ds230 accompanying documents

[mishka b 0]

I am getting ready to mail off my DS230, along with the accompanying documents. What i am wondering is whether i need to send in the originals (eg. birth and marriage certificates, police clearance certificate etc) or whether i can send in certified copies of the originals? the originals all took quite a while to get and i am loathe to part with them!

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Jigi 0]

hey mishka,

All the original documents are to be taken at the time for the interview. In my case i just have to send a copy of my passport. (My Embassy is Mumbai , India and IR/CR case)......

Please see for your embassy what do you have to send with the DS-230 froms..

Go on the Link Below.... Select Your Emabssy and you will know what documents you have to send with DS-230.

DS-230 Embassy wise Instructions

DO NOT SEND ANY ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS TO NVC

Edited August 26, 2007 by Jigi

[Mononoke28 135]

This is as per the Department of State website:

"Document Requirements

The applicant and each family member who will accompany the applicant to the United States will need to obtain the following original documents or certified copies of the documents listed in this section from an appropriate authority (the issuing entity)."

[trailmix 77]

I think the important part of their statement is:

"original documents or certified copies of the documents listed in this section from an appropriate authority (the issuing entity)."

To me this says they want what we would call 'originals'. Basically when you get one of these documents from the registry they are sending you a 'certified copy' - not the 'original' - obviously

For instance, for the Birth Certificate it goes on to say:

"Each applicant will need to obtain an original birth record (or a certified copy of the original, obtained from the issuing government authority)".

Edited August 27, 2007 by trailmix

[trailmix 77]

DO NOT SEND ANY ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS TO NVC

Jigi,

I need to give you an example.

We have not filed DCF, so I can't speak to that, however our case is now with the NVC.

In order for me to get a birth certificate they will accept, I go to the registry office and request a copy of my long form birth certificate. This is a copy, that they have taken of the original.

Is this truly an 'original'? No. I don't know about other governments, but I doubt they are sending 'originals' they are sending a Copy of the original.

NVC wants this 'original', the one with the official stamp or raised seal, they don't want a photo copy that you do yourself.

I don't mean to sound harsh at all but I've seen you tell several people 'do not send the original' and this is not quite correct.

Edited August 27, 2007 by trailmix

[Jigi 0]

hi friends,

I got letter from NVC and also have seen on travel. state.gov website which clearly says do not send original copy of your documents. Because we have to take with them at the interview and the consular officer verifies it with alll the xerox copies which we have submitted to NVC at different stages of visa petition process.

And when the NVc asks for original documents, it means if you dont have the certificates in english you can request to the concerned authority for exmaple to birth certificate in english. When they give you the copy in english it has the seap and stamp of the authority issuing it and it is the original copy of the birth certifcate; because it is extracted from the original only the language has been changed.

Mononke / Diana missed the line above to which she has copy pasted here in this thread. I will copy paste it again and see the difference.

Document Requirements

Note: Do not send the documents in this section to the NVC. The applicant must submit them at the time of the applicant’s immigrant visa interview.

The applicant and each family member who will accompany the applicant to the United States will need to obtain the following original documents or certified copies of the documents listed in this section from an appropriate authority (the issuing entity).

And one more thing i forgot , it depends from embassy to embassy. For my embassy we have sent xerox copies which r notarized in the courts. ANd we have to take the originals at the time of interview.

GOd bless you

[trailmix 77]

I believe the difference is you are doing Direct Consular Filing, we don't know if mishka is, so just need to be careful about that, that was the point I was making, different requirements for different situations.

Also when you say:

"And when the NVC asks for original documents, it means if you dont have the certificates in english you can request to the concerned authority for exmaple to birth certificate in english. When they give you the copy in english it has the seap and stamp of the authority issuing it and it is the original copy of the birth certifcate; because it is extracted from the original only the language has been changed".

I live in Canada, I did not Direct Consular File, I have to send in original documents - it has nothing to do with the translation (our documents are already in English), it has to do with getting a government copy of the original.

[Mononoke28 135]

Jigi, you're getting confused. Your embassy is different in that it only asks for a copy of the passport along with the DS-230, that's all. For other embassies, like Colombia, Morocco, South Africa, etc., the Department of State asks that we send the birth, marriage, divorce, police certificates along with the DS-230 and copy of the passport. These documents HAVE to be either originals or certified copies. If they're not, the NVC will send you an RFE. In Colombia a certified copy of the document has a stamp on it that says something like "this is a true copy of the original document".

It's very important to check out the DOS web site to make sure what documents you need to be sending to the embassy based on your embassy.

Diana