1st interview for green Card

[ghomnet 1]

My wife is going for her 1st interview for her green card she has a copy of her birth certificate how ever she is worried that she needs the original. She came in on a k1 visa and i can remember sending off the original a few times. should she try to get the original from PH?

[Bobby+Umit 161]

My wife is going for her 1st interview for her green card she has a copy of her birth certificate how ever she is worried that she needs the original. She came in on a k1 visa and i can remember sending off the original a few times. should she try to get the original from PH?

Copy should be sufficient - they will ask for originals if they need one.

Moving from K-1 to AOS (AOS Related)

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

First, let's get the semantics out of the way.

In some countries, like the US, there is only one "original" birth certificate. This is the document signed by the doctor who delivered the baby, and the parents (sometimes only the mother) of the child. The state keeps this copy (or a facsimile of it) in their archives. You'll never get your hands on it. The only thing you can get is a copy of the original, certified to be authentic by the state's authority that issues the copies. This would be called an "original certified copy". If an agency of the US government asks to see an "original" birth certificate, then they are asking for an "original certified copy".

Some countries do not keep the original birth documents, and only record the birth information. If you ask them for a birth certificate they'll print up a fresh "original" from those records, along with a certification that the information contained on the document is accurate. If an agency of the US government asks to see an "original" birth certificate, then they are asking for the original certified document obtained from the foreign government agency. This is what happens in Vietnam (for example) if you happen to have been born prior or during any of the various 20th century wars. They gather the information from various records that have survived, and produce a certified document containing information from those records. My wife's uncle has three such "original" birth certificates, and all have significant differences. This caused him some problems when he submitted a petition for his sister, and USCIS wanted his original birth certificate to confirm his relationship to her.

At any point in this process, if a US government agency asks you to submit a copy of the birth certificate, they are usually asking for a simple photocopy of one of the "original" documents described above. They may ask to see the "original" document itself (to inspect it for authenticity), but they will usually return it if you ask them to, and if you also provide a photocopy of the document that they can keep.

In other words, you probably shouldn't have been submitting original birth certificates, but photocopies of the original.

It's possible they may ask to see the "original" document at the interview. For example, they may ask to see the original if something in the photocopy is difficult to read or looks as if it may have been altered. If all she's got left is a photocopy, then she may have a problem. She should probably get a new "original" just in case it's needed. She should have one for her own records, anyway. If anyone asks to inspect the "original" then she'll have one to present, but she should always ask for it to be returned.

[Darnell 8,478]

On top if it all, whilst she's there in the interview -

she should hand over her photocopy,

and ask for the original back.