State Department to remove Consular Reports of Birth Abroad as acceptable evidence of sole custody

The U.S. State Department published a final rule to remove the Consular Report of Birth Abroad as acceptable evidence of sole authority/custody.

Key Points:

• The rule removes the CRBA from the list of acceptable documentary evidence of sole authority/custody if the CRBA lists only the applying parent.
• The final rule is set to take effect on July 24. The full Federal Register notice is available here.
• The State Department received two comments on the rule during the 60-day comment period; neither of the comments were opposed to the proposal.

Additional Information: The State Department had simultaneously proposed to allow non-applying parents or legal guardians to sign a statement of consent before a passport specialist as an alternative to signing it before a notary when an application is pending at a passport center. However, the Department postponed the publication of this amendment to a later date. More information regarding the proposal is available here.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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