I'm reading over the ds230 forms for a I130 visa. It says I need to submit police certificates, marriage certificates, etc to NVC. does mumbai consulate require originals only or will they be ok with me submitting certified copies to NVC to forward with the DS230?

Also, The checklist on here http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3830.html
when I select bombay on it, it's a checklist, does that need to get signed by beneficiary and submitted to NVC, or is that for the consulate only???

I assume you are going through CR-1, if so then don't worry about submitting originals to NVC. Once you have submitted police certificate and all, NVC will forward those to Consulate once your case gets complete and an interview date is reserved. You will get all your documents back at the day of interview.

You can also submit certified copies to NVC, in that case you will have to take the originals at the interview and they might want to see it again. I submitted my certified BC at NVC but they never asked to see the original at the consulate.

The link you have provided is for Mumbai consulate, but mind you don't have to resubmit any of the things which you have already submitted at NVC. The list is for all kinds of Immigrant visa, CR-1 is spousal visa and most of the paper work is done at NVC level, all you have to take for interview would be passport, 2x2 size photograph, medical, relationship proof and/or any other documents which you didn't submit at NVC.

Thanks Trinket, that was really very helpful. After thinking about it a lot, I do plan to go the IR1/CR1 route. It is a overall better and easier visa to use than the k3.

That checklist is a mumbai consulate checklist, but the bottom of it requires a signature, my question is does that checklist get submitted to mumbai consulate itself or does she have to sign it and send it to me to send to NVC?

I plan to submit certified copies of everything to NVC and then just take my originals to the interview..

What exactly do the mean by certified copies anyway???
I thought certified copies are just copies that have been notarized, but now im hearing certified copies are same thing as the originals? Is this true??

I readit here:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=3158010

Certified copies, from what I understand, is a certificate that is authorized by the SAME ISSUING AGENCY. Thus, making it different from a notarized copy. So, say I got my birth certificate from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. I would need to go to them and have them issue a certified copy against the original. Kind of like a duplicate original. An oxymoron if there was was one.

true that.

About signature, I am assuming you are talking about DS-230 forms and that checklist, if so, the signature will be by the beneficiary. DS-230 part 1 signed Part-2 unsigned by the beneficiary, along with other documents -- Marriage, Birth certificate, PCC need to be submitted at NVC. Also your spouse might have to submit another copy of DS-230 form part 1 signed and part 2 unsigned at VFS India before his/her interview. Mumbai VFS needs it but I have seen Gujurat VFS not requiring it, so just make sure your spouse keeps a copy of it, so if they do ask for it, he/she will have it to submit.

nah not the ds230..

there's another checklist that's on that site.

when you click that link in the first post i made, and select BMB for bombay, a PDF comes up.. that PDF has a place for a signature, under applicant statement - my question is -for a IR1/CR1 - does that document need to be submitted as a original to NVC or does that document get submitted to VFS in Mumbai?

For the beneficiary's birth certificate - since the municipal whatever is whining about giving my wife her birth certificate, I had her tell them to write a note saying they cant do it and why they wont issue it. I'll have them give affadavids about it too from the parents and stuff like that..

do those documents need to be original or can they be just photocopies?

i hate this original docs requirement, it makes me have to go back and forth india a million times for papers..

Also do they require original police certificate docs? nowhere does it say that they need original or photocopies..

Original PCCs. I'd add a regular photocopy as well. Just in case.

Its either original or certified.

As for the checklist, I never submitted anything of that sort. But it says Packet 3, and at the bottom it says Applicant. Applicant in this case is the beneficiary. And Packet 3 is submitted at VFS.

May be the rules have changed from what it used to be when I was going through the process. But do remember that that checklist is for every one, that is all other Immigrant visas too, and they have to submit a lot more at VFS compared to CR-1 applicant. Do ask your wife to keep a copy of it and all but I doubt it will be asked at VFS.

damn, they dont make this easy at all, do they...

next to impossible to get anything original from india without having to go all the way there.

If its just Birth Certificate you are worried about being original, you can actually send 10th pass certificate as an alternative.

NVC knows that a lot of Indians don't have original BC, so they do accept 10th pass certificate, but if you are using that you will have to make an affidavit stating why you are submitting 10th pass certificate instead of BC.

no its just a complete mess.

I've been there 5 times already, just last week I was there and I had no idea that the stupid nvc wants all original documents submitted.

She doesn't have a birth certificate, I have no idea with a 10 pass is, but we managed to get them to write a letter saying that they wont issue a birth certificate and have to get affadavids for it. She has that original letter in India.

She has the original Police clearances from the local singtam police station. the passport office is being idiots and wont issue her the passport police certificate, they keep claming they want some other police certificate that she sent them 4 months ago and the fools lost it and wont issue here the passport one, so she has some photocopy of it only or something like that. She has the police certificates in India

when we got married the courthouse made two originals of the marriage certificate, one for me one for her so I have an original I can send in.


Mail never makes it into or out of the black hole known as sikkim. I've mailed things before and she never receives it. Same for her sending stuff to me and it never comes. The people where she's living is very nosy and will steal her mail and open it and keep it like thieves. she got a job interview like before we met and one of those thieves stole her interview invite letter and they told her about the interview like a week after the date on there so she missed it. I'm sure they have my love notes and the diwali and birthday cards on there. I'd rather not have her mail me original PCC's and birth certificate papers through there to get lost and she'll have to spend another 6 months just getting that back. Don't NVC people know about these things that it's impossible to send and receive documents from out there?


My parents know like one guy in Mumbai as friends, so Im thinking to just mail them a Affadavid of support, and she can pick it up from them, and submit everything to VFS and we'll do the interview for the k3 and let the NVC and all their original documents just die in a fire. Why cant they allow indians to use electronic processing and just scan all this stuff and send it there???


I think once all this is done, I'll send a letter to her adress just full of cuss words, drawings of penises and pentagrams, and other weird nasty things that can come in my mind, so her neighbors can read it and die form shock.. that would be cool

Haha. Sorry. It was just funny. But I feel for you.

Class 10 pass certificate is your school board examinations pass certificate or admit card. It usually has your date of birth. My school leaving certificate from class 12 has my parents name in it as well. So maybe something like that would work.

In other issues: What is the current waiting time for an interview in Mumbai from case complete at NVC?

No idea with mumbai..

I checked the tracking number on dhl and they received the k3 yesterday. she did say that she usually uses her school papers to verify her age everywhere since she has no birth certificate, and when i asked her about the 10th certificate she said she definatley has it.

nvc still wants originals of everything I called them. They should know better especially since in china they can electronic process everything.

I guess the best plan for me is to just pursue the k3 visa. Cost of adj of status doesn't matter to me, just getting my wife out of that hole is all that matters now.

I suppose it's a blessing that you don't have to worry about the cost of the Adjustment of Status procedure. But I believe it's now only a matter of weeks between K3 and IR/CR1. If it were me, I wouldn't want to deal with the USCIS AGAIN. Once, is enough. But if K3 works for you, then go for it!

To think about electronic processing, if my memory serves me right, I did read one of the Indians sending scanned copies of PCC to NVC and then submitting all the originals at VFS prior to the interview.

I don't think I can find that exact thread anymore because I don't remember the name of that Member but I do remember he was from Gujurat. You might want to call NVC and talk to a supervisor and convey your concerns to them about the postal matter, see if they can work with the scanned documents or not.

I didn't know it was this bad in Sikkim with postal department. I send things to Andaman and my people get them within 15 days or so and also the things my dad send me from there, I get in 10 days time.

It's a local town with really old people living there with absolutley nothing better to do than nosy around in other people's business. they'll dig through mail and gossip and all kinds of nonsense just to find out stupid trivial things and then act like they are morally better than everyone else about it. that place needs lockboxes everywhere when it comes to mail.

It really makes me want to google some gay porn pics, shove it in a envelope and send it to some random address in sikkim. That alone will keep them busy for the next year or so while they keep it and look at it.

I submitted a color photocopy of my wifes Local PCC to NVC and stated originals will be provided at interview and had no issues. The color copy looked exactly like the original and in the interview letter it stated that they had received original Local PCC

lol, the drugged up officer looking at it in NVC probably couldn't tell the difference between a original and a really good color photocopy if his life depended on it. you got lucky.

I can probably do awesome scans like that with my scanner, but since my wife has all the originals, i have to depend on the incompetence of sikkim webcafe scanners and their horrible scans and frankesteined legal sized document scans..

it's soo blatantly obvious that even the undeducated monkeys working in nvc can tell a copy vs original..

Only way i can see this working out is to just mail the affadavid of support, let her arrange all docs and submit it there in mumbai