Laws and Found

Source: gmmurgirl logos Originally published: May 2014 | Last updated: October 13, 2026 It's one of those things that I should have done eons ago, but didn't because there was no need (yet). Then I went to law school, and the prospect of taking the bar later on loomed on the horizon. Then I had to get a passport for future work-related travels. With all these milestones piling up, the need to correct a clerical typo in my birth certificate became top priority. And the best news? It took less than two months. If you can recall, I wrote previously about my struggle with a clerical typo in my family name entry on my birth certificate. I filed my petition in my birthplace during the first week of April 2014, and the turnaround blew all my expectations away. The Dash to Zamboanga: By Hook or by Crook I didn't have much time, so I booked a flight to my birthplace for a quick 3-day visit. I arrived on a Sunday so I could familiarize myself with the city, which I was visiting f...

Originally published: March 14, 2014 | Last updated: October 13, 2026 I know many people have problems with misspellings or typo errors in their birth certificates, and I feel your pain. The horror of finding out my surname is misspelled in my record of birth was enough to ruin my day and make me skip my winged eyeliner. Seriously though, it has caused me several problems when I was processing my official documents like a passport, which made me decide to do something about it. I'm not gonna give any lawyerly advice on the subject because I am not a lawyer. I'd simply be sharing what I've gone through in this process so you will have an idea if you are in a similar predicament. A Missing Letter and a Cascade of Headaches I never thought missing a single letter from a family name can bring me such an unfortunate series of events. Imagine having to deal with it in your passport and then even bar applications. I've been using my real (correct) family name all my life. ...