Expert: Cesar - 12/2/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi.  My husband was born in Bogota and given the name Fabian Florez.  He was adopted at 2 months and his name was legally changed to Jeff M. in the USA. He wants to officially change his name to JEff in Colombia so all his USA and Colombian documents have the same name and hence take advantage of his dual citizenship.  The NY consulate said we can to that with is ID and a certified copy of his Colombian certificate (registro de nacimiento).  We have a photo copy of the original hand written one.  I don't think that is good enough.  Do you know where to send a request to Colombia to have them mail a certified copy of registro de nacimiento?

ANSWER: Dear Lynn:

Normally, you can do some things at the consulate such as requesting a Colombian ID (called Cedula de Ciudadanía) and passport. They normally should be the first place to contact and if they cannot do anything for you then you would seek other means. They need some documentation as support before issuing documents. A handwritten document is not normally going to be an official document. It is strange and I doubt that anybody would issue a handwritten official document (unless there is no mean to type it, which is rare or nonexistent nowadays for an office not to have one).

The Registry office in Colombia handles Colombian IDs and handles information about births, marriages, deaths, voter registrations, census, registrations for candidates to elections, and their related regulations (details at
http://www.registraduria.gov.co/Informacion/func_regis.htm).

You can make inquiries with them at http://www.registraduria.gov.co/

At that website they list their phone numbers (currently 011571-657-0240 and 011571-8000-521-112), etc. You can also have someone go to the notary where the birth was registered. Just look at the documents you have and try to read which notary was the document registered at. Note the date of the registration, a "folio" (log) number or a "libro" (book) number, etc. to find out the number of the notary office (for example: Notaria primera) you can do a search to find out where are they located and other contact information.

A list of notaries in Bogotá can be found at (they also have lists for other states):
http://www.bogotamiciudad.com/Directorio/LasListas/TodasLasNotariasDeBogota.aspx
http://www.hitred.com/Colombia/directorios/bogota/notarias-y-abogados.htm

The "Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro", regulates/governs notaries and should have some information about notaries, but they might not be too helpful for what you need.

http://www.supernotariado.gov.co/supernotariado/

Best wishes,

Cesar
www.cesarusa.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you for getting back so fast.  I looked at the documents we have and it looks like it is regitered in El notario doce del circulo de bogota.  There is an identificacion no 760723, which is the date of birth.  Can we have a friend in Bogota simply pick it up for us?

Answer
Dear Ms. Lynn:

Good. The link I gave you shows that Notary 12 (Notaría 12) is located at:

Calle 13 #8A-34 Int 3 • Candelaria. Bogotá.

Their phone is: 01157-334-1823
Their email address is: notaria12@terra.com

I have not done much stuff at notaries in Colombia, but yes, other people can do errands for you at notaries, but they might ask for an authorization, most likely in Spanish that says that you give permission to the person to do get the documents for you. I suppose some of you speak Spanish and can call them or write something to them. The easiest way is to call them first and hear what they would have to say, better if you talk to the notary directly for advise. Maybe he could have someone check the records for you and have that information ready when you call back. The number 760723 is probably a number that tells where the information about that document is located. A date of birht does not fit those numbers.

Best wishes,

Cesar
www.CesarUSA.com
www.CesarColombia.com