Appropriate government authority in India

[ksengupta]

Does anybody know what is the appropriate government authority in India for declaring non-availability of birth certificate for a petitioner who wants to petition for her parents' family based GC?

thanks in advance!!

[Ashin2]

Have you checked with municipal corporation of the town where your parents were born to procure this non-availability certificate?

[ksengupta]

No I have not - this is for my wife's missing birth certificate - I am not sure that the municipal corporation is the right agency or not, hence my question. If anybody has any similar experience, please share it here - you know how the government agencies work in India!!

thanks in advance!

[Ashin2]

Indian consulate in US offer miscellaneous services, one of which is non-availablity certificate (INDIAN consulate, NY webpage). Do a google search for this form and talk to the consulate about getting it. Hope this helps.

[svjan]

We have a similar situation with my father-in-law who was born in Madras ( now called Chennai) in 1939 and his birth was never registered. We filed I-130 and I-485 and got an RFE for I-485. We have been trying to get a non availability from Chennai Corporation for the last two months. We are now trying to explore other options. Please let me know how things work out for you.

[ksengupta]

Actually the Indian consulate in NY issued my wife an affidavit for a birth certificate based on her (then) Indian passport details. I am planning to use this as the document for the birth certificate - however I am also thinking that I should talk to a couple of good lawyers to see what they have to say since I dont want the process to get stuck in the middle like what you are facing at Chennai Corporation (I am sure it will be the same story anywhere in India with any of the municipal corporations).

If anybody has a similar experience for family-based GCs where the parents are in India, PLEASE share your experiences here!

thks!!

[ksengupta]

Originally Posted by svjan

We have a similar situation with my father-in-law who was born in Madras ( now called Chennai) in 1939 and his birth was never registered. We filed I-130 and I-485 and got an RFE for I-485. We have been trying to get a non availability from Chennai Corporation for the last two months. We are now trying to explore other options. Please let me know how things work out for you.

svjan -
Can you please clarify why you need your father-in-law's birth certificate? Is that required as part of the I-130/485? Because according to INS instructions, if your wife is petitioning for her father, they need your wife's birth certificate to establish relationship between father-daughter only, correct? Why do you need her father's birth certificate?
thanks!!
Kaushik

[svjan]

This is required for the parent for I-485. I am not sure if they will accept a birth certificate provided by the consulate. Some agents accept and some do not. He was born in 1939 and mandatory birth registration in India started only in 1969.
When we applied to Chennai Corporation for a birth certificate, they sent a reply back in a flimsy paper with the seal. The reply stated that we did not provide all documents for the birth certificate. They asked us to provide

1. copy of the birth certificate previously registered at Chennai
2.copy of birth certificate registered elsewhere
3. certificate from the hospital regarding the birth.

I have a copy of this document in Tamil. It also has my father-in-law's father's name as they do the search based on the parent as children were not named at that time.
My in-laws are here and so we have requested the person who is helping us out with this in Chennai to see if he could get the birth registered now through the court and provide a certificate.

Which corporation do you need to get the certificate from ?

[ksengupta]

I guess then the corporation has to be the municipal corporation - so according to your posting, INS did not accept the Non-Availability Certificate that you said Chennai Corporation sent you?
Also, I am not sure if the birth certificate requirement for the alien (in this case your father-in-law) is required only if you are doing AOS (i.e. I485) and not if you do Consular Processing in India - is this correct? Have you tried doing CP?

[ksengupta]

Originally Posted by svjan

My in-laws are here and so we have requested the person who is helping us out with this in Chennai to see if he could get the birth registered now through the court and provide a certificate.

Like marriages can be re-registered through the proper authority in India, it should be possible to re-register the birth through the court - isnt it the case? Please share your experience on whether the court can register the birth and provide a certificate.