I’ve been waiting since mid-April for Texas to send me a copy of my birth certificate, so I could get an ID in my new home state. In order to vote, I need an ID, and voting, especially in the upcoming Presidential election, is very important.
I assume you can already guess where this is going. But the details are interesting, in a WTF kind of way. Yesterday, I received a letter denying my request for issuance of a certified copy of my birth certificate. Here’s the interesting thing, though. I had not failed to provide the required documentation, or paid the wrong fees, or failed to get the request notarized.
So what did I do wrong? I used an old version of the request form. Said form which I downloaded from the Texas HHS website for mail requests for birth certificates. That’s right. I’m penalized for using the wrong form, which said bureaucracy provided to me.
Unsurprisingly, I checked yesterday when I received the letter, and discovered that the form on that website is still the wrong (old) version. The good news is that they conveniently included in the refusal package a (single) printed copy of the current form. That package also included all of the documentation I provided in my original request.
I can resubmit with the correct form, and at least I won’t have to pay the exorbitant processing fee again. Then I can wait another 6 – 8 weeks to find out if I will get my certified copy of my birth certificate this time. Of course, that involves getting the new form notarized, and paying that fee again.
Also, I am a person who prefers typing in the details on such forms for legibility reasons, and since I only have the one copy, if I didn’t have access to a scanner, that wouldn’t be possible, thanks to their continued failure to provide the correct form on their website. Later today, I will probably call their customer service line to complain, and suggest they update that form on the website. We all know how likely that is to make a difference.
Texas. Where incompetence and screwing the citizens is intentional. The cruelty is the point.
An Aging Trans Woman 
So it turned out that the correct form is on the Texas website. It just doesn’t come up as the first Google hit, and the old one is still there and is the first Google search match. 🤷♀️
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I am sorry. Likely they’ve underfunded their vital stats department, so the forms, etc. aren’t updated appropriately. I’m just glad you got your form, so here’s to everything going smoothly from here!
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