if it's Eastern PA, they likely can help.

The drafted petition was sent to me for review then submitted to the respected county courthouse. Was approved within a month, but as of this writing, still have not received anything from the state as they are backlogged.

Just some other free advice, make sure all names match on all documents down to your birth record, inconsistency can cause issues so I was recently informed. Middle names on one document but not another or etc.

[qualdom]

The PA Birth Record of my deceased Father needs to be amended also. Can anyone provide a link to templates for obtaining a court order from PA for this purpose? Thank you for all your help. It is much appreciated to see others are going through the same thing--and finding success. Thank you.

Like Afecad mentioned, obtaining the court order is relatively easy. However, if you are including Italian birth/marriage certificates in your petition as proof, please obtain an apostille and certified/notarized translation prior to sending the correction application to PA Vital Records. I think in the past the court order alone was sufficient but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

[afecad]

I was able to get a petition approved to correct my Grandfather's misspelled first name, as well we updated my GGM's first name spelling from the anglicized version to match her Italian birth record with only a photo copy of her Italian birth certificate. My GF as born in Northumberland County, PA which my Lawyer noted is very fast in approving petitions, but rather slow on other records (still waiting for no record of naturalization found).

I have not experienced the same issue qualdom reported as PA Vital Records has not requested any "apostille and certified/notarized translation" of my GGM's Italian birth certificate.

I also had to do another change to my Mother's PA birth certificate, because after review some middle names were used on one document but not another. So this is why I say to make sure all names are the same on all documents as ICA noted these discrepancies can be red flags during the process.

The biggest issue now is backlog due to the pandemic, what would have taken a month or two is now taking 6 months plus, so plan on the entire process to be slow.

[qualdom]

I was able to get a petition approved to correct my Grandfather's misspelled first name, as well we updated my GGM's first name spelling from the anglicized version to match her Italian birth record with only a photo copy of her Italian birth certificate. My GF as born in Northumberland County, PA which my Lawyer noted is very fast in approving petitions, but rather slow on other records (still waiting for no record of naturalization found).

I have not experienced the same issue qualdom reported as PA Vital Records has not requested any "apostille and certified/notarized translation" of my GGM's Italian birth certificate.

I also had to do another change to my Mother's PA birth certificate, because after review some middle names were used on one document but not another. So this is why I say to make sure all names are the same on all documents as ICA noted these discrepancies can be red flags during the process.

The biggest issue now is backlog due to the pandemic, what would have taken a month or two is now taking 6 months plus, so plan on the entire process to be slow.

Did you ever get a response from the USCIS index search? Still waiting for mine and it has been nearly 6 months.

[afecad]

I was able to get a petition approved to correct my Grandfather's misspelled first name, as well we updated my GGM's first name spelling from the anglicized version to match her Italian birth record with only a photo copy of her Italian birth certificate. My GF as born in Northumberland County, PA which my Lawyer noted is very fast in approving petitions, but rather slow on other records (still waiting for no record of naturalization found).

I have not experienced the same issue qualdom reported as PA Vital Records has not requested any "apostille and certified/notarized translation" of my GGM's Italian birth certificate.

I also had to do another change to my Mother's PA birth certificate, because after review some middle names were used on one document but not another. So this is why I say to make sure all names are the same on all documents as ICA noted these discrepancies can be red flags during the process.

The biggest issue now is backlog due to the pandemic, what would have taken a month or two is now taking 6 months plus, so plan on the entire process to be slow.

Did you ever get a response from the USCIS index search? Still waiting for mine and it has been nearly 6 months.

Yes, ICA got no record found back in April for my GGM. I received my the request for my GGF, no record found in May.

[ckotuby]

Could someone send me a pleading template for this sort of request in a pa court? I’m a lawyer and need to d this for myself, but it’s always good to have a look at what has worked in the past—local courts can be persnickety. If it works, I’d be pleased to help others going forward.

[afecad]

Could someone send me a pleading template for this sort of request in a pa court? I’m a lawyer and need to d this for myself, but it’s always good to have a look at what has worked in the past—local courts can be persnickety. If it works, I’d be pleased to help others going forward.

It's a petition with claims that is presented to the county court judge of interest with supporting documentation. I hired a Lawyer in PA who took care of everything and got the court order to go back to PA Vital Records for updates.

[afecad]

Received my Grandfather's updated PA birth certificate the other day. The process took nearly 1 year, starting with the court order and some issues that had to be corrected after rejection from the PA Department of Health. This was for a simple (you'd think) first name correction for both my Grandfather and GGM. With Covid on top of it all, the delay was lengthy.

Just a FYI, the PA Department of Health has made changes to documentation requirements and anyone else looking to do the same thing, you will need birth records from Italy, translated and apostilled and must be original certified copies. Appears they are becoming more stringent on everything.

I'm using ICA and were of great help in getting this resolved, highly recommend them and now I'm getting closer to having everything in place for the next stage.

[qualdom]

Just a FYI, the PA Department of Health has made changes to documentation requirements and anyone else looking to do the same thing, you will need birth records from Italy, translated and apostilled and must be original certified copies. Appears they are becoming more stringent on everything.

Glad to hear it was finally amended.

I had the same situation, it appears that all these stringent policies came into effect around May 2021. It made life a lot more difficult for me but eventually I was able to resolve everything.

[afecad]

Glad to hear it was finally amended.

I had the same situation, it appears that all these stringent policies came into effect around May 2021. It made life a lot more difficult for me but eventually I was able to resolve everything.

Still waiting for Northumberland County to deliver the "no record found" for naturalization, but ICA has not yet been able to get them to deliver. I was also told there is construction going on at the Courthouse, but I don't know if that's the reason for the delay.

[qualdom]

Glad to hear it was finally amended.

I had the same situation, it appears that all these stringent policies came into effect around May 2021. It made life a lot more difficult for me but eventually I was able to resolve everything.

Still waiting for Northumberland County to deliver the "no record found" for naturalization, but ICA has not yet been able to get them to deliver. I was also told there is construction going on at the Courthouse, but I don't know if that's the reason for the delay.

I called the Northumberland County Prothonotary's office a few months ago and whoever answered told me that the Prothonotary was no longer going to respond to written requests for naturalization records. People who are looking for records would have to come into the office and do the search themselves.

I'm guessing that they were deluged with requests during the pandemic and decided it was too much.