I spoke with someone who delivered at the hospital I hope to deliver at. She says they will give me all of the forms to fill out, the first birth certificate is free, anything beyond that I have to pay for. They are also available for pickup within a week or two at the town hall. Woot!
You'll need passport photos as well before you do #3.
And don't take them yourself, even if you follow all the size requirements. Just save yourself some hassle and have a place that does it print them for you. Yes, you and your DH need to be present when turning in the paperwork.
Our hospital paperwork included all the SS stuff. We turned it in before birth, then they give it back to you to complete before leaving the hospital. In our state/city not sure which applies, there is no free birth certificate at all. We had to order and pay (about $20) for even the first one.
You'll need passport photos as well before you do #3.
And don't take them yourself, even if you follow all the size requirements. Just save yourself some hassle and have a place that does it print them for you. Yes, you and your DH need to be present when turning in the paperwork.
We did it ourselves and had no issues. And you don't both need to be there if one of you has a notarized letter giving permission.
Get recommendations for a good lactation consultant in your area and have her contact info handy. The last thing you want is to be hunting for a good one when you're having trouble! I met mine in advance (she taught the BFing class at the hospital) and felt much more confident knowing she was really good and I could call her whenever.
Our town hall prints birth certificates on the spot and also processes passports. I was surprised how easy it was to get a birth certificate. For the passport, fill in the form online and print it off to bring with you. It saves a lot of time. For us, the town hall is open late one night a week so we took the form and DS down there, got his photo there, and were done with the process in 10 minutes.
Post by dragonfly08 on Dec 11, 2012 11:01:20 GMT -5
1) social security card request - may drop off form in person as an office is really close by (or tell me how long it took you to receive the card if you did it by mail?) You might be able to do this right in the hospital. Ours provided a form to apply for one, and the records office submitted it for us when they filed the other paperwork for the birth certificate.
2) duplicate birth certificate(s) at local town hall (unsure how official the one we receive in the hospital is, should chat with friends who have delivered where we hope to deliver) Here in VA, anything we get from the hospital will not work as a legal birth certificate. I had to submit a written request and fee to the health department in Richmond, and they mailed me the birth certificate. All the hospital gave us was a "record of live birth" which worked for adding the kids to our insurance, etc. but not for Social Security or anything legal like that.
3) passport application & submission (I think I need 1 & 2 before I can tackle this, and also believe I need to have my husband with me as this will obviously be the minor's first passport) You'll need the birth certificate. I don't remember if I had to show the kids SS cards or not. And yes, your DH will have to go with you since both parents must be present (or there is a notarized form you can use instead, if he really can't go).
This occurred to me at a 5 am feeding today, but one of the best things I did in advance was to get together names and addresses for birth announcement and pre-print labels for them. That way, once they came in, I just had to slap the labels on the envelopes, stuff them, and mailed. It saved a lot of time.