The state department requires newly naturalized citizens to send in their naturalization certificate along with their first passport application. Several people have told me this has to be the original certificate – that it cannot be a copy, and that the original will be sent back to me. Unfortunately, things do get lost in the mail sometimes and replacing the naturalization certificate not only costs hundreds of dollars but also takes at least six months from what I have read. The same people have told me that sending in the original made them nervous, and I do not want to take that risk.
So I'd much rather send a certified copy than the original. On the day of my naturalization, USCIS was kind enough to make a certified copy on the spot. It's a color photocopy with an affixed, signed, and stamped page stating that the photocopy is true. It looks like this. (Only in my case it's not an apostille, ignore the red writing.)
The question is whether the state department will accept the certified copy in lieu of the original. Here, they say:
Submit your original evidence of U.S. citizenship. [...] In some cases, you may be able to submit a certified copy of your citizenship evidence. A certified copy is any document that has the seal or stamp of the official issuing authority.
As a naturalized citizen, "evidence of U.S. citizenship" is my naturalization certificate. They say "[i]n some cases" but they don't seem to specify on that page. My copy does have the seal they ask for, however.
On the passport-application form itself, section 1 "PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP", they say:
Submit an original or certified copy [of your naturalization certificate] [emphasis mine]
To me that sounds like they should accept my certified copy. Yet everyone I have spoken to who has done their first passport application insists I have to send in the original. Someone even suggested that by "certified copy" the state department means the replacement naturalization certificate (the thing that would take six months to get).
All this makes me wonder if there's something I'm not seeing. I think fellow immigrants would be delighted to know if it is true they don't have to part with their naturalization certificate.
Can I send a certified copy of my naturalization certificate or does it have to be the original after all? If your answer is to send the original, how do you square that with the quotes I have provided?
PS: I have seen this answer but it makes no mention of certified copies or the quotes I provided.
