All residents seeking a passport need to get their birth certificates certified.

For people born in Brunswick County, their birth certificates are issued and certified in the same office that handles passport applications. The federal government says that's not allowed.

Brunswick County Register of Deeds Robert Robinson says he disagrees with that policy.

"It seems to me that the person who created the record should be the person who would authorize or certainly certify it," he says. "But for whatever reason, the federal government seems to think differently, as a result of 9/11, they say."

Robinson says no other office has stepped up to take over handling passport applications, so native Brunswick County residents must go to other counties to get their birth certificates certified.

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