Birth certificate crisis

[Thai family 0]

I got one of those calls from the kids. They can't find her original Thai birth certificate and she thinks it ended up in the packet at the embassy instead of a photo copy. Has anyone ever gone to an AOS interview without the original, or equivalent thereof, and lived to tell about it? She has the English translation with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp on it and a photo copy of the original in Thai. Is this a reason for which the interview needs to be rescheduled? After all of these months of attending to small details.... I think they should just go, as he can't just make it any time, but they don't need to upset an officer, either. Hopefully the worst that could happen would be that she would have to secure an official one from Thailand and send it in. They live 300 miles from the office.

Thanks for any help.

Thai Mom

[vip1 8]

No, she should def go to the interview. I had the same problem with my birth certificate and my lawyer to me that if worse come to worse they won't deny the petition because of that, they would simply give you more time to find it and then approve. If I was her, I would really start to tryingt to get another certified original. I was asked for it at my interview and my IO made a point to see the original certificate.

[Thai family 0]

Thanks for that advice. It's good to hear from someone who has been there, done that. I'm sorry it had to happen to you. Hopefully the original will be in her file when they get to the interview and there won't be a problem. I wonder if she could ask for it back if it is there and let them keep a photo copy.

Thai Mom

[Kang Lang 7]

hi thai family, yes if it's in her file she can definitely ask for it back (and should) if she replaces it with a copy. the uscis does not require an original of any of those types of documents (e.g. birth cert, marriage cert), they just want to see them to verify they are indeed original but a copy will be required of anything submitted.

best of luck!

[Thai family 0]

hi thai family, yes if it's in her file she can definitely ask for it back (and should) if she replaces it with a copy. the uscis does not require an original of any of those types of documents (e.g. birth cert, marriage cert), they just want to see them to verify they are indeed original but a copy will be required of anything submitted.

best of luck!

Thanks! I'll let her know. Hopefully it will all work out. We'll know more in a couple of days

Thai Mom

[Urge To Race 2]

They should definitely go to the interview. The original birth cert. was never asked for by our interviewer. They had a photocopy of it in the packet and were happy. If it does not come up in the interview, I would not recommend that they ask if the original is in the packet, that would make it obvious that they don't have the original, and if it is not in the packet, it might cause problems like an RFE for the original. It might not, but why bother, especially if she can get another one from Thailand.

I got one of those calls from the kids. They can't find her original Thai birth certificate and she thinks it ended up in the packet at the embassy instead of a photo copy. Has anyone ever gone to an AOS interview without the original, or equivalent thereof, and lived to tell about it? She has the English translation with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp on it and a photo copy of the original in Thai. Is this a reason for which the interview needs to be rescheduled? After all of these months of attending to small details.... I think they should just go, as he can't just make it any time, but they don't need to upset an officer, either. Hopefully the worst that could happen would be that she would have to secure an official one from Thailand and send it in. They live 300 miles from the office.

Thanks for any help.

Thai Mom

[Thai family 0]

They had asucessful interview this morning. The birth certicate was in the file forwarded from the embassy. They said they couldn't take it out of that file and give it back to her, even though she had a photocopy to give them.

They also asked if the greencard issue could be delayed until after their second anniversary, but the answer to that was 'no' also. They said the interview was easy and short. All the in terviewer asked for were their IDs. She asked how they met and looked at a few pictures. Thanks for your responses. What would we do without VJ?

Thai Mom

Edited September 10, 2009 by Thai family

[vip1 8]

Congratulations

[Thai family 0]

Thanks! There's a form the USCIS has to request the return of orignal documents, so we'll probably submit one and see what happens.

Thai Mom