'country of birth' on greencard, should it be the current name of the country or not?

C

Carlart

New Member
please help me find answer to this. on the greencard, there is a line that says 'country of birth'

should it be the current official name of the country? what if the country's official name was different at the time of the greencard holder birth? (e.g. if the birthplace had a different official country name at the time of birth prior to second world war, then the country's name changed after the war?)

she just received the actual greencard this week and is confused about this.
 
Let's say you were born in Manchurian, is your chargeable country to be China or Japan ?
What about the person born in USSR ? If they were born in Russia, they are not eligible to DV, but what if born in Ukrainia ?

My quess is country of birth should be today's country name as I believe the chargeability is based on the today's country boundary.
 
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When filing the I-485 you put the country of birth as it was when you were born. The I-485 also asks for the city. Give them the combination of city and country, and let them decide how to do the translation to current-day country if they want. Also note there is a separate question for citizenship, and that should have the current-day country of your citizenship (unless you were made stateless as a result of your original country being conquered or split up).
 
It sould be the current name of the country which owns your town of birth. However, in case your category does not have per-country or per-region quotas (immediate relative category, refugee, asylee adjustments or private legislation), it is less important. It is still better to provide the current name of your country of birth.

If you were born in a place that does not belong to any country (Antarctica, for instance), you have to mention you were not born in a country.
 
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From my experience...

Not a current name (card states "USSR", even though that particular town is in Russia now).

Did not have a problem at the border coming back from a vacation the other day
 
It is common mistake to use USSR instead of Russia. In a lot of cases there are no consequences. In other cases there could be unpleasant consequences.
 
raevsky said:
It is common mistake to use USSR instead of Russia. In a lot of cases there are no consequences. In other cases there could be unpleasant consequences.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. The reality is, I am relying on my lawyer's advice; what are your credentials?
 
Hm...

Let's start with statistics

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2007/table03d.xls

Shows entries for Russia and for Soviet Union. It shows a lot of people still put Soviet Union on their DS-230 or I-485 (while the number of entries for Russia is much more).

The most interesting thing is this table - http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2007/table10d.xls

It shows most of them are immediate relatives. However, 17 people claimed nativity to USSR through DV program (absolutely incredible, because USSR is ineligible).

Regarding why you need to put current name of the country -

9 FAM 42.12 N2.2 Changes in Territorial Limits
(TL:VISA-329; 10-26-2001)
If an alien’s place of birth has undergone changes in political jurisdiction
since the time of his or her birth, the alien is subject to the foreign state
limitation of the state, which has jurisdiction over that place of birth at the
time of visa application. [See 9 FAM 42.12 N2.3 for exceptions to the
general chargeability rule.]
Click to expand...

How do you think the officer is supposed to figure that out? From the application form.

Enough credentials?
 
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raevsky said:
It shows most of them are immediate relatives. However, 17 people claimed nativity to USSR through DV program (absolutely incredible, because USSR is ineligible).
Click to expand...
Maybe they used one of the 9 FAM 42.12 N2.3 exceptions (1) or (3).

[See 9 FAM 42.12 N2.3 for exceptions to the general chargeability rule.]
Click to expand...
9 FAM 42.12 N2.3 Exceptions to General Chargeability Rule
(TL:VISA-513; 01-23-2003)
Exceptions to the general rule of chargeability are set forth in 22 CFR 42.12(b), (c), (d), and (e). These exceptions are as follows:

(1) An accompanying or following-to-join spouse or child, for whom a visa would not otherwise be available [see 9 FAM 42.12 N3];

(2) An alien born in the United States [see 9 FAM 42.12 N4]; or

(3) An alien born in a foreign state in which neither parent was born or had residence at the alien's time of birth [see 9 FAM 42.12 N5].
Click to expand...
 
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I think they did claim nativity though those exceptions to other countries, but stated their own country of birth (which they did not claim) as Soviet Union. That is not a big deal in case you do not use quota from that country.

It could still affect a lot of things. For instance, claiming USSR as the country of chargeability for immediate relative cases would decrease the number of immediate relatives from Russia and make Russia eligible to participate in DV lottery.
If they realize you or your lawyer did that intentionally to affect eligibility of Russia for DV lottery purposes, that could be considered as alien smuggling. That is not a good result for someone or for someone's lawyer. That is not just a simple mistake.
 
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However, for Naturalization purposes in the form N-400 you fill your country of birth as it was named at the moment of your birth. Maybe your lawyer mixed those things up.
 
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