Missing USC's Birth Certificate

[WantingMyHubby 0]

Hey all..

Doing some prep work for the I-130. My hubby (I'm the beneficiary, he's the USC) is in the process of amending his birth certificate, therefore we can't provide it in the package. From the instructions, it states that we need to provide a letter from civil authority stating that his birth certificate isn't available at the time. Also, secondary evidence, including a church record, school record, census record, and affidavits sworn to or affirmed by two people who were living at the time and who have personal knowledge of the date and place of his birth.

Question - do we need ALL of those documents, or as many as possible?

Unrelated questions:

- For the affidavits (for his birth and for our marriage), should they be notarized?

- When they ask for copies of certain documents (marriage certificate, divorce decree, church record, school record, census record, etc...), do they need to be certified? Or do simple photocopies suffice?

Thanks

[YuAndDan 153]

Does he have a US Passport? If so, the attach a copy of the passport, copy all pages including cover.

[WantingMyHubby 0]

Does he have a US Passport? If so, the attach a copy of the passport, copy all pages including cover.

Sigh...no, no passport! How inconvenient is that...

[Frustrated2NoEnd 0]

Hey all..

Doing some prep work for the I-130. My hubby (I'm the beneficiary, he's the USC) is in the process of amending his birth certificate, therefore we can't provide it in the package. From the instructions, it states that we need to provide a letter from civil authority stating that his birth certificate isn't available at the time. Also, secondary evidence, including a church record, school record, census record, and affidavits sworn to or affirmed by two people who were living at the time and who have personal knowledge of the date and place of his birth.

Question - do we need ALL of those documents, or as many as possible?

Unrelated questions:

- For the affidavits (for his birth and for our marriage), should they be notarized?

- When they ask for copies of certain documents (marriage certificate, divorce decree, church record, school record, census record, etc...), do they need to be certified? Or do simple photocopies suffice?

Thanks

If your hubby is the USC, you can contact your local State Government Agency and order a Certified Copy of the Certificate - you didn't say in your post so I'm thinking he was born in the USA. Sometimes, you can pay a little extra and they will expedite the process for you. Otherwise, you would require the Affidavits. Personally, I would try to get as much information as I could - more is better I think.

Affidavits should always be Notarized and USCIS wants a Certified copy of your marriage certificate.

I believe (I'm just going from memory so you may want to confirm this), that most legal documents should be notorized/certified and that the instructions will tell you what is acceptable.

Good Luck!

[WantingMyHubby 0]

If your hubby is the USC, you can contact your local State Government Agency and order a Certified Copy of the Certificate - you didn't say in your post so I'm thinking he was born in the USA. Sometimes, you can pay a little extra and they will expedite the process for you. Otherwise, you would require the Affidavits. Personally, I would try to get as much information as I could - more is better I think.

Affidavits should always be Notarized and USCIS wants a Certified copy of your marriage certificate.

I believe (I'm just going from memory so you may want to confirm this), that most legal documents should be notorized/certified and that the instructions will tell you what is acceptable.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your advice...

Yep, he was born in the US. I guess he has to make some phone calls to see if he can get a certified copy expedited to him. It would save a lot of time if we just had the birth certificate!

In many instances, they never specify whether copies should be notarized or certified. I have never had to notarize or certify anything (from what I remember), so I don't know the cost - but if it won't cost an arm and a leg, I'll probably play it safe and notarize/certify everything I'm not sure about.

[YuAndDan 153]

If your hubby is the USC, you can contact your local State Government Agency and order a Certified Copy of the Certificate - you didn't say in your post so I'm thinking he was born in the USA. Sometimes, you can pay a little extra and they will expedite the process for you. Otherwise, you would require the Affidavits. Personally, I would try to get as much information as I could - more is better I think.

Affidavits should always be Notarized and USCIS wants a Certified copy of your marriage certificate.

I believe (I'm just going from memory so you may want to confirm this), that most legal documents should be notorized/certified and that the instructions will tell you what is acceptable.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your advice...

Yep, he was born in the US. I guess he has to make some phone calls to see if he can get a certified copy expedited to him. It would save a lot of time if we just had the birth certificate!

In many instances, they never specify whether copies should be notarized or certified. I have never had to notarize or certify anything (from what I remember), so I don't know the cost - but if it won't cost an arm and a leg, I'll probably play it safe and notarize/certify everything I'm not sure about.

Certified, typically will have a raised seal. Means it is an official copy.

Notarized means signature was witnessed by a notary making it a legal signature.

[Frustrated2NoEnd 0]

If your hubby is the USC, you can contact your local State Government Agency and order a Certified Copy of the Certificate - you didn't say in your post so I'm thinking he was born in the USA. Sometimes, you can pay a little extra and they will expedite the process for you. Otherwise, you would require the Affidavits. Personally, I would try to get as much information as I could - more is better I think.

Affidavits should always be Notarized and USCIS wants a Certified copy of your marriage certificate.

I believe (I'm just going from memory so you may want to confirm this), that most legal documents should be notorized/certified and that the instructions will tell you what is acceptable.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your advice...

Yep, he was born in the US. I guess he has to make some phone calls to see if he can get a certified copy expedited to him. It would save a lot of time if we just had the birth certificate!

In many instances, they never specify whether copies should be notarized or certified. I have never had to notarize or certify anything (from what I remember), so I don't know the cost - but if it won't cost an arm and a leg, I'll probably play it safe and notarize/certify everything I'm not sure about.

NP! Anytime... We had to do the same thing for myself and my husband.

I've found out that most US banks and Companies themselves have in-house Notaries. Get your husband to ask around... you may be pleasantly surprised! Check at your local grocery store that has a bank in it...

[lucyrich 20]

NP! Anytime... We had to do the same thing for myself and my husband.

I've found out that most US banks and Companies themselves have in-house Notaries. Get your husband to ask around... you may be pleasantly surprised! Check at your local grocery store that has a bank in it...

But that does no good for the birth certificate. You need a certified copy. You may send in an ordinary photocopy of the certified copy, though. Notarization isn't needed nor useful.

The terminology causes lots of confusion.

Your ORIGINAL birth certificate is kept in a vault by some government authority, probably a county clerk or similar.

When the authorized government official makes a copy of your original birth certificate, they'll put a raised seal on it, indicating that it came from the government office charged with keeping the original. That's called a "certified copy", and is the closest to an original that ordinary mortals can usually get.

You can make a photocopy of that certified copy to send in to the USCIS with your petition. They'll eventually want to see the actual certified copy at the interview, to validate that the raised seal is authentic.

[WantingMyHubby 0]

Another issue. Here's a brief summary of my hubby's background:

He was born in California. His parents divorced when he was young. At 10, he moved to NC and was adopted by his then-stepdad. They issued him a new birth cert. w/the adopted name, but he decided AFTERWARDS to keep his birth father's name. To make a long story short, for 20 years he used his original birth certificate, which was technically not valid.

It's only a few months ago that he took action to amend it. The civil authority in Cali sent him confirmation that his request is being processed. Right now, he has his original birth certificate (correct last name, but birth father's name) AND his adopted birth certificate (incorrect last name, correct father's name). Neither of these are valid.

So hubs looked into contacting someone about his birth certificate. Apparently, the authority in California only takes mail-in requests. Due to overflow in incoming requests, they have stopped taking phone calls. If we need a letter from civil authority stating that his valid birth certificate isn't available, this could take FOREVER. We'd have to mail the request in and wait until they even acknowledge us.

Any suggestions? Does anyone have experience in obtaining this letter to replace a birth certificate? Keep in mind, he doesn't have a passport either (AGH!!)...helllllllllpppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!