JungleOne

In further discussing the details with the in laws...they were holding the unsealed envelope with the sealed one. Only the sealed one was handed to the CBP, everything seemed fine but the unsealed envelope caught the eye of the officer and they were asked to hand the unsealed envelope to the CBP. After CBP went thru it they tore up the unsealed envelope and put all the paperwork in the sealed envelope. The files in the unsealed envelope were originals. There was a language barrier which added to the confusion but it seems like my in laws should have kept the unsealed envelope out of sight. My in laws can get originals created again. I probably wont call them or inquire further as CBP already has access to all the info in the unsealed envelope. Just dont know why CBP wanted that information at POE.

Hello, my in-laws entered the USA on an IR-5 visa yesterday. At their POE they had one sealed envelope and another unsealed envelope which contained their birth cert, marriage cert, name change, police cert...etc - basically all the paperwork that was submitted to NVC. The immigration officer kept both envelopes after going thru them. Is this standard operating procedure? I believe they keep the sealed one but was wondering why they took the unsealed one. Will they get that envelope back?

Yes, you will need a police certificate or report. If you have no criminal record the certificate will say so.