Long form Birth Certificate

[bcking 3,157]

Been waiting for our case complete and were told today they need the long form of my wife's birth certificate. I asked if we can bring it to the embassy and they said no. Is that consistent with other people's experience? I don't know why it isn't something they can't just review there?

Anyone else have this come up? I looked back on the list of supporting documents and it doesn't specify the long form there, but when you then look up the United kingdom it says you request long form. Something we must have overlooked.

[PurplePassion 1]

same happened to us. just get the form and send it in

[bcking 3,157]

same happened to us. just get the form and send it in

They said it will take "up to 6 weeks" to review the single form. Is that what happened to you?

We are ordering it tomorrow by phone for next day mail so we should get it Monday, and we downloaded the cover sheet so should be able to send that first class on Monday.

Just seems silly that it can't be reviewed at the interview. Apparently (according to my wife) parents are only ever given short forms at the birth of their child, so no one actually has an "original" long form BC since they don't exist and are only available by request.

[yuna628 9,700]

Long forms always for immigration stuff (heck they won't even accept short forms for our own US passports now). I'd actually snag a few copies. You may find it handy later on.

[bcking 3,157]

Long forms always for immigration stuff (heck they won't even accept short forms for our own US passports now). I'd actually snag a few copies. You may find it handy later on.

Ya we are ordering the next day priority, and she is going to priority fedex it to the NVC. It will cost like 100 pounds total but sick of waiting.

Ever heard of them allowing to be reviewed at embassy though? Seems like the perfect example of something that doesn't need to take 6 weeks. They have an official notarized short form, so they just need to see the long form. Easy peasy to do at the interview, in my opinion.

[yuna628 9,700]

Ya we are ordering the next day priority, and she is going to priority fedex it to the NVC. It will cost like 100 pounds total but sick of waiting.

Ever heard of them allowing to be reviewed at embassy though? Seems like the perfect example of something that doesn't need to take 6 weeks. They have an official notarized short form, so they just need to see the long form. Easy peasy to do at the interview, in my opinion.

I cannot say, my husband came on a K1 visa, so his documents are brought to the embassy directly. But spousal is a very different process, in which the NVC has to look over everything prior to. The short form apparently doesn't have all the info on it that they want. Kinda dumb, they should just issue them outright in the first place.

I remember hubby thinking he had lost it less than 24hrs before the interview, giving me a heart attack..

Edited November 17, 2016 by yuna628

[bcking 3,157]

I cannot say, my husband came on a K1 visa, so his documents are brought to the embassy directly. But spousal is a very different process, in which the NVC has to look over everything prior to. The short form apparently doesn't have all the info on it that they want. Kinda dumb, they should just issue them outright in the first place.

I remember hubby thinking he had lost it less than 24hrs before the interview, giving me a heart attack..

Two things that are silly:

1. UK doesn't give parents this mystical "long form" when the child is born, so no one would think that it is the 'official' version. Wouldn't it be normal to assume what the hospital gives you is official?

2. The page listing required supporting documents doesn't specify which form. If you then look up specifically UK by putting it in the "search box" and then go to birth certificate it says long form, but it should be more clear on the page listing required supporting documents what the birth certificate needs on it.

Apparently the major difference is the "long form" lists both parents, whereas the short form doesn't. But like I said, I just got off the phone with my wife who was with her parents and even her parents had never heard of a "long form" birth certificate. They only have the normal one for all of their children, and even their own birth certificates are all the standard one. I had to look up for them how to even request it because they had no idea.

[yuna628 9,700]

Two things that are silly:

1. UK doesn't give parents this mystical "long form" when the child is born, so no one would think that it is the 'official' version. Wouldn't it be normal to assume what the hospital gives you is official?

2. The page listing required supporting documents doesn't specify which form. If you then look up specifically UK by putting it in the "search box" and then go to birth certificate it says long form, but it should be more clear on the page listing required supporting documents what the birth certificate needs on it.

Apparently the major difference is the "long form" lists both parents, whereas the short form doesn't. But like I said, I just got off the phone with my wife who was with her parents and even her parents had never heard of a "long form" birth certificate. They only have the normal one for all of their children, and even their own birth certificates are all the standard one. I had to look up for them how to even request it because they had no idea.

My husband says they didn't used to give out long form certificates, but that apparently they do now? Don't know myself. But his parents do have all the long forms for not only him but the rest of his siblings born after him. Maybe it was a regional or 80s-90s thing.

[PurplePassion 1]

They said it will take "up to 6 weeks" to review the single form. Is that what happened to you?

We are ordering it tomorrow by phone for next day mail so we should get it Monday, and we downloaded the cover sheet so should be able to send that first class on Monday.

Just seems silly that it can't be reviewed at the interview. Apparently (according to my wife) parents are only ever given short forms at the birth of their child, so no one actually has an "original" long form BC since they don't exist and are only available by request.

yea we are in the 6 week waiting process now. It took them 1 month to actually recieve the paper. that was 2 weeks ago.

I was confused on it also. I sent to normal first then they requested a different one that wasnt listed on the document cover sheet. I had to actually call to find out what they were wanting

Edited November 18, 2016 by PurplePassion

[bcking 3,157]

My husband says they didn't used to give out long form certificates, but that apparently they do now? Don't know myself. But his parents do have all the long forms for not only him but the rest of his siblings born after him. Maybe it was a regional or 80s-90s thing.

Not sure. My wife is 28 and her sister is 25. Their parents only got the "short form" and they don't have any neices or nephews so no one in their family knew anything about the long form. Maybe more recently it has changed. I read that they are trying to transition to them for legal purposes.

They don't list the requirements of the birth certificate on the main page that lists the "supporting documents". However, if you use the search box to look up specific requirements for the UK, and then click on birth certificate, it says that they recommend long form. It requires about 3 or 4 clicks through the website to find it. it's not on the main page. That should probably change, but not sure how/who to tell to change it.

https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Supporting_documents.html

This page should list what is required on the birth certificate. She didn't think to "request" a copy since her parents still had the original, so they just had a notorized copy made of the original. You have to click on the "reciprocity by country" to find out that they want the long form. It should say on the main page that the birth certificate must include parent's names.

[bcking 3,157]

yea we are in the 6 week waiting process now. It took them 1 month to actually recieve the paper. that was 2 weeks ago.

I was confused on it also. I sent to normal first then they requested a different one that wasnt listed on the document cover sheet. I had to actually call to find out what they were wanting

4 weeks to receive! That is crazy.

We are getting the birth certificate Monday (50 pounds for two copies next day delivery), and then my wife is arranging fed ex to pick it up from her house on Tuesday and ship it next day air to NVC.

When we sent in our original documents they were shipped on a Monday with FedEx and our scan date was Wednesday. So I'm hoping it will be "scanned" on Friday (Thursday is a holiday, but they confirmed they're working Friday).

Our new 6 weeks will start Friday hopefully...but I'll call every day and ask for supervisors and ask for them to review it early. I think it absolutely crazy that they have no system to review single missing documents for people who have already waited in queue. If they aren't going to even look at our packets for 8 weeks, they need to at least have a system to speed it up if we are missing something. Had they just looked over the documents quickly after our scan date they could seen that it was the wrong one and notified us then. It's absolutely ridiculous.

[ceisenbruch 53]

Man, this thread gave me a heart attack!! Alex got a 221g because he brought a copy instead of the original birth cert, and he has to mail it in. So i woke him up at 6am in a panic asking if he has a long or short form. He has a long form, so you may be right that it became standard in the 90s- he's born in 94 (I'm marrying a baby).

Good luck to you guys, hopefully it gets processed quickly and you're on your way to happily ever after

[bcking 3,157]

Trying to be positive. We have 4 months apart right now until Christmas but after Christmas I only work 6 weeks before I'm off again and can visit.

Just sucks since she is doing nothing (left her job in the summer in preparation to move). Can't visit since last time she tried she had a horrible experience.

[JFH 12,191]

I was born in 1974 (I'm super old) and I have a long-form birth certificate. What happened was the registrar came to the hospital and registered the births there (that doesn't happen any more) and everyone was given a small birth certificate from the bundle she brought with her. The registrar sat herself in the nurse's room and one by one the new mothers came into the room and gave their details and the details of the babies they had had which the registrar recorded in a book and issued a birth certificate from a stack of blank ones she brought with her. They were all given the option of purchasing the long-form for an additional fee. As I was my mother's first child and she was very excited and proud of me she decided to buy the long-form birth certificate.

As far as I know, a long-form record exists for everyone. But not everyone has a copy of it.

[bcking 3,157]

I was born in 1974 (I'm super old) and I have a long-form birth certificate. What happened was the registrar came to the hospital and registered the births there (that doesn't happen any more) and everyone was given a small birth certificate from the bundle she brought with her. The registrar sat herself in the nurse's room and one by one the new mothers came into the room and gave their details and the details of the babies they had had which the registrar recorded in a book and issued a birth certificate from a stack of blank ones she brought with her. They were all given the option of purchasing the long-form for an additional fee. As I was my mother's first child and she was very excited and proud of me she decided to buy the long-form birth certificate.

As far as I know, a long-form record exists for everyone. But not everyone has a copy of it.

Ya it clearly exists since she had no problem ordering it. Just funny even her parents didn't know about it. Their own are the short form also.

The supporting document page should say that the birth certificate must include parents names. That would clear up confusion. The UK embassy documents page says that, but if you are sending to NVC you would naturally look at NVCs website.