Customer Support Ruling

Birth Registration Notification Forms
July 2005

PS-235 (233.2.3)

This Customer Support Ruling determines whether computer-generated "notification of birth registration forms" contain “personal information” and are mailable only at First-Class Mail or Express Mail rates.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 233.2.3*, prescribes that matter containing personal information must be mailed as First-Class Mail (or Express Mail).  Personal information is any information specific to the addressee.

The notification of birth registration is a blank printed form that is completed by computer.  It is mailed to the parents of a newborn child as verification that the child's birth certificate has been filed with the Department of Vital Statistics of a State and to provide the parents with the particulars about how to get a certified copy of the child's birth certificate.  A computer is used to print the following information in the blank spaces on the form: (1) the child's last name, first name, and middle name/initial; (2) sex; (3) place of birth; (4) date of birth; (5) age of mother and father; (6) county, and; (7) certificate number.  The form also contains a printed message informing the addressee of the following information: (a) of the place where the original document will be on permanent file; (b) what to do to obtain a certified copy, and; (c) the cost of the service.  In addition, it requests the recipient to correct errors in black ink and return the form to the Department of Vital Statistics.

Each completed notification of birth registration form contains personal information and is, therefore, subject to the First-Class Mail or Express Mail rates of postage in accordance with the provisions of the above regulation.

*See also DMM 133.3, 333.2, and 433.2.

(Signed)
Sherry Suggs
Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
Washington DC 20260-3436