NVC wants original civil documents

[visaveteran1 33]

I am one of the few posters on the Russia forum not petitioning for a K-1. I was going for the K-3 but that petition seems to have ended after July 2007 and K-3 filers are forced into being Cr-1 filers.

One big difference is that the I-130 spousal petition stays much longer at the NVC and the NVC handles paperwork that used to be handled by the consulate...like reviewing original civil documents such as birth, marriage and divorce certificates and police reports.

The NVC wants original documents OR "certified copies from issuing authorities." Supposedly, the documents are returned at the interview. Many CR-1 folks go ahead and send in original docs and there are reports that important papers have been lost.

My question to the Russia forum is this: If i want to send certified copies from issuing authorities, do I have to go to the Palace of Marriage to get such a copy of our marriage certificate or can I simply go to a Russian notary for a copy? The answer is important because if i send the wrong copies, it could delay things for weeks.

I may take the risk of sending in the original docs but I'm nervous about this. If they loose my certificates, etc. I wonder how difficult it is to get replacements?

[Chris Parker 11]

The answer is important because if i send the wrong copies, it could delay things for weeks.

Maybe 2-3 weeks delayed to resubmit the actual original.

BTW, NVC is known to give you an RFE for the original document even when you did send in the original document; they seem to fix their own mistake a few days later and go case complete.

Apparently, NVC no longer requires translations if the civil document is in the language of the embassy's country, so how are they going to even know where exactly the document copy was certified? It will be left to the consular officer to decide on the interview date, and you should bring the actual original then anyway.

NVC doesn't make any decisions on your case really, they are just a clearinghouse and their job is to avoid people coming to the interview missing required documents and needing to be rescheduled.

I was going to send in notary certified copies to NVC, except the beneficiary screwed up and mailed the only originals we had (one of which, the birth certificiate, being 50+ years old and can never be replaced because place of birth is now under the control of a separatist government not officially recognized). We did get them back at the interview, however (except the police certificate, of course).