Consulate of Guangzhou asks for original marriage certificate

[waresident 0]

Hi all,

 

My wife took the interview last week at Consulate of Guangzhou, using I-824 follow to join. The VO was about to say case is approved, but she noticed the the marriage certificated my wife brought seems to be a copy and she eventually gave my wife a 221g, to submit the original marriage certificate.

 

My wife and I get married in Washington State, U.S. I checked with King County Recorder's office and it seems like we can only get certified copies of marriage certificates. My wife brought the certified copy at the interview time, but the VO insist that she needed the original, specifically the one with the original signatures.

 

But we cannot obtain that. The one with original signature is kept at State.

 

We're kind of stuck here and wondering if there is anyway for us to proceed. Right now the only way to communicate with the consulate is through a web form inquiry and we can only input 280 characters and that's not enough to explain the situation.

 

We tried to submit an explanation letter through CITIC Bank and haven't heard back.

[pushbrk 12,881]

6 hours ago, waresident said:

Hi all,

 

My wife took the interview last week at Consulate of Guangzhou, using I-824 follow to join. The VO was about to say case is approved, but she noticed the the marriage certificated my wife brought seems to be a copy and she eventually gave my wife a 221g, to submit the original marriage certificate.

 

My wife and I get married in Washington State, U.S. I checked with King County Recorder's office and it seems like we can only get certified copies of marriage certificates. My wife brought the certified copy at the interview time, but the VO insist that she needed the original, specifically the one with the original signatures.

 

But we cannot obtain that. The one with original signature is kept at State.

 

We're kind of stuck here and wondering if there is anyway for us to proceed. Right now the only way to communicate with the consulate is through a web form inquiry and we can only input 280 characters and that's not enough to explain the situation.

 

We tried to submit an explanation letter through CITIC Bank and haven't heard back.

What is the exact wording on the paper she was given?  You are right, you cannot get the original, only a certified copy.

[waresident 0]

The VO was just checking the signatures on the paper to see whether they're handwritten and basically they want one with handwritten signatures, not one that looks like a copy. The VO asked my wife if she had other copies, and my wife wasn't sure at that time (she was also thinking that we may have one original)

 

And later we find out all copies we have are certified copies...

 

We still haven't heard back from Consulate, only the Refusal last updated time on CEAC website changed, not sure if it's because they received our document and still not accepted it, or it's just they received our documents and haven't looked at it.

[pushbrk 12,881]

3 hours ago, waresident said:

The VO was just checking the signatures on the paper to see whether they're handwritten and basically they want one with handwritten signatures, not one that looks like a copy. The VO asked my wife if she had other copies, and my wife wasn't sure at that time (she was also thinking that we may have one original)

 

And later we find out all copies we have are certified copies...

 

We still haven't heard back from Consulate, only the Refusal last updated time on CEAC website changed, not sure if it's because they received our document and still not accepted it, or it's just they received our documents and haven't looked at it.

There are "original" Certified copies and photocopies of Certified copies.  Which did she have?

 

[waresident 0]

She brought the "original" Certified copies.

 

However the "original" Certified copies are just A4 papers and if you do a color copy, that looks exactly like the  "original" Certified copies. I'm not sure if she questions on that.

 

But the thing is we're giving what we get from the King County directly, what else can we do.

 

 

[pushbrk 12,881]

4 hours ago, waresident said:

She brought the "original" Certified copies.

 

However the "original" Certified copies are just A4 papers and if you do a color copy, that looks exactly like the  "original" Certified copies. I'm not sure if she questions on that.

 

But the thing is we're giving what we get from the King County directly, what else can we do.

 

 

"Original Certified Copies" from King County would not be on A4 paper.  They would be 8 1/2 X 11".  Accuracy counts.  Be accurate.

[waresident 0]

Ok, I never measured the paper size. But it's the one we received from KingCounty directly. We didn't photocopy it.

 

Do you have any suggestions for us? The Consulate only offered a web form (one way communication) that allows only 280 characters for us to submit inquiries. I cannot explain things clearly with that.

 

For senators, my previous experience with them are that they could be slow and sometimes no response. The case workers seemed to be only handling basic stuff and for the weird case that we have I have low confidence they could help much. 

[pushbrk 12,881]

8 hours ago, waresident said:

Ok, I never measured the paper size. But it's the one we received from KingCounty directly. We didn't photocopy it.

 

Do you have any suggestions for us? The Consulate only offered a web form (one way communication) that allows only 280 characters for us to submit inquiries. I cannot explain things clearly with that.

 

For senators, my previous experience with them are that they could be slow and sometimes no response. The case workers seemed to be only handling basic stuff and for the weird case that we have I have low confidence they could help much. 

Do they still have that original certified copy or do you?

[waresident 0]

They didn't took the original certified copy at the interview. But I have already submitted it again via CITIC Bank a day after the interview. 5 days after the submission, the last updated date changed, but it's still refused.

[pushbrk 12,881]

1 hour ago, waresident said:

They didn't took the original certified copy at the interview. But I have already submitted it again via CITIC Bank a day after the interview. 5 days after the submission, the last updated date changed, but it's still refused.

Yeah, they don't work that fast, and they do take of all US and Chinese holidays.