Problems getting a Jamaican passport
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I was born in Jamaica but left at a young age and am living overseas. I am trying to apply for an adult Jamaican passport but the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency won’t finalise the application because my mother didn’t add my father’s name to my birth certificate. She refuses to give me any information and even if I wanted to add his name she is required to sign a form at the Registrar General’s Department and submit documents. What should I do if she doesn’t show any interest in helping me regulate my immigration status and get my documents?
If you were born before August 6, 1962, then on that day you became a Jamaican citizen. If you were born on August 6, 1962 or after, you were and are a born Jamaican citizen. Section 3, 3A, 3B and 3C of Chapter 11 of the Constitution of Jamaica deals with the acquisition and the entitlement to Jamaican citizenship.
Additionally, Jamaican citizenship is obtained from either the fact of birth by descent from your mother or father. This being so, I cannot understand why PICA refused to grant your application for an adult Jamaican passport because your birth certificate, like many others, does not have your father’s name on it, as your mother clearly did not disclose it when reporting your birth. Such a reason would be contrary to the constitution — a breach — as since its amendment, citizenship can pass through one’s mother and not only through fathers.
Is it that your mother is not a Jamaican citizen? I somehow do not think that this was the reason for the refusal as you must have had a Jamaican passport or were on your mother’s passport when you left Jamaica while you were of a young age.
Did you provide your mother’s birth certificate as well as yours with your application? This would have enabled them to connect her with the person identified on your birth certificate. I say this because I think it is possible that this may be the reason for the refusal. You see, your proof of your birth here in Jamaica, of a Jamaican mother, would be based on the fact that you can prove to them that your mother is the same person on your birth certificate as is mentioned in her own birth certificate.
You should have asked them more questions. Your entitlement as a Jamaican citizen to a Jamaican passport does not rest only on proving who your father
was, but as the Constitution provides, it can rest only on your mother and based on the fact that you were born here and of a Jamaican mother.
You have asked what you can do to get your father’s name and information in the records of your birth. In my view the only way this can be done, if you find out who he was or is and he does not consent to do a declaration of the fact, would be for you to obtain a declaration of paternity. But quite frankly, I do not see the need for all this.
You can, if necessary, apply for registration as a citizen of Jamaica pursuant to your mother’s Jamaican citizenship and when this process is completed, apply for your passport.
I must again mention the fact of my bemusement that you say PICA refused your application for an adult passport because your father’s name does not appear on your birth certificate. I am not sure that you heard them correctly and why you did not ask follow-up questions. If what you say is a fact, that this was the basis of the refusal, then thousands of persons must have been refused a Jamaican passport for not having their father’s name on their birth certificates. It just does not make sense!
I suggest that you contact them again to seek information on the following:
1. What a Jamaican by birth of a Jamaican mother, in Jamaica, father unknown, on the_____ day of ________ 19 __ or 20___(your date of birth), needs to do in order to obtain a Jamaican passport? And also,
2. What a person born of a Jamaican mother in Jamaica, who had travelled on a Jamaican passport while a very young child and whose father is unknown, needs to produce in order to obtain an adult Jamaican passport?
Try to obtain written responses so that you will be in no doubt about what you would need to provide when you apply again.
If any problems arises you can then quote your questions to them and their answers to the questions with the date and time you received them.
I wish you success with your next application after you have made the enquiries I have suggested. I would be honoured if you’d write to inform us when you obtain your Jamaican passport and the means you used to obtain it. All the best.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to a llwoman@jamaicaobserver.com ; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
DISCLAIMER:
The contents of this article are for informational purposes only, and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.
