EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM the assistance of their national authorities when abroad (e.g. to facilitate nationality transmission for children born outside of their country of nationality). Consular certification systems normally require a person to submit evidence of their nationality including, for example, the production of a valid passport. Therefore, an authentic consular certificate may be considered equivalent to a passport in terms of probative value if it also contains a picture of the holder and depending on the conditions required by the consular post for issuing the certificate. In this sense, caution should also be exerted when an applicant submits a consular certificate alleging that they are not a national of that state. This assumption may simply be the result of the applicant not having submitted the required proof to the consulate. It does not necessarily mean that the applicant does not have the nationality. Not many countries issue consular certificates. Hence, the absence of such a certificate may not indicate lack of nationality. Other travel documents Usually, travel documents can be issued by states to individuals who are not their nationals and who, for various reasons, cannot obtain an ordinary passport. Travel documents issued by a country other than the country of reference (e.g. refugee passport, ‘blue’ passport) may include the mention of the holder’s nationality or lack thereof. In the latter case, the possession of such a travel document should raise questions as to why the applicant has left that country and can lead to applying an inadmissibility ground (i.e. the concepts of ‘first country of asylum’ or ‘safe third country’) ( 81). In other cases, applicants may be in possession of other types of travel documents (e.g. laissez-passer) which may contain indications of nationality or lack of citizenship in specific situations. Birth certificates Birth certificates are issued to document a person’s birth or the registration of such a birth. They usually include the name of the child, the date and place of birth and, often, the name and sometimes the nationality of the parents. However, birth certificates per se do not contain conclusive information on the person’s nationality. They may only mention one nationality per parent and therefore disregard that the parents may hold additional nationalities. More importantly, the authorities that issue birth certificates do not have the legal competence to certify nationality and may not require any evidence whatsoever of the parents’ nationality upon registration of the birth. In certain situations, however, birth certificates may substantiate nationality by themselves. This is the case where the birth certificate proves that the factual elements required by domestic nationality law are met. For instance, the applicant may be born in a country that applies jus soli. In such a case, the applicant’s nationality can be inferred from the birth (81) See Section V APR. 50