December 21, 2010

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo transmitted the following information through the Embassy's warden system as a public service to all U.S. citizens in Japan.

The Department of State is pleased to announce the introduction of a redesigned Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA, or Form FS-240). The redesigned CRBA, which is an official record confirming that a child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent or parents acquired U.S. citizenship at birth and serves as proof of citizenship, has been updated with a variety of state-of-the-art security features to help prevent fraud and identity theft.

Beginning Jan. 18, 2011, overseas posts will still document the citizenship of children born overseas to U.S.-citizen parents, but CRBAs will be printed at our passport agencies in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and New Orleans, Louisiana, using the information provided by overseas posts. By centralizing production and eliminating the distribution of controlled blank stock throughout the world, we will help ensure uniform quality and lessen the possibility of fraud. Additionally, the Department will no longer issue the DS-1350 Certification of Report of Birth Abroad. Instead, the Department will simply provide new FS-240s in response to requests for additional, replacement, or amended CRBAs.

In order to upgrade our systems for this change, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the Consulates in Osaka-Kobe, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Naha are suspending CRBA adjudication from Jan. 1-18, 2011. CRBA applications submitted during that time will be adjudicated after Jan. 18.