Can I travel with my new US passport that has the wrong place of birth?
 

I received my passport last week. I submitted the renewal about three weeks ago, so the turnaround time was actually much faster than I expected.

Unfortunately, I just noticed that it has the wrong place of birth. I'm not Swiss, but it shows Switzerland in the place of birth field.

I couldn't understand what went wrong until I looked at the actual renewal form that I mailed it. I filled out the form online on the State Dept's website then printed it out. Unless Swizerland had recently annexed Swedent, I don't think Stockholm is in Swizerland. On the form, it shows place of birth as "Stockholm, Switzerland" and I assume I missed that when I printed out the form. The expired passport that I submitted showed the correct place of birth as Sweden.

I tried the online form filler again and realized what I must have done. Sweden is just above Switzerland in the pull-down menu. I must have goofed and selected Switzernland by mistake. I did have to type in "Stockholm" so that was correct.

Will it be safe for me to travel next week and deal with the mistake after I return? Also, will they charge me the passport renewal fee again. I admit that I probably deserve 90% of the blame... but I think the passport agency deserves at least 5% or 10%, no? They have me on file from all the previous passports... plus the expired passport that I submitted with the renewal form. Or are these renewals never checked by a real human? I'm sure if I submitted a check that's $1 less than the standard renewal fee, my renewal would have been rejected and returned to me pronto! :)

From the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs website:

Might not be your mistake. A lot of people think that Sweden is Swizerland. I once talked to a person who very proudly knew that Copenhagen was the capital of Netherlands.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually changed money once and accidentally asked for Swiss currency then walked out and realized I needed Swedish. Luckily they refunded and changed it for me quickly, they don't have to.

Place of birth is one of the data points which US CBP and many countries use Thus, it is potentially problematic and something I would want corrected.

Your profile does not show your location, but if you are near a Passport Agency, this is something you can have corrected in person in a few hours if you show up with the erroneous passport, the properly completed form and photo. There is a number listed for you to call on the State Department website, but you can also simply show up early (before opening time) and explain your predicament.

Do not make this about fault because that is irrelevant.

'Place of Birth' incorrect on new passport
 

An adult friend of mine applied for her first-ever passport two years ago. The place of birth is listed as the state where she lives, and not the state she was born in. She is a natual-born US citizen. Not sure if she put the wrong info on the application, of if they messed it up. She has never been out of the country, but plans to drive to Canada soon for a short vacation. I see there is a form to correct this change, but it takes at least a few weeks.

Any reason to think using the passport as is will be an issue?

Hello @will2288,

I merged your question into an existing thread on this topic.

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

No reason to think this'll be a problem at all.

OP here... like I said in my original post, I admit that it was partly my fault for picking the wrong country in the State Dept passport application down-menu. (but I think they deserve at least 5 or 10 percent of the blame for not catching the mistake when they received the form in the mail... but that's a discussion for another day :) )

Anyway, I discussed with the passport agency and they said it would be very simple to correct. I wouldn't even need to provide any documentation, since all of my previous US passports have the correct country of birth listed. The only issue is that they would have to charge me the stand passport renewal fee, since I freely admitted to them that it was my mistake. (grandma was right when I was a kid... "keep you mouth shut and don't volunteer information and admit nothing")

I have since used the passport with wrong place of birth and nobody seemed to care that I had become Swiss, probably because nobody wanted to mess with a neutral country?

Should I wait until the next generation of US passport to come out to correct this? Since the new one is supposed to come out this or next year anyway, there's no sense in paying three times, right? (once when I got the one with the passport with wrong place of birth, another one to correct it, then again to replace it with the new design passport) :)

The OP may not have made an error; many internet sites use scroll bars for selecting data entries, these sometimes "move" when you move your mouse anywhere on the screen--to prevent this from happening, in many instances, you have to click the mouse over an empty area.
On AA.COM for example, when I check in for an intl flt I have to enter my birthdate and expiration date of my pp, the scroll bars for the month and date(s) have a way of scrolling off what I originally selected.

OP: can't you just send for correction and not mention you made the mistake this time (play dumb)? Did you admit in writing that you made a mistake, or was it a phone call/in person?