If you do not yet have a birth certificate for your child and your child quickly needs a Social Security number, Social Security may be able to help. Social Security has special procedures to expedite the assignment of a Social Security number if your child:

• Needs a number quickly to receive emergency benefits or services;
• Does not have a state-issued birth certificate;
• Has not already been assigned a number;
• Is less than a year old; and
• Was born in the United States.

Social Security will ask you for a hospital birth record for your child. If that is not available, Social Security can accept a medical record from a healthcare provider—such as a doctor, nurse or midwife—who attended the birth.

Under the law, Social Security must verify the birth record independently. So, Social Security first will ask you to sign a form authorizing the hospital or health care provider to release the child’s birth records to Social Security. Then, Social Security will contact the hospital or healthcare provider and send them the forms Social Security requires to verify the birth.

It then is up to the hospital or health care provider to provide Social Security with verification of your child’s birth. If they do not respond within 30 calendar days of the request, Social Security cannot process the request for your child’s Social Security number.