A Oregon woman is finally able to apply for a new passport after the US Air Force located a copy of her birth certificate.

According to the Mail Tribune, 21-year-old Vanessa Driskell has been looking for her birth certificate for the past 4 years, ever since she was 16 and wanted to apply for a driver’s license.

For most of us, a lost birth certificate is nothing more than an inconvenience. All it means is that you’ll have to order a replacement from the Department of Vital Records where you were born. Vitalchek even has a service that allows you to apply online, and if you pony up extra for expedited processing and shipping you can have yours in less than a week, sometimes in just days.

Unfortunately, Miss Driskell was born in the Philippines, at Clark Air Base where her father was stationed. In June of 1991, the base had to be evacuated due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, one of the most massive volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. In the chaos, her certificate of live birth showing that she was born overseas to US citizen parents was lost. Unable to order another copy, she has basically been in limbo for the past four years, unable to apply for a new passport or even a state ID.

A spokesman for Senator Ron Wyden, who assisted in finding the documents, explained to the Mail Tribune how they were finally located:

“The documents are coming to us from the National Archives in St. Louis. We had contacted them about this case. To their credit, they began an extensive search. They found it in a box in a warehouse in Illinois that was part of the base closure file.”

Now, Miss Driskell can stop worrying about finding the documents for a new passport and can start planning where to go for her first trip out of the country. It’s nice to see a passport story with a happy ending, especially right before Thanksgiving!

If you need help applying for a new passport, RushMyPassport can make the process quicker and easier. We’ll walk you through the application process and deliver your application to the Department of State for processing times as low as 24 hours, depending on the option you choose.

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