GN 00307: Foreign Evidence

Effective Dates: 04/16/2018 - Present

TN 32 (07-06)

A. Introduction

This section provides information on the availability of birth records outside the U.S. and guides to developing evidence of age for persons born outside the U.S.

B. Definitions

The definitions in GN 00307.190B.1 and GN 00307.190B.2. explain the terms used in the chart in GN 00307.190D.

1. Availability of Birth Records

No — Records are not available, or not generally available, for persons at least age 59.
Yes — Birth records were established for all, or most, persons who are at least age 59.
Unknown — SSA has information indicating birth records are available but does not know the extent to which they are available.

2. Recordation Dates

No — The recordation date cannot be assumed. This does not always mean that evidence is questionable. It may mean that recordation dates are routinely shown and the absence of one is something out of the ordinary, or that SSA does not have sufficient experience to permit an assumption of the recordation date.
Yes — Absent information to the contrary, SSA assumes public and religious records of birth/baptism were made at or near the date of the event.

C. Procedure

Develop for evidence of age for a person born in a country for which the availability of birth record is not known as follows:

If the individual	Then
says a civil or religious record of birth was established before age 5,	ask him/her to get a certification of that record. EXCEPTION: The chart in GN 00307.190D. shows that a certification should not be requested.
is not living in that country and does not know whether a record was established,	treat this as a “no” response and develop other evidence of age.
is residing in that country and asks about benefits,	ask him/her to get a record established before age 5. EXCEPTION: The chart in GN 00307.190D. shows that a certification should not be requested.

D. Policy

SSA uses this chart to determine whether birth/baptismal records are available for people who are at least age 59 and whether recordation dates can be assumed.

NOTE: Where known, information is also shown on the establishment of civil recordkeeping systems.

Country	Birth Records Generally Available for Persons Age 59 or Older	Date of Recordation Can Be Assumed	Remarks
Afghanistan	No	No
Albania	No	No	See GN 00307.303 through GN 00307.307
Algeria	Unknown	Assume recordation dates as explained in GN 00307.105A.2.d.	Do not request evidence from Algeria. See GN 00307.309.
Andorra	Yes	No
Angola	No	No
Anguilla	Yes	No	Do not request evidence from Anguilla See GN 00307. 312
Antigua and Barbuda	Yes	No
Argentina	Yes	Assume the year of the register on civil records is the year of recordation.
Armenia	Yes	No	Do not request evidence from Armenia. See GN 00307.327
Australia	Yes	Yes
Austria	Yes	Yes
Azerbaijan	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Azerbaijan. See GN 00307.336.
Bahamas	Yes	Assume recordation dates as follows: Civil records contain a legend at the top showing “Births in (District/Town) during the 3 months ending (day) of (month) 19 (year). ” Absent information to the contrary, assume the birth was registered within that 3-month period.	Do not request evidence from the Bahamas. See GN 00307.440.
Bahrain	No	No	Birth records have been kept since 1970. The degree of compliance with registration requirements is unknown.
Bangladesh	No	No	Do not request evidence from Bangladesh. See GN 00307.345.
Barbados	Yes	No
Barbuda (see Antigua and Barbuda)
Belarus	No*	No	*The “No” entry does not refer to a scarcity of records but a lack of SSA information on vital statistics records in this country. See GN 00307.140.
Belau (See Palau)
Belgium	Yes	Yes
Belize (formerly British Honduras)	Yes	No	Do not request evidence from Belize. See GN 00307.441
Benin (formerly Dahomey)	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Benin. See GN 00307.360.
Bermuda	Yes	Yes
Bhutan	No	No
Bolivia	Yes	No	The civil registry was established in 1940; religious records exist for persons born before 1940. Do not request evidence from Bolivia. See GN 00307.443
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Unknown	For civil records only, assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation.	Do not request evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina. See GN 00307.366.
Botswana	No	No
Brazil	Yes	No
Britain (see United Kingdom)
British Honduras (see Belize)
British Virgin Islands	Yes	Yes
Brunei	Yes*	No	*Birth records are available from 1926 for British subjects and from 1948 for all others.
Bulgaria	Yes	No	Do not request evidence from Bulgaria. See GN 00307.378.
Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta)	No	No
Burma	No	No	Do not request evidence from Burma. See GN 00307.384.
Burundi	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Burundi. See GN 00307.386
Cambodia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Cambodia. See GN 00307.390.
Cameroon	Unknown	No
Canada	Yes	Assume recordation dates, except for civil records from Nova Scotia for events before 10/01/1908, and civil records from Quebec for events before 01/01/ 26.
Cape Verde	Yes*	Assume recordation only as follows: On civil records, assume the “birth registration year” is the year of registration. Do not make any assumptions for religious records.	*Civil records only See GN 00307.400 through GN 00307.401.
Cayman Islands	Yes	No
Central African Republic	Unknown	No
Chad	No	No	Do not request evidence from Chad. See GN 00307.404
Chile	Yes	No
China, People's Republic of	No	No	See GN 00307.412 through GN 00307.416.
Colombia	Yes	No	Religious records are available for births prior to 1940. Do not request evidence from Colombia. See GN 00307.425
Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.) (see Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.)
Congo, Democratic Republic of	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from the Democratic Rep. of the Congo. See GN 00307.430.
Costa Rica	Yes	No
Cote d'Ivoire (formerly Ivory Coast)	No	No	Do not request evidence from the Cote d’Ivoire. See GN 00307.439.
Croatia	Yes*	For civil records only, assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation.	*Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time. See GN 00307.442.
Cuba	No	No	See GN 00307.445.
Cyprus	Yes*	Assume recordation dates only for “Class a” birth certificates (GN 00307.448A.2). See GN 00307.448C.4. for information on religious records.	*Except for Greek Cypriots born in the Turkish-controlled area of Cyprus
Czech Republic	Yes*	Yes	*Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time.
Czechoslovakia (see Czech Republic and Slovak Republic)
Dahomey (see Benin)
Denmark	Yes	Yes	See GN 00307.457.
Djibouti (formerly Afars and Issas)	No	No
Dominica	Unknown*	No	*A fire in 1979 destroyed many records at the central registry office. Some civil records may be available in the district where the event occurred. Baptismal records are available for those baptized.
Dominican Republic	Yes	No
Ecuador	Yes	No
Egypt	No	No	Do not request evidence from Egypt. See GN 00307.472.
El Salvador	Yes	No
England (see United Kingdom)
Equatorial Guinea	No	No
Estonia	Yes	No	See GN 00307.484.
Ethiopia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Ethiopia. See GN 00307.487.
Fiji	Yes	Assume recordation dates only on civil birth records as follows: Assume the last two digits of the entry number are the year of recordation.
Finland	Yes	Yes
France	Yes	Yes
French Guiana (see France)
Gabon	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Gabon. See GN 00307.500.
Gambia	Unknown	No
Georgia	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Georgia. See GN 00307.506.
Germany Areas Formerly in East Germany	Yes*	No	*See GN 00307.509.
Areas Formerly in West Germany	Yes	Yes — This includes certificates issued before 1946 by “Germany” for an area that became East Germany and certificates issued after 1945 by West German /German authorities.
Ghana	Unknown	No	See GN 00307.515.
Gibraltar	Yes	Yes
Great Britain (see United Kingdom)
Greece	Yes	Assume recordation dates for mitroon arrenons issued by a Nomarchy and secured by the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.	See GN 00307.518 through GN 00307.525.
Greenland (see Denmark)
Grenada	Yes	No
Grenadines (see St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
Guadeloupe (see France)
Guatemala	Yes	No
Guinea	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Guinea. See GN 00307.536.
Guinea-Bissau	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Guinea-Bissau. See GN 00307.537
Guyana (formerly British Guiana)	Unknown	No
Haiti	Yes	No
Honduras	Yes	No
Hong Kong	Yes	No
Hungary	Yes*	Assume the year of the register on civil birth certificates is the recordation date. On some certificates this is shown as a definite register year. On others, the register year is shown as part of the reference number (e.g., “Birth Register Nr.*41/1924” is the register for 1924). See GN 00307.105A.2.d.	*Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time.
Iceland	Yes	Yes
India	No*	No	See GN 00307.560. *Some records are available for Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Armenian Christians, Jews and Parsees.
Indonesia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Indonesia. See GN 00307.563.
Iran	No	No	Do not request evidence from Iran. See GN 00307.566.
Iraq	No	No	Do not request evidence from Iraq. See GN 00307.569.
Ireland	Yes	Yes	See GN 00307.572.
Israel	No*	For civil records from 1947 only, assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation.	*Records for Jewish people exist from 1922; for Arabs from 1948. See GN 00307.742 for information on the Palestinian-Administered Territories.
Italy	Yes	Yes	See GN 00307.578 for persons born in Trieste.
Ivory Coast (see Cote d'Ivoire)
Jamaica	Yes	No	Do not request evidence from Jamaica. See GN 00307.585.
Japan	Yes*	Yes	See GN 00307.105A.2.b. *Except for persons born in Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. See GN 00307.584.
Jordan	Yes	No	Records available for persons born after 1919. See GN 00307.587.
Kampuchea (see Cambodia)
Kazakhstan	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Kazakhstan. See GN 00307.590.
Kenya	No*	No	Do not request evidence from Kenya. See GN 00307.593. *Records exist for Europeans and Asians.
Kiribati	Unknown	No
Kuwait	No	No
Kyrgyzstan	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Kyrgyzstan. See GN 00307.603.
Laos	No	No	Do not request evidence from Laos. See GN 00307.609.
Latvia	Yes	No	See GN 00307.615.
Lebanon	No	No	See GN 00307.618 through GN 00307.619.
Lesotho (formerly Basutoland)	No	No
Liberia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Liberia. See GN 00307.627.
Libya	No	No
Liechtenstein	Yes	Yes
Lithuania	Yes	No	See GN 00307.636.
Luxembourg	Yes	Yes
Macao	Yes	No
Macedonia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Macedonia. See GN 00307.642.
Madagascar	Unknown	No
Malagasy Republic (see Madagascar)
Malawi	No	No	Do not request evidence from Malawi. See GN 00307.644
Malaysia	No	No
Maldives	Unknown	No
Mali	No	No	Do not request evidence from Mali. See GN 00307.645
Malta	Yes	Yes
Marshall Islands, Republic of	Unknown	No
Martinique (see France)
Mauritania	Unknown	No
Mauritius	No	No
Mexico	Yes*	No	See GN 00307.669 through GN 00307.676. *Church records and civil records at the State level (except the State of Zacatecas before 1976 and the State of Chihuahua before 1955 and after 1978).
Micronesia, Federated States of	Unknown	No	See GN 00307.687.
Moldova	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Moldova. See GN 00307.690.
Monaco	Yes	Yes
Mongolia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Mongolia. See GN 00307.696.
Montenegro	No	See GN 00307.698B.	Do not request evidence from Montenegro. See GN 00307.698.
Montserrat	Yes	No
Morocco	No*	No	*Civil birth records are available for Europeans born after 1912.
Mozambique	Unknown	No
Myanmar (see Burma)			.
Namibia	Unknown	No
Nauru	Unknown	No
Nepal	No	No
Netherlands	Yes	Yes
Netherlands Antilles	Unknown	No
New Caledonia (see France)
New Guinea (see Papua New Guinea)
New Hebrides (see Vanuatu)
New Zealand	Yes	Yes
Nicaragua	Yes	No	See GN 00307.721.
Niger	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Niger. See GN 00307.724.
Nigeria	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Nigeria. See GN 00307.727.
Northern Ireland (see United Kingdom)
North Korea	No	No	See GN 00307.140.
Norway	Yes	Yes
Okinawa (see Japan)
Oman	No	No
Pakistan	No	No	Do not request evidence from Pakistan. See GN 00307.736.
Palau	Unknown	No
Palestinian-Administered Territories	Unknown*	No	*See GN 00307.742.
Panama	Yes*	No	*Civil birth records are available from 4/14/14. Religious records are available before that date.
Panama Canal Zone (see Panama for births after 9/79)	Yes	Assume recordation date if a birth prior to 10/79 was registered with the Panama Canal Commission.
Papua New Guinea	No	No	Do not request evidence from Papua New Guinea. See GN 00307.739
Paraguay	Yes	No
Peru	Yes	No	Civil registration of births has been required since 1936. Although registration laws were not strictly enforced before 1936, records exist for most individuals.
Philippines	Yes	Assume recordation dates on civil records only if the conditions in GN 00307.758B. are met. In such cases, assume the “birth register year(s)” is the year or period in which the birth was registered.	See GN 00307.757 through GN 00307.765.
Pitcairn Island	Unknown	No
Poland	Yes	Assume the recordation date only for baptismal records. For civil records, assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation.	See GN 00307.775.
Portugal	Yes	Yes (except for the former territories of the Cape Verde Islands)
Qatar	No	No
Rhodesia (see Zimbabwe)
Romania	Yes*	No	See GN 00307.784. *Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time.
Russia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Russia. See GN 00307.787.
Rwanda	No	No	Do not request evidence from Rwanda. See GN 00307.790.
Ryukyu Islands (see Japan)
St. Kitts and Nevis	Yes	No
St. Lucia	Yes	No
St. Pierre and Miquelon (see France)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Yes	No
Samoa	Yes	Yes for civil records only unless “LR” is shown after the registration number (a 3,4 or 5 digit number on the line below the place of registration). Civil birth certificates issued before 1962 show a registration number followed by a slash and “LR” if the birth was registered more than 2 months after it occurred. Those issued after 1961 show a registration number, slash, year of registration, slash and “LR” (i.e., 0000/83/LR for 1983 registration), or registration number, and registration year (i.e., 0000/ 83).
Sao Tome and Principe	Unknown	No
Saudi Arabia	No	No
Scotland (see United Kingdom)
Senegal	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Senegal. See GN 00307.815.
Serbia	Yes*	See GN 00307.818B.	Do not request evidence from Serbia. See GN 00307.818. *Except for the Kosovo region.
Seychelles	Unknown	No
Sierra Leone	No	No	Do not request evidence from Sierra Leone. See GN 00307.824.
Singapore	Yes	No
Slovak Republic	Yes*	Yes	*Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time.
Slovenia	Yes*	For civil records only, assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation.	*Residents of other countries may not be able to get certificates within a reasonable time. See GN 00307.833.
Solomon Islands	No	No
Somalia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Somalia. See GN 00307.839.
South Africa	Yes	For civil records only, assume the last two digits of the reference or entry number is the year of recordation. For example, if a document shows a reference number of 1078/21, assume the birth was registered in 1921. The number may be shown as a separate entry on the certificate or as part of the DB entry. Also, assume the date shown on the official date stamp on a “Proof of Registration” form is the date on which the birth was registered.	Do not request evidence from South Africa. See GN 00307.842
South Korea	Yes	No	See GN 00307.845.
Spain	Yes	Yes
Sri Lanka	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Sri Lanka. See GN 00307.851.
Sudan	No	No	Those birth records which do exist often show only a year of birth. In such cases, Sudanese officials may enter January 1 on the birth certificate.
Surinam	Yes	No
Swaziland	Unknown	No
Sweden	Yes	Yes
Switzerland	Yes	Yes
Syria	No	No	Do not request evidence from Syria. See GN 00307.869.
Tahiti (see France)
Taiwan (Formosa)	No	No	Taiwan uses a system of household registration similar to that followed in Japan. For persons born in Taiwan, the household registration from their place of birth (not the latest residence) will show the birth registration date.
Tajikistan	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Tajikistan. See GN 00307.875.
Tanzania	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Tanzania. See GN 00307.878.
Thailand	No	No	The civil registry was established in 1917, but registration was not common in Bangkok before WW II or among those born up-country. Accept the claimant's statement that he/she was born up-country.
Tibet (see China, People's Republic of)
Tobago (see Trinidad and Tobago)
Togo	No	No
Tonga	Yes	No
Trinidad and Tobago	Yes	No
Tunisia	Yes*	For civil records only: Birth occurred after 1956 — Assume the “birth register year” is the year of recordation. Birth occurred before 1957 — Assume the year of registration is the year of recordation if the certificate shows only a month and day of recordation/declaration. If there is no month and day of recordation/declaration, do not assume the year of the register is the year of recordation.	*For Tunisians who are Moslem or Jewish. Registration for others was compulsory effective 8/1/57.
Turkey	Yes*	No	*Civil records only. See GN 00307.896 through GN 00307.899.
Turks and Caicos Islands	Yes	No
Turkmenistan	No*	No	*The “No” entry does not refer to a scarcity of records but a lack of SSA information on vital statistics records in this country. See GN 00307.140.
Tuvalu	Unknown	No
Uganda	No	No	Do not request evidence from Uganda. See GN 00307.906.
Ukraine	No*	No	*The “No” entry does not refer to a scarcity of records but a lack of SSA information on vital statistics records in this country. See GN 00307.140.
Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (U.S.S.R) (see individual former republic)
United Arab Emirates	No	No
United Kingdom	Yes	Yes
Upper Volta (see Burkina Faso)
Uruguay	Yes	No
Uzbekistan	No*	No	*The “No” entry does not refer to a scarcity of records but a lack of SSA information on vital statistics records in this country. See GN 00307.140.
Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides)	Unknown*	No	Records generally available except for the outer islands.
Venezuela	Yes	No
Vietnam	No	No	Do not request evidence from Vietnam. See GN 00307.930.
Wales (see United Kingdom)
Western Samoa (see Samoa)
Yemen, Republic of	No	No	Composed of former Yemen and Democratic Republic of Yemen (Southern Yemen). See GN 00307.933.
Yugoslavia (see former republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia)
Zaire	No	No
Zambia	No	No	Do not request evidence from Zambia. See GN 00307.964.
Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)	Unknown	No	Do not request evidence from Zimbabwe. See GN 00307.967.

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