POMS Reference

GN 00307: Foreign Evidence

TN 32 (07-06)

A. Introduction

Records of birth are either not available or will not be received for several months after nonresidents of the following countries request them:

  1. North Korea;

  2. Belarus;

  3. Turkmenistan;

  4. Ukraine; and

  5. Uzbekistan.

B. Policy

SSA does not evaluate baptismal records from the countries listed in GN 00307.140A. under GN 00307.105A.2.d and GN 00307.110 unless the document clearly shows that it was issued by a Roman Catholic Church (RCC) or that the baptism was according to the Roman or Latin rites. SSA does not use the claimant’s statement to establish that the certificate was issued by an RCC.

C. Procedure

1. Claimant Lives Outside Country of Birth

a. General

Ask the claimant to submit a civil or religious record of birth if he/she already has one. Except as explained in GN 00307.140C.1.b, do not ask the claimant to get a civil or a religious record of birth if he/she does not have one.

If the claimant is living in the U.S., develop for evidence of age as explained in GN 00302.115, GN 00302.118 and GN 00302.125.

If the claimant is not living in the U.S., develop for evidence of age as explained in GN 00307.150C.2.

b. Claimant Born in Eastern Europe

Ask the claimant to get a birth record from the country of his/her birth if:

  • He/she was born in a part of eastern Europe which was incorporated into the former U.S.S.R.; and

  • It appears the birth record is not in the former U.S.S.R. republic, but in a country to which a request can be made.

2. Claimant Lives in Country of Birth

Ask the claimant to submit a civil or religious record of birth, showing the date the event was recorded, if he/she states that such a record was made before age 5. Otherwise develop for other evidence as explained in GN 00307.150C.2.