USVI-On-Line

Now that we have booked the air and are trying to decide on the villa, my sister tells me that she just discovered her passport expired in May. I know she does not need it for St John but we would like to take the kids to the Baths for a day trip on the public ferry. Unfortunately, she will not be able to get a certified birth certificate in time for the trip. If you can believe this, my parents never put her first name on her birth certifiacte, so getting one involves a trip to the bureau of records in the state where she was born, will all kinds of attending documentation. She just started a new job last week and cannot take off until the day we leave for St John.
Do you think the BVI will accept an expired passport for a day trip?
Both of the kids have current passports.

Post 9/11?...? Nope. Sorry, but even as American citizens, we had a hard time getting out of St. Thomas on our flight back to the US! You could try, but why not just enjoy what there is to appreciate on the US side of the islands and save the BVI for the next time? Rules are too tight right now to expect any leniency.

It depends on when you are leaving. She may be able to apply for her passport and if you have enough lead time she can either 1- pay for expedited service or
2- submit it normally, wait abour 5 weeks and then print off the confimation from the state dept and bring that if it is before 1/1/08.

Actually i am pretty sure she has to have proof that her passport is bien processed so she had better expediate it
How did she get a passport to begin with if her name is not on the birth certificate?
We are leaving at the end of August and none of our checks has even been cash yet and we payed for the expidited service so we are getting nervous as well

good luck

And the good news is that my sister was able to order the birth certificate online using the first name of "female" and her last name. It will come in a week. She was afraid to do a mane change at this time for fear that the processing would be held up.
Kathy has had a passport since she was 19, and has always used her passport in lieu of a birth certificate for any official business. Before having the children she was vigilant about having it renewed. Her kids have had passports since the were a year old. Right after she booked the air on Friday, she took out all the passports and saw hers was expired.
Guess she still wont be able to get to the BVI but at least we will have no trouble with the STT flight.

Happy to hear your sister can order her birth certificate on line.

If you have a passport office close by you can get a renewed passport in 24 hours. Just with your old passport and airline tickets.

I have read you can go to BVI with birth certificate and license until Jan 2008.

Check it out. Have a great trip

Just to clarify, are you saying that if the trip is just to STT, that to return home, you need to have a certified birth certificate?

We have passports, but our daughter who will be traveling with her 1 year old will need to request birth certificates if that is indeed true.

Thanks!

When we came back through customs last week, the agent made us show proof of our birthplace...a government issued ID or driver license wasn't sufficient. Luckily, we had our marriage license with us, but next time we'll definitely bring birth certificate. We stayed only in the USVI, so I was surprised that we required so much identification to get back to the states.

Pia wrote:To leave STT you need a Certified Copy of your Birth Certificate (raised seal) and Drivers License (although you may or may not need that depending on the agent ) OR a Passport.
Pia

Looks like I might have fun getting back into the states. no passport or birth certificate with raised seal. maybe i'll make this a one way trip.

Was getting a little paranoid because in 2 recent instances reported on the St Martin board, passengers have been denied boarding in Atlanta on flights bound for St Martin. They did have their stamped receipt for their passport application but they did not have a certified copy of their birth certificate as they sent it with the passport application and did not get a duplicate.
Now St Martin is not the US, but suppposedly they inquired about switching their tickets to STT so as not to loose their vacation and were told by Delta that they could not board for STT without a birth certificate either.
Maybe this was just a PITA agent at Delta in Atlanta but I got very worried about my sisters status on American Airlines fron NY. Would not be a bad thing to do the vacation just DH and I but we would probably end up with her kids coming with us as they have valid passports and she would be left6 behind at the gate and off on the next plane to Vegas( LOL!!!)

Thanks, Pia. I checked with my daughter and she has a certified copy of her baby's birth certificate. We're good to go!

Ok now im a little worried
My husband and a friend of ours had to send their birth certificate to get their passports and of course they wont be here in time
I thought we just had to prove that our passports were bien processed
so without the birthcertificates are they not gonna beable to go?

Thanks Pia
gobucs