No birth certificate! Help

[Dirty harry 25]

So My wife is usc, we are filing concurrently for her parents who are with us in the U.S. Her dad doesn't have a birth certificate. we have her parents marriage certificate, his passport, his D.L and my wife's birth certificate showing his name. The only way to get His birth certificate would be if he left and went back to Russia as they wont give it to any one who isn't in person. What do I do? His parents are no longer alive, and he is an oldest child.

Harry

Edited February 18, 2016 by Dirty harry

[teeak 224]

He doesn't already have a copy at home in Russia? Can he have someone ship it to the US?

Have you tried contacting the nearest Russian embassy also?

http://www.russianembassy.org/page/documents-on-demand

Edited February 18, 2016 by teeak

[Dirty harry 25]

He doesn't already have a copy at home in Russia? Can he have someone ship it to the US?

Have you tried contacting the nearest Russian embassy also?

http://www.russianembassy.org/page/documents-on-demand

No he was left at an orphanage at a young age, he doesn't have a copy. I have not tried contacting the nearest Russian embassy, I didn't know I could get a birth certificate from them. I will look in to it.Will USCIS accept a Birth certificate from the embassy? Has any one successfully gotten a BC from an embassy before?

Edited February 18, 2016 by Dirty harry

[teeak 224]

It seems like they have a "Documents on Demand" section: http://consulrussia.org/eng/documents.html

Since you're in California, you would need to contact the Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco. Yes, try having him call and ask them if they would be able to obtain the birth certificate for him.

No he was left at an orphanage at a young age, he doesn't have a copy. I have not tried contacting the nearest Russian embassy, I didn't know I could get a birth certificate from them. I will look in to it.Will USCIS accept a Birth certificate from the embassy? Has any one successfully gotten a BC from an embassy before?

I assume they would since its obtained through a government authority. It's always worth a shot to see if you can get the birth certificate.

[Dirty harry 25]

It seems like they have a "Documents on Demand" section: http://consulrussia.org/eng/documents.html

Since you're in California, you would need to contact the Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco. Yes, try having him call and ask them if they would be able to obtain the birth certificate for him.

I assume they would since its obtained through a government authority. It's always worth a shot to see if you can get the birth certificate.

Ok so I did some digging, apparently it Might be possible, However its 6 months or longer turn around time. That would make him overstay his visa which I would like to avoid.Russia is notoriously slow and stubborn when it comes to documents.I have a couple of ideas I might try, like having his daughter go down to the local office with him on skype to ask for the documents, however I dont think this will work. What are my other options? The only other thing i can think is to send him home, to get the document, and have him go through consular processing, however is it possible to have one parent go through consular processing and one go through aos here in the U.S?

[teeak 224]

Since they're parents of a USC, the overstay will be forgiven -- no need for a waiver or anything.

Yes, you could have one parent do consular processing but, it'll probably take about a year for the entire process.

[Dirty harry 25]

Since they're parents of a USC, the overstay will be forgiven -- no need for a waiver or anything.

Yes, you could have one parent do consular processing but, it'll probably take about a year for the entire process.

So we got more information today. Apparently prior to 1954 electronic birth records dont exist in Russia. My father in law was born before that and it looks like a copy might not even exist anywhere. He was born in a small village.What do we do?

[Snorlux 58]

So we got more information today. Apparently prior to 1954 electronic birth records dont exist in Russia. My father in law was born before that and it looks like a copy might not even exist anywhere. He was born in a small village.What do we do?

I would send all the documents in and explain that a copy of the birth certificate cannot be acquired. If you can also get a letter from the Russian embassy that explains that it would be even better!

[teeak 224]

If he doesn't have a birth certificate, then you'll need to have a written statement explaining why. I also agree with the above poster -- if the Russian embassy can issue a letter explaining this fact then it's even better.

[Dirty harry 25]

Hi again, I didn't want to start a new post but I had another question. We were finally able to get a copy of the birth certificate issued by the government,however because there are no electronic records in Russia from when he was born, they only have the record of his birth, so his name, DOB, parents names but apparently back then they didn't write "u.s.s.r" on birth certificates as it was just sort of assumed. Now the certificate itself has all kinds of government markings and water marks so my question is do I need to do anything extra? where it says "place of birth" and "city of birth" it just has two marks like this -- he wasn't born in a city he was born in some small village at home out in the middle of nowhere like most people back then.

Thank you

Harry

[teeak 224]

As long as the birth certificate is valid and issued by the government then you should be fine. If anything, you can attach an explanation but, I'm sure there have been numerous older Russian immigrants with the same type of birth certificate. So, this is most likely not the first time USCIS will be seeing this.

Maybe you can post this in the Russia, Ukraine, Belarus section to see if anybody else has experienced this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/98-russia-ukraine-and-belarus/