AAL787

I've been working on getting my passport renewed and never gave this much thought but what is the official U.S government take on place of birth for people born in queens/brooklyn/etc.

For instance, Flushing Hospital is located in Flushing, NY per the USPS. Would the place of birth be Queens, NY,(birth certificate lists borough) Flushing,NY,(USPS) or New York,NY(Technically the city)? Or does it even matter?


How about when you renew? Say you put Flushing for your earlier passports? Will the department of state freak out if on the next renewal you put Queens?


Seems like this is a known issue that they are probably aware about but curious what people put!

dhammer53

Even though I grew up in Brooklyn, my passport says New York USA.

Welcome to Flyertalk AAL787.

sbm12

It is state and country, not city and country, on the current passports. So it should just be New York, USA.

AAL787

Indeed passport says New York, USA. However, I am curious what the State Department would want to see and if they would care that one my previous application it said Flushing,NY and this one I put Queens,NY or NY,NY and potentially deny or delay the application due to the discrepancy.

How the question is phrased would potentially make me provide a different answer. Because I was curious, I checked my global entry and I had put Flushing,Ny when I had applied but the interview was at JFK and surely they understand the situation more than the passport offices elsewhere.

Curiously there seems to be only one other discussion of this I could find: http://ask.metafilter.com/161682/Where-was-I-born-officially
Sadly though, it was inconclusive as well.

Gonna call the NPIC on Monday but wanted to see what people's thoughts were on this first. The renewal is gonna be tight and didn't want it delayed because of this stupid issue

RooseveltL

Born in Bklyn but have New York, USA on pspt

AAL787

I'm aware that passports simply show state and country. What I'm most curious about is what you would put in the application itself? Would the state department know/care if I put Flushing,NY before and on this application put Queens,NY. Both are sorta correct. Obviously for Brooklyn, it would either be Brooklyn or New York as Brooklyn doesn't have the traditional administrative area issue that queens did.


Depending on the context and the mood, I might say 1 of the 3. In fact, checking my Global Entry account, it seems I used flushing, ny for that, though with the agent being at JFK, I'm sure they know the odd situation of the 5 boroughs more than the state department people.


I'll be calling the NPIC on Monday to see if they have any advice but wanted to see if FT had some wisdom on the topic

Blumie

My advice is that you're overthinking this and that the person at NPIC, if not a New Yorker, might not even understand the question. That said, I would go with what's on your birth certificate, since that is what you submitted as verification when you first applied for a passport.

dstan

Please note that this post has just been released from the moderation queue. Welcome to FlyerTalk, AAL787!
/Moderator

Mary2e

Another born in Brooklyn-ite and my passport also says New York.

Often1

The current passport application does require both city and state of birth. For Flushing, Brooklyn, and Queens, the answer would be "New York" as to city. Flushing is a neighborhood and both Brooklyn & Queens are Boroughs. All are located in the City of New York.

If you were to list any of the latter three on your application, the application would likely be returned for correction.

No need to call State, as this information is provided on the website and the questions are fairly clear on the forms, e.g. "City of birth" not "Borough of birth".

As others note, the State Department only lists the state and country of birth on the passport book itself.

Blumie

I have zero doubt that people list neighborhoods and boroughs on their applications all the time, and that it's totally not an issue. That said, if I were to make a recommendation, I would have the application match your birth certificate, as I said upthread, since it's the birth certificate that's submitted as proof of place of birth.

GUWonder

Even people born in Syracuse have had US passports say New York, USA for decades.

In terms of applications, applications saying Flushing, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, NYC, etc in NY ordinarily get processed just fine even if the DVR's file lists place of birth in NY slightly differently.

AAL787

Unfortunately, for NYC, it's not 100% certain what people would put. I do agree that in the vast majority of cases, you put exactly what is on your birth certificate. The city of New York, however, issues its own birth certificate, listing the borough instead! To add onto that, mail to anyone outside of Manhattan, is addressed to either the borough ( the case of bx, si, and bk) or "town" (in the case of queens, based on the consolidation of the city). I don't think that happens anywhere else in the country.

Research turned up that London (of the UK) is not dissimilar but there passport agency actually puts out guidelines regarding the issue and is fine with district or city for British passports

Regardless, I went with Queens on the application and will let everyone know if there are any issues I like closure on the issues so anyone who might search for this topic in the future can find some info

Blumie

Don't be too sure. I think there are lots of parts of the country where people list their neighborhood, rather than city or town, as their mailing address, and thus probably deal with this on their passport applications as well. For example, I was raised in Newton, Massachusetts, which is comprised of Newton Centre, Newtonville, Newton Corner, Newton Highlands, West Newton, Auburndale, Nonantum, Waban, and parts of Chestnut Hill (parts of Chestnut Hill also lie in Brookline and Boston). I have no doubt that on passport applications, some list Newton, and some list their particular neighborhood. I have no doubt that these go through without a hitch.

But please report back. It will be interesting to see what happens.

SFO777

Mrs. SFO777 was born in Queens. Passport says New York.