Frankfurt Consulate Questions

[Robocox 0]

I am home on RnR from afghanistan and we are getting ready to start some of the paperwork.

After going over alot of the information I'm just trying to make sure i have a good grasp on everything so here are a couple more questions.

Long Birth Certificate(German): What is this? My wife has her birth cert. with all the information on it, and it is, like, about the size of my hand, i dont know if LONG refers to the size of the paper or the information on the birth certificate??? lol So if anyone has any clarification on this, then that would be awesome! Thank you

Another question: I was reading about the interviews at the frankfurt consulate, from what it says when you get there you assemble all of your paperwork for the interview(to include the birth cert. marriage cert) and all of that stuff, but that is all sent in the mail to start the packet, do we get all of this stuff back before we go to the interview? because i'm pretty sure my wife doesnt have 2 original birth certs. lol and its just confusing me.

Thank you again for all the help

- Rob

[kelad 8]

In the first stages you just need to send a copy of the documents, they will request the original at a later date, in the mean time you can submit with your copy and then try to get additional copies of the original that way if they lose it you will still have an original.

I dont know what the long mean!!

[Robocox 0]

When i read the guides on here for the "Visa Packet" that my wife will be sending, it specifically states the originals need to be sent, thats why i get confused

[ghepardo 8]

I assume maybe you've read some of the guides "Ling Che" and "James's shortcuts" for CR-1 visas? Even though they are general in format, it pretty much applies to all countries including Germany. I would suggest following those closely, then fine tune it with the Germany portal on VJ.

All forms sent to the NVC need to be original or certified copies. Don't get confused on "certified copies" because all this indicates is that it should be an original certified document (but maybe not be the exact original issued at the birth or marriage). What NVC wants to see is these "certified" originals. When it comes time for you to submit the NVC documents (IV package) after you receive your NOA2 from USCIS, you want all certified originals and an extra copy of those to send along. While others may not send the extra xerox copy of the entire package, I did based on the State Department website and everything flowed smoothly.

As far as the "long form" I am guessing that they want the birth certificate that has more info on it rather than summarized, for example both of the names of the parent's. Your wife should be able to request this "long form" of a birth certificate in Germany which may take a few weeks depending on how quickly they process requests in Germany. You will want the original of this, in fact maybe she should request 2 if it's only a few euros.

The guides...

http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/LingChe_NVC_ShortCut

http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/James%27s_Shortcuts

Edited September 2, 2011 by ghepardo lento