To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

In December, the Puerto Rican government said millions of people born on the island have to get new birth certificates starting July 1, no matter where they live now.

Officials say hundreds of thousands of copies of the documents from the island were floating around unprotected, making it easy for identity thieves to buy someone else's birth certificate.

"What we're trying to eliminate completely is the massive fraud created by the fact that we used to have tens of millions of valid birth certificates misfiled in places that were easily available for robbers to rob, and for them to be sold on the black market," said Kenneth McClintock, the secretary of state of Puerto Rico.

An old law required Puerto Rican residents to leave original copies of their birth certificates in various public and private offices when filling out paperwork. That opened the door to massive identity theft.

"The U.S. State Department informed our government in Puerto Rico that around 40 percent of passport fraud cases investigated by them involving birth certificates were through the misuse of Puerto Rico birth certificates," said McClintock.

Besides presenting a valid ID that will be scanned and sent in, the applicants will need to answer questions that only that person can answer.

"What hospital was that person born? What town? Parents' names, mom, dad? So that's matched with the ID that's presented and that's how we know that is the exact person doing this," said Luis Balzac of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.

"I believe with this new birth certificate, it's protecting us, our identity, our credit and everything else," said Rafael Echevarria, a New Yorker who was born in Puerto Rico.

Yet the new plan is being met with concern about the government's lack of community outreach.

"They're going to have to have workshops in Puerto Rican communities, they're going to have to print materials, they're going to have to do public service announcements," said President Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy. "There is, as far as I can tell, no coordinated campaign and that's where the confusion comes."

Officials say there is no need to rush for the new certificates, except if applicants are planning to get a driver's license, get married or get a passport this summer.

The Web site to apply for a new birth certificate is www.pr.gov. More information on the new certificates can be found at salud.gov.pr.