Advertisement
Last Articles
Last News
- HPD seeks witnesses to fatal freeway crash, dead motorcyclists identified [10/04/2011]
- State to unveil school anti-bullying plan [10/04/2011]
- 'Graying Hippies' in Hilo Join NY City Allies in Protest of 'Corporate Greed and Influence' [10/04/2011]
- Man drowns after jumping off tower into reservoir [10/04/2011]
Birth Certificate Laws in Hawaii
Birth certificates are important legal documents used to establish citizenship in the United States. Like other states, Hawaii has several regulations in place to obtain birth certificates. Any interested persons wanting information about a live birth on any of Hawaii's islands must follow several guidelines set in place by the State Department of Health.
Application
Hawaii only maintains records of people born on one of the state's islands. To apply for a certified copy of a birth certificate in Hawaii, you must fill out an application with the State Department of Health in Honolulu. Applications can be downloaded from the department's website or mailed to the department: State Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, Issuance/Vital Statistics Section, P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801. The department does not accept phone, fax or electronic mail requests.
For further information about applying for certified copies of vital records or to check the status of an application, call 808-586-4539 or 808-586-4542
Letters of Verification
Requests can be made to have letters of verification issued in lieu of certified copies. These documents state that the State Department of Health verifies a birth certificate is on file, and they also validate any other information that the applicant provides relating to the event. For example, the department may issue a letter of verification indicating a certain individual who was born on a certain date at a certain place. The letter does not, however, disclose information about the vital event contained within the certificate that is unknown to and not provided by the applicant in the request.
Letters of verification can be requested in the same manner as certified copies, and they use the same application form. The fee is $5 per letter.
Refusal
In May 2010, Hawaii signed into law a bill that would allow the state to ignore requests for certificates. The catalyst for this legislation is due to the repeated requests for President Barack Obama's birth certificate. According to the New York Daily News, the State Department of Health had been receiving as many as 20 emails each week requesting verification that Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961.
Tags: birth certificates information department of health united states office of health status monitoring