CR-1 Interview Required Documents Question

[surf1584 0]

I reposted this from the Latin America Forum as there was no response and i was in need of an answer due to the upcoming interview. My wife's immigration interview for a CR-1 Visa is March 3, we filed all of our paperwork at the NVC in New Hampsihire and everything was approved and sent to Rio. We received our appointment letter in the mail in February and we are reviewing the paperwork again. I have a question on wether i need to bring the original documents.

The Appointment Letter identifies the "Visa Interview Requirements" as

- Any original documents that were requested by the NVC but were not submitted to the NVC

- The medical examination results if not submitted to the Embassy/Consulate by the physician

- The correct size and number of photographs

- Valid passport for all traveling

What I am worried about is the next part it states:

The following table lists the documents requested by the NVC and wherter or not the NVC received them. Please note that even through the applicant may have provided the NVC with a copy of a document, the applicant is still required to bring the orignal document to the visa interview.

- Correspondence instruction - C

- Immigrant Visa Application - Y

- DS-230 - II - F

- Passport - Y

- Birth Certificate - O

- Adoption - F

- Marriage Certificate - O

- Marriage Termination - F

- Court Records - F

- Financial Evidence -Y

- Custody Papers - F

- Military Records - F

- Brazil Police Certificate - Y

- Fee Payment - $

- Photograph - Y

- Petitioner Marriage Certificate - F

- Petitioner Birth Certificate - F

My lawyer told me that i do not need to bring any further documents to my interview, i.e. i do not need to bring originals. This letter appears to be contradictory. Per the above it states that i need to bring originals of all documents. Does that mean that i have to bring an original marriage certificate, my spouse and my birth certificates, and her federal and state police certificate originals? Do i need to bring any more original documents?? Please help.

Thanks

[Bernie C 24]

It is always advisable to bring a copy of any original that was sent and the original of any copy that was sent.

I made two complete copies of everything, one for me and one for my fiancee. We also had all originals of everything.

They may or may not ask for these but its better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

The lawyer is only a paper pusher, your success is dependant on your knowledge too. Hopefully you reviewed everything the lawyer prepared and sent on your behalf. I'm not trying to worry you but too often things happen and you must always rememeber that the ultimate resonsibility is OURS. If a lawyer makes an error the repurcussion falls onto us and ot them.

For the interview we made folders with everything listed, copies and originals of everything. The info was all tabbed and organized in the exact order listed on the checklist. This will benefit your spouse at the interview as everything will be easy to find and provide to the CO when requested.

If I had a dollar for all the bad advice given by lawyers I'd be a very rich man!

[Bob g 11]

It is always advisable to bring a copy of any original that was sent and the original of any copy that was sent.

I made two complete copies of everything, one for me and one for my fiancee. We also had all originals of everything.

They may or may not ask for these but its better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

The lawyer is only a paper pusher, your success is dependant on your knowledge too. Hopefully you reviewed everything the lawyer prepared and sent on your behalf. I'm not trying to worry you but too often things happen and you must always rememeber that the ultimate resonsibility is OURS. If a lawyer makes an error the repurcussion falls onto us and ot them.

For the interview we made folders with everything listed, copies and originals of everything. The info was all tabbed and organized in the exact order listed on the checklist. This will benefit your spouse at the interview as everything will be easy to find and provide to the CO when requested.

If I had a dollar for all the bad advice given by lawyers I'd be a very rich man!

The, "bad advice given by lawyers, I"d be a very rich man", is about like Tax People.

[Tricia599 2]

They are going to ask you for all of that at the interview. Like the previous poster said, better to have things and not need them than not to have them. They won't ask for the originals, but at least copies. You need to bring everything that is on that paper. Once you get to the Consulate, they will hand you a list of what you need and the order they need to go in. If you are missing anything, you will be sent out to get it (if it is something easily obtainable like a photo or a copy - there are a bunch of places to make copies and take photos across the street from the Rio Consulate). If you can't get it, you will get sent away and need to reschedule.

Echoing the other poster, bring the original and 2 copies. Better safe than sorry.

[surf1584 0]

So I need to obtain an original and 2 copies of the following items. The bolded items are where originals can be obtained, otherwise i will have copies. I also had a few verfications, i italiced those comments. Sorry for being thick, as everyone says its better to be prepared!

Originals and Copies:

- Immigrant Visa Application - Y - is this the I-130 or G-325A???

- Passport - Y - Original (Duh) and 2 copies of front page

- Birth Certificate (Both Certificates Husband/Wife) - O - Original and 2 copies

- Marriage Certificate - O - Original and 2 Copies

- Financial Evidence -Y - Is this the I-864, Affidavit of Support?

- Brazil Police Certificate - Y - Will bring Orig State and Federal along with 2 copies of each

- Fee Payment - $ - not sure what this is, i assumed all fee's were paid

- Photograph - Y - Will bring 2 (2x2 inch) passport photos

Do not need any of the below documents as they are marked as irrelevant

- DS-230 - II - F

- Adoption - F

- Marriage Termination - F

- Court Records - F

- Custody Papers - F

- Military Records - F

- Petitioner Marriage Certificate - F

- Petitioner Birth Certificate - F

[Tricia599 2]

This is an unnerving process. Better to ask now then to miss information.

It's been about a year since our interview and we filed DCF, so if you filed from the US, there may be differences. Hopefully others can shed some light on that process.

-Immigrant Visa Application. This is the DS-156 that you fill out online and print out (it has a barcode on it).

-Financial Evidence. This is all of the financial stuff - the I-864 and all the associated documents - tax returns, bank statements, proof of employment, etc.

-Fee payment. You'll pay this at the Consulate. Between the pre-interview (where someone goes through your paperwork and makes sure it's all there) and the final interview, you'll have to go downstairs and pay the via fee, which is about $700 or so. This is in addition to the money already paid to file the I-130

-Photo. Bring an extra photo, just to be safe. For some reason, at our interview, they asked for a third.

Hope this helps.

[surf1584 0]

I just wanted to follow up on what was actually needed for interested parties.

When you arrive at the consulate there is a check list of information that is requested which is identified in the above responses. The caveat in my case was that all required documents were processed by the NVC and accepted by the consulate so no further documents were needed. For future cases i would say to go ahead and gather the documents instead of relying on the computer generated letter from the NVC stating which documents are required in case the Consulate finds something inadequate on the date of the interview as they are the final governing body in regards to the documents and visa approval.