CRBA Questions: Original Documents, Photo and DS2029 Question

[tq999 1]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any help.

 

I am booking an appointment to apply for my 3 week old daughter’s CRBA and passport in India. Our situation in short is: my wife and I are both US citizens (I was born in the USA and my wife naturalized) living in India on work assignment for a US company. 

 

A few questions as it would be difficult to make multiple trips (we live in another city and have to fly) and we are hoping to go back to the USA soon:

• Photos: Our daughter doesn’t open her eyes very much during the day. I know you are supposed to have your eyes open in the passport photo but have seen that they make exceptions for newborns. Is that correct?
• Documents: We may need to use some copies as we have not been home since my wife got pregnant and the originals are in a lock box in the States and it would be impossible to get. Is this going to be an issue? For example, our marriage certificate (and the certified translation since we were married abroad) and her naturalization certificate.
  • The only one I am worried about really is the marriage certificate as it is required and the others we either have such as the birth certificate (in English) or have another document that can work such as my wife’s US passport to demonstrate citizenship. Would this really hold up our daughter's application if we have other proof we have been in a relationship, have copies of our certificates and proof from USCIS vetted processes such as the Green Card and Naturalization?
  • I know we will need other proof of time spent in the US such as tax returns, transcripts etc. We also have our offer letters from the company we both work for showing this is a temporary assignment.  
• DS-2029 Question 24-25: Time spent in the US: I know this was recently asked but how far back do they really look. My wife can provide this information pretty easily since we had to do it for her CR1 and Naturalization application but for me it will be hard as I was born in the USA lived there full time until I was 23 and then off and on for another 10+ years. At some point I was even traveling in and out of the US weekly. I don’t have all of my adult passports let alone my childhood ones. Do they really need every entry and exit since my own birth or do I need to just show at least 5 full years + of physical presence?

Any other advice?  Once again thank you very much from two nervous new born parents. 

[tq999 1]

Re posting this to see if I can get advice on one particular point, the marriage certificate:

• We don’t have the original copy, is this going to be a deal breaker? The embassy sent us a checklist asking for the original but we don’t have it. We did not plan on having the baby in India but for health reasons decided not to go home. Will they really deny the CRBA if we have a copy of the original including the translation and numerous other pieces of evidence indicating the relationship including my wife’s naturalization paperwork which was approved after 3 years instead of 5 which shows that USCIS has already vetted the marriage? 

Any thoughts on this?  Sorry to repost but we are getting nervous since it means traveling with a newborn for something that is uncertain. I am thinking of overloading with relationship evidence and employment records, our mortgage records, medical claims, bank records as well as my college transcript just in case.   

 

Thanks.  

[Fogi 91]

The US government is really strict about have all documents and original documents. That's all I know. You should call the embassy you're working with.