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If the above is true and if a COLB is adequate to get a US passport, how does the State Department identify anyone as being a US citizen?

From the State Department website:

Primary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship (One of the following):

Previously issued, undamaged U.S. Passport
Certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state*
Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth
Naturalization Certificate
Certificate of Citizenship

*A certified birth certificate has a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar's signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which must be within 1 year of your birth. Please note, some short (abstract) versions of birth certificates may not be acceptable for passport. purposes.

NOTE: If you do not have primary evidence of U.S. citizenship or your U.S. birth certificate does not meet the requirements, please see Secondary Evidence

Secondary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship:

If you were born in the United States and cannot present primary evidence of U.S. citizenship, you may submit a combination of early public records as evidence of your U.S. citizenship. Early public records must be submitted together with a birth record or Letter of No Record (see below). Early public records should show your name, date of birth, place of birth, and preferably be created within the first five years of your life. Examples of early public records are:

Baptismal certificate
Hospital birth certificate
Census record
Early school record
Family bible record
Doctor's record of post-natal care

Early Public Records are not acceptable when presented alone.

Delayed Birth Certificate

If you were born in the United States and cannot present primary evidence of U.S. citizenship because your U.S. Birth Certificate was not filed within the first year of your birth, you may submit a Delayed U.S. Birth Certificate. A Delayed U.S. Birth Certificate filed more than one year after your birth may be acceptable if:

It lists the documentation used to create it (preferably early public records) and
It is signed by the birth attendant or lists an affidavit signed by the parents

If your Delayed U.S. Birth Certificate does not include these items, it should be submitted together with Early Public Records (see above).

Letter of No Record

If you were born in the United States and cannot present primary evidence of U.S. citizenship because you do not have a previous U.S. passport or a certified U.S. birth certificate of any kind, you must present a state-issued Letter of No Record showing:

Your name
Your date of birth
The years for which a birth record was searched
Acknowledgement that no birth certificate was found on file
A Letter of No Record must be submitted together with Early Public Records (see above).
Form DS-10: Birth Affidavit

If you were born in the United States and cannot present primary evidence of U.S. citizenship, you may submit Form DS-10: Birth Affidavit as additional evidence of your U.S. citizenship. You may be requested to submit Early Public Records when submitting Form DS-10: Birth Affidavit. The birth affidavit:

Must be notarized
Must be submitted in person with Form DS-11
Must be submitted together with early public records
Must be completed by an affiant who has personal knowledge of birth in the U.S.
Must state briefly how the affiant's knowledge was acquired
Should be completed by an older blood relative
NOTE: If no older blood relative is available, the affiant may be the attending physician or any other person who has personal knowledge of the birth

Foreign Birth Documents + Parent(s) Citizenship Evidence

If you claim citizenship through birth abroad to U.S. citizen parent(s), but cannot submit a Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth, you must submit all of the following:

Your foreign birth certificate
Evidence of citizenship of your U.S. citizen parent
Parents' marriage certificate
An affidavit of your U.S. citizen parent showing all periods and places of residence or physical presence in the United States and abroad before your birth

NOTES:

See Documentation of U.S. Citizens Born Abroad for additional information.

For information on foreign born children adopted by U.S. citizens, see the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 .

Unacceptable Documents

The following will not be accepted as evidence of U.S. citizenship:

Voter registration card
Army discharge paper
Social Security Card

Many thanks for the quick and comprehensive response. Inevitably, in subjects like this, answers lead to more questions and I bet you’ve answered all of these many times over so I appreciate your time dealing with mine.

I’m still baffled as to why anywhere in the US would put the place of birth erroneously on any official documentation so my first question still stands...

Even if someone was born in Bali (and their long form birth certificate stated it as such), any COLB issued by Hawaii would state their place of birth as Hawaii?

Finally, Nobama has a US passport. Does anyone know what documentation he used to obtain it?

Many thanks for the quick and comprehensive response. Inevitably, in subjects like this, answers lead to more questions and I bet you’ve answered all of these many times over so I appreciate your time dealing with mine.

I’m still baffled as to why anywhere in the US would put the place of birth erroneously on any official documentation so my first question still stands...

Even if someone was born in Bali (and their long form birth certificate stated it as such), any COLB issued by Hawaii would state their place of birth as Hawaii?

Finally, Nobama has a US passport. Does anyone know what documentation he used to obtain it?

•Your foreign birth certificate
•Evidence of citizenship of your U.S. citizen parent

Just wondering, does this mean that if 0 were born in Kenya (which I don’t believe) or Canada (which I believe there is a strong possibility given that early visit Anne made to Susan Blake in Seattle and given her residence in Washington during 1961-1962 for school) could she have filed his Canadian certificate and lied about how old she was on the application for a Hawaiian certificate so that he would get American citizenship?