A Belgian BC

[Clint86 2]

No, OP is not 'complaining and justifying', OP is trying to explain hat they sent, but is running into a cultural (and likely linguistic) misunderstanding here.

Maybe I can explain it in a way that makes more sense to you.

Belgium has no 'birth certificates' in a form that is directly translatable to the US form of the certificate. All births in Belgium are registered in centralized systems, where they can be accessed by the government. The official document of a registered birth is kept in a locked down governmental archive and is never given out to an individual citizen. Instead, a citizen may request an abstract from their entry in the government database to provide to authorities who request it. This abstract is the most official document to prove the birth and parentage of a citizen of Belgium, but it doesn't look much like a birth certificate.

In a sense, OP is right when they say that what they sent to the NVC is a 'copy', because it is a formatted print out of this governmental database, but for all intents and purposes the NVC may have, it is the original document for which OP has had to identify at city hall. The document was printed by the municipal authorities specifically for the purpose of sending it to the NVC and has been stamped and signed so as to verify that it is not a forged document. Yet, it remains and abstract of a governental database behind which there is the archived document that was once filed by OP's parents.

For purposes of identifying oneself to a foreign authority, one can request this abstract in a special multi-lingual format, so that it can be read by almost any authority, regardless of their official language. It is likely that this international abstract (the official stamped and perhaps signed proof of birth and parentage) has simply been misunderstood by the NVC people, leading to an RFE for OP.

Does this help, pushbrk?

Thank you for this very detailed and correct answer :-)

My wife called several times to NVC and each operator has a diffirent answer on their own...

This time I send the abstract + blue ink stamp from the city hall and a signeture by a aidleman (or something like that) because => The woman from NVC said to my wife: "if he gets it apostilized or gets a stamp from the embassy we're gonna refuse it and ask for another BC, WE ONLY NEED THE SEAL OR STAMP FROM THE TOWN HALL"

Yes in capital letters because my wife said she got very rude!

[Clint86 2]

And for the record I also included an International BC with stamp and signature last time + a Dutch to English translation by a sworn translator for the "Long BC"

So in my eyes I think all my intentions are good

[pushbrk 13,173]

Thank you for this very detailed and correct answer :-)

My wife called several times to NVC and each operator has a diffirent answer on their own...

This time I send the abstract + blue ink stamp from the city hall and a signeture by a aidleman (or something like that) because => The woman from NVC said to my wife: "if he gets it apostilized or gets a stamp from the embassy we're gonna refuse it and ask for another BC, WE ONLY NEED THE SEAL OR STAMP FROM THE TOWN HALL"

Yes in capital letters because my wife said she got very rude!

It appears you've sent the correct document this time. I get that you tried to go the extra mile. That doesn't work. NVC deals with what they consider "birth certificates" from Belgium every day. They know what they want, which is the certified copy of a public record. If all there is from Belgium is a certified copy of an abstract, they know that well. What I meant by justifying was just that. No amount of EXTRA will satisfy them, but the correct document will. I was attempting to identify whether THIS time, you sent the correct document but without direct answers to my question, that was impossible.

For the record, NOBODY from ANY country is able to send an original birth certificate. When they exist, they are kept as the public record. The best ANYBODY can do is to send a certified copy of that government record. MY certified copy of birth certificate is a print from microfilm, with a State "certification" that it is an actual copy of the public record.

My certified copy of a divorce decree is similar to your Belgian birth certificate in that it is an abstract, not an actual copy of the decree. It's really a copy of a small header of one page of a multiple page document, that contains State certification it's a copy of the public record indicating the marriage was dissolved, with names and date. These documents vary by country and in the USA by State. NVC....KNOWS....what they are looking for. They UNDERSTAND how each jurisdiction handles this documentation. You can't trick them, bully them, or baffle them with BS into accepting something other than the correct document. I'm not saying your intention was to do anything like that. You simply failed to provide the correct document the first time.

[Clint86 2]

I agree with what you said.

I've seen my wife's BC and it "looks" a lot more official than my BC :-)