Certified marriage certificate and birth certificate?

[pinayangelus 0]

Once again, the Notary is NOT certifying the VALIDITY of a document, he/she is certifying that it is a true copy of a document shown to them.

In the state of California, a Notary-certified copy is a legal document.

If the USCIS wants a copy from the ORIGINAL ISSUING agency, they will tell you that's what they want. other wise, a certified copy is just that, a certified copy by person authorized to certify a copy of a document. And in CA, a notary can do that.

True...

The USCIS does not require this additional certification...save your money.

Just take the document that you have in your possession to the interview. If they need to see it, they will ask for it.

yup, thank you, you've been really helpful!

[SAT 9,609]

Once again, the Notary is NOT certifying the VALIDITY of a document, he/she is certifying that it is a true copy of a document shown to them.

In the state of California, a Notary-certified copy is a legal document.

If the USCIS wants a copy from the ORIGINAL ISSUING agency, they will tell you that's what they want. other wise, a certified copy is just that, a certified copy by person authorized to certify a copy of a document. And in CA, a notary can do that.

True...

The USCIS does not require this additional certification...save your money.

Just take the document that you have in your possession to the interview. If they need to see it, they will ask for it.

yup, thank you, you've been really helpful!

The USCIS is clear and concise as to what they want from you. So read your notice to make sure that they are not asking for a certified copy FROM THE ORIGINAL ISSUING AGENCY/AUTHORITY.

[lucyrich 20]

When the USCIS wants a certified copy, they always want one that's certified by the original maintainer of the record in the government vault, not one certified by a notary public. Don't bother getting a notary to make or validate a copy.

The USCIS generally doesn't require certified copies of anything to be mailed with a petition. An ordinary photocopy that anybody could make on a Xerox machine will do just fine for that purpose. The normally DO request that you bring certified copies for your in-person interview. They don't normally need to KEEP the certified copy, they just want to look at it to make sure it matches the xerox copy, and make sure it has the raised seal that certifies it.

A note on terminology: Your "Original" birth certificate or marriage certificate is normally kept on file at a government records department, perhaps a county clerk's office or something like that. They will issue you a "certified copy", which has a raised or embossed seal or something like that that normally has the clerk's signature which certifies that the paper is a true and accurate copy of what's been recorded officially. This is the closest thing that a mere mortal can get to an original, so some people call that an "original". But it's not really the original. If the government let you have the original, then they would have no record of your birth or marriage. No, the government keeps the original, and the best they give you is a certified copy.

[pinayangelus 0]

When the USCIS wants a certified copy, they always want one that's certified by the original maintainer of the record in the government vault, not one certified by a notary public. Don't bother getting a notary to make or validate a copy.

The USCIS generally doesn't require certified copies of anything to be mailed with a petition. An ordinary photocopy that anybody could make on a Xerox machine will do just fine for that purpose. The normally DO request that you bring certified copies for your in-person interview. They don't normally need to KEEP the certified copy, they just want to look at it to make sure it matches the xerox copy, and make sure it has the raised seal that certifies it.

A note on terminology: Your "Original" birth certificate or marriage certificate is normally kept on file at a government records department, perhaps a county clerk's office or something like that. They will issue you a "certified copy", which has a raised or embossed seal or something like that that normally has the clerk's signature which certifies that the paper is a true and accurate copy of what's been recorded officially. This is the closest thing that a mere mortal can get to an original, so some people call that an "original". But it's not really the original. If the government let you have the original, then they would have no record of your birth or marriage. No, the government keeps the original, and the best they give you is a certified copy.

Thank you, so just to clarify your saying that a photocopy of my marriage certificate and birth certificate (i have both originals, 1st copies) for the AOS petition is all i need? i dont need to go and get certified copies and attach the new copies to my papers? and if i have my interview i can just bring them along with me?

CAN SOMEONE WHO HAS ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE PROCESS TELL US, WHAT THEY USED AS A COPY? DID YOU SEND CERTIFIED COPIES OR DID YOU JUST PHOTOCOPY THE ORIGINAL?

[lucyrich 20]

Thank you, so just to clarify your saying that a photocopy of my marriage certificate and birth certificate (i have both originals, 1st copies) for the AOS petition is all i need? i dont need to go and get certified copies and attach the new copies to my papers? and if i have my interview i can just bring them along with me?

That's what I'm saying. That's what we did, with success.

Go to the http://www.uscis.gov site, click on "immigration forms" (near the top of the page), then on the "related links" section on the upper right, click "General directions on immigration forms". Finally, on the "related links" section of that page, click "Tips on assembling applications".

Note that there's a lot of really good information on all those pages you clicked through, but in that final "general tips" page, the following appears:

USCIS no longer routinely requires submission of original documents or "certified copies." Instead, ordinary legible photocopies of such documents (including naturalization certificates and alien registration cards) will be acceptable for initial filing and approval of petitions and applications.

CAN SOMEONE WHO HAS ALREADY GONE THROUGH THE PROCESS TELL US, WHAT THEY USED AS A COPY? DID YOU SEND CERTIFIED COPIES OR DID YOU JUST PHOTOCOPY THE ORIGINAL?

See our timeline below. We didn't adjust status, but we did file an I-130, I-129F, I-751, and N-400. For all of those forms we had to send our marriage certificate, and for several, we submitted birth certificates. In all cases, we used ordinary xerox copies. We didn't have a problem. Those USCIS instructions seemed to work for us.

One further note: at your interview, bring the original certified copy as well as an extra photocopy of the document. They may want to disregard the fact that they already have one photocopy of your document, and still take another photocopy at the interview. If you have an extra photocopy available with you at the interview, that will save having to let them keep the certified copy. That's what they did for us -- compared the certified copy to the photocopy, inspected the seal on the certified copy, and stuck the extra photocopy in their file.

[pinayangelus 0]

Thank you so so much for clarifying this for me! I was really worried that I'll have to get certified copies and the spend more money and time wondering when it's going to come!

Thank you!