RFE - Birth Evidence

[LilaKappe 1]

Hello Everyone,

 

My spouse submitted her application for her AOS a month or so ago. Last week we received a request for initial evidence for her i-485 application. It states the following:

 

"This office is unable to complete the processing of your Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (form I-485) without initial information. Submit all information requested below at one time....." (Blah blah mailing address stuff) 

"You have submitted secondary evidence and/or a birth affidavit as proof of the applicants birth record. However, the information you have submitted is insufficient. Examples of acceptable secondary evidence may include, but is not limited to, church or school records listing your parents' names and your date of birth, hospital records of your birth, or other official records indicating a country and record of birth" 

 

We are quite unsure why USCIS is asking for this as we submitted a photocopy of her birth certificate. She is from the UK and so there are no issues with translation and is perfectly legible. From what I have researched on this issue, an official birth certificate counts as primary evidence. Why are they saying she submitted secondary evidence? I have a copy of everything we submitted and nothing we submitted, as far as I can tell, could be misconstrued as secondary evidence. Do they perhaps want the original copy rather than a photocopy? That seemed odd to me as the i-485 instructions state that a photocopy is acceptable.

 

Thank you for all your time and I appreciate any feedback!

[Liam2021 587]

You can't submit the affidavit birth record , it needs to be the copy of original birth cert or a extract version of it.

[Beefheart 31]

The only reason I can think of is if you supplied them with the short UK birth certificate. 

When I was gathering evidence, I discovered that I have both a short and long UK birth certificate: the short is probably A6 sized, whereas the long is A3 and contains much more information, including parent names, midwife present, and hospital location.

If this is the reason, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to request the long version from your wife's local parish perhaps (if they have official access to births/marriages/deaths) or the hospital where she was born. Someone will have a record of it somewhere. Her parents may even have it tucked away somewhere for safe-keeping.

I'm sure it's all plain sailing once you obtain this info and supply USCIS with it. Good luck to you both.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Beefheart

[LilaKappe 1]

Quote

You can't submit the affidavit birth record , it needs to be the copy of original birth cert or a extract version of it.

 

We did not submit an affidavit birth record. We submitted a photocopy of her UK birth certificate.

Edited July 5, 2017 by LilaKappe

[LilaKappe 1]

Quote

The only reason I can think of is if you supplied them with the short UK birth certificate. 

When I was gathering evidence, I discovered that I have both a short and long UK birth certificate: the short is probably A6 sized, whereas the long is A3 and contains much more information, including parent names, midwife present, and hospital location.

If this is the reason, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to request the long version from your wife's local parish perhaps (if they have official access to births/marriages/deaths) or the hospital where she was born. Someone will have a record of it somewhere. Her parents may even have it tucked away somewhere for safe-keeping.

I'm sure it's all plain sailing once you obtain this info and supply USCIS with it. Good luck to you both.

Hello Beefheart, Thank you for the reply!

 

The certificate we used was what we received from the gov.uk service listed here . On the form it shows her place and date of birth. Both parents and their respective occupations. Their address, the date of registration, and signature of the registrar. Is this the long form document your referred to or the short? I get the feeling it may be the incorrect document as it states "Certified Copy of An Entry Birth" and the top of the page rather than anything saying birth certificate. As we are overseas now and her parents are quite terrible at hanging on to important documents, any advice on obtaining a legitamate birth certificate?

 

Thanks for the help!

[Beefheart 31]

7 minutes ago, LilaKappe said:

Hello Beefheart, Thank you for the reply!

 

The certificate we used was what we received from the gov.uk service listed here . On the form it shows her place and date of birth. Both parents and their respective occupations. Their address, the date of registration, and signature of the registrar. Is this the long form document your referred to or the short? I get the feeling it may be the incorrect document as it states "Certified Copy of An Entry Birth" and the top of the page rather than anything saying birth certificate. As we are overseas now and her parents are quite terrible at hanging on to important documents, any advice on obtaining a legitamate birth certificate?

 

Thanks for the help!

Without seeing it, I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. It sounds like all the pertinent information is there, though.

It may just be that USCIS want to see an actual birth certificate as opposed to a governmental record containing the same info (if that's what your record is). My birth certificates (both) are on a yellowish paper - the short one I believe is filled out upon birth and is, therefore, handwritten in most parts. The long version seems to be typed on a typewriter (yes, I'm that old!) and I'm guessing is issued a week or two after birth once the county has all your information.

I'm really not sure where to suggest trying to get a copy from though, other than to contact the hospital and/or the local parish -- churches always used to keep thorough records of births/marriages/deaths. Even if neither of these places have an actual copy of either short or long birth certificate, they may be able to point you in the right direction. Perhaps you can find some first-hand experiential advice online from people who have faced similar issues; might be worth doing some extensive Googling to garnish some more information.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[SteveE 25]

I am originally from the UK and applied for AOS in January this year (Los Angeles). I have received my 10 year green card as of last month.

 

I submitted a copy of my UK birth certificate without any issues that I obtained maybe 10 years ago.

 

It is on yellowish white paper with red text in places and the birth information in black.

 

Across the top it states "CERTIFIED COPY OF AN ENTRY OF BIRTH" followed by a picture of a red seal in the center and the text "GIVEN AT THE GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE" on the right hand side.

 

It includes the following information on the heading across two lines

 

registration district (district)

(year of birth) birth in the sub-district of (town of birth)

in the (county of birth)

 

That is followed by the birth info in black

 

1. When and where born

2. Name‚ if any

3. Sex

4. Name and surname of father

5. Name‚ surname and maiden name of mother

6. Occupation of father

7. Signature‚ description and residence of informant (no actual signature there - just typed info of mothers name and residence)

8. When registered

9. Signature of registrar (again just typed name)

10. Name entered after registration (blank in my case)

 

 

At the bottom it indicates

 

"Certified to be a true copy of an entry of a Registrar of Births in the district above mentioned.

Given at the GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE‚ under the seal of the said Office‚ the 20th day of June 2006"

 

Under that there is a certificate # at the left side followed by some blurb in the center and a seal "GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE x ENGLAND x" at the right side.

 

Hope this helps in some way

[LilaKappe 1]

Here is what we submitted, see attached. I removed all identifying information. This seems like the quickest way to see if we submitted the correct document.

 

Empty Record.pdf

 

Thank you all for the replies so far.

[SteveE 25]

This is the same format as mine

 

 

[LilaKappe 1]

Thank you SteveE,

 

So as our doc's are the same, minus format differences, should we just submit another photocopy with a letter explaining what it is? It seems weird that they wouldn't accept the first one.

[SteveE 25]

In all cases we submitted high quality color photocopies (for colored documents / copies of passport pages etc...).

 

From the copy we submitted and the picture I posted you can clearly see the watermarked paper. From the image you posted‚ it looks like a bad scan that shows no watermark info. I don't know what quality the copy you submitted to USCIS was‚ but that could be a factor

 

[LilaKappe 1]

The copy we submitted was a standard copy from a printer/scanner. I think we will call and confirm with the USCIS help line and mail the original. Thank you very much for your help.

[Jordan8768 107]

I had my father get my birth certificate from the town council office of where I am from and they provided the full birth certificate. This was sufficient for me. My birth certificate didn't even have my fathers name listed on it

[menina 50]

If you submit the original, you will not receive it back. Better to make a copy of the original (that has a seal, it sounds like), and keep the  original with you.

[J R 0]

what did you end up doing? what did you sent back to uscis? my wife got the same letter and we don't know what to do