CP in Chennai how long for Parents ?

Jen,
I have a question for you. Did you have to submit your mother's marriage certificate during her adjustment of status interview? I ask because my mother does not have a marriage certificate, and my father passed away three years ago. My mother started panicking when the letter from the Consulate asked her to submit her original marriage certificate or a registration. My understanding is that the marriage certificate is not needed for the mother, only for the father. Am I correct? (To be on the safe side, my mother has assembled secondary evidence of her marriage such as her wedding invitation, home ownership document, etc.).
 
Jyo -
Sorry to hear about ur father.

My mother didn't have to submit or show Marriage certificate at the AOS interview. May be she got the generic letter that they send to all applicants.

Yes.. your understanding is correct. Marriage certificate is a required document when sponsoring father, but it is not required when sponsoring mother. However, Original BC for both yourself and your mother need to be shown at interview (we didn't have a original BC for my Mom, so the IO took her Original NABC and returned it to us after approving, on the spot).

Let your Mom take the secondary evidence for Marriage in a separate folder, but not show until specifically asked.
 
Response from Chennai IV unit re: Medical reports

I sent two emails to the Chennai Consulate. I got response for only one of them.

My first email was expressing concern that the recent instructional letter asks applicants to submit Medical clearance with VFS, whereas the doctor said he would send it directly to the Consulate. CC responded that they are in receipt of his medical reports.

My other email was, if ORIGINAL documents need to be submitted with VFS or just the copies ONLY. No response yet - doesn't look like they are going to respond to this one.

Jyo - What ORIGINAL docs, is your Mom planning to submit with VFS?
 
Thank you very much, Jen. That is what I told my mother - that they sent her a generic letter, and the marriage cert. part does not apply to her. And she does have my original birth certificate, and her original non-availability cert. + two affidavits of birth.

Regarding the originals that my mother will submit to VFS, she just mentioned the marriage certificate I asked about, and my father's death certificate. I did not specifically ask her about other originals that were requested, but I'll find out soon and let you know. .
 
Question about the VFS letter

Jen,

You had previously indicated that your dad had called VFS (after receiving the 2nd letter from consulate) and they were very confused.

My wife has not received this 2nd letter. I told her about it and she called the VFS office at Chennai, she was told that VFS is not involved in immigrant-visa cases at all, they only deal with non-immigrant visa appointments.

This is all very confusing, did your dad have any luck in finding out what he is supposed to do?
 
Jen and Az,
My mother received the letter from the consulate clearly stating that she needs to submit the following to VFS:

1. Copy of biographic data pages of passport
2. Photos
3. DS-230 Part I with photo affixed, and DS-230 Part II
4. Marriage certificate or registration
5. Termination of marrriage (death certificate, divorce decree, etc.)
6. Original and clear photocopy of birth certificate or non-availability certificate and affidavit from close relative
7. Proof of relationship
8 Original police certificates

So, to answer your question, Jen, my mother plans to submit her original birth documents and police certificates. She did not call VFS, though, to confirm if they handle immigrant visa cases. It's all so confusing!!! :confused:
 
az -

That is still the confusing part. I asked my Dad to wait until I got a email response from CC, which I did. This is a copy paste of the emails:

My question to the CC via email :

When my Dad called the VFS office at Cenatoph Road, they said they had not received any such notification from the Consulate to start accepting documents for Immigrant Visa applicants. Can some one please clarify if this is a new procedure? What should he do?
Click to expand...

Their response via email :

We have received his medical reports.
He must follow the instructions on the appointment letter sent to him - he has to submit the rest of the documents to the VFS who will in turn send it to the consulate.
Click to expand...

From thier response, it is quite clear that they do want the docs to be submitted with VFS. My Dad is planning to submit documents in the 1st week of Nov, only then it will fall within the range of 15 to 10 days before interview as per the instruction letter.
So, I thought by now VFS should've been notified appropriately by CC... but it's shocking that VFS is still saying the same thing to your wife which they said to my Dad almost 10 days ago. How can there be so much confusion.. Looks like CC is not doing a good job with the VFS bit.

I think a call to CC in their office hours, explaining the VFS confusion might give us a better answer. Or if more people email them with the same question, that will make them aware of what VFS has been telling people.
What do you guys think?

I'm going to ask my Dad to call VFS again about this.
 
Jyo -

Thank you very much for putting up the docs list. That really helps re-inforce what my Dad's been telling me. Sometimes I'm not sure if originals should be submitted with VFS, even though my Dad tells me that's what the letter says. If some one else confirms, it kind of settles it ;)

I'm so proud that we all make a great team, amidst all the confusion :p
 
Jen,
Thank you very much for the support and information. Yes, as a team we can allay our fears and figure out a course of action.

I am also very concerned about what Az's wife found from VFS. Therefore, I emailed the Consulate this morning asking them to clarify the situation, especially since VFS still says they handle only non-immigrant visa cases. I will let you know when they respond.
 
Jen, Jyo,

Thanks for all the information. I am getting really worried about the VFS issue. For one thing, my wife never got the letter (either it got lost in the mail or the consulate did not mail it to everyone). Secondly, her appointment date is coming up soon, so she has a small window of time to submit the docs to VFS, if that is the procedure.

Anyway, she is going to Chennai on Monday to get her medical done. I will ask her to carry the docs that Jyo listed and drop in at the VFS office after her medical is done. I will let you know how it went.
 
Az,
I understand how worried you must be, but I'm not sure if your wife should submit the documents to VFS if she did not receive a letter. It would be better if you could contact the Consulate by e-mail, or better still if she could call them, give them her case number, and ask them if the procedure for her is to submit documents to VFS. The Consulate may not have the same procedure for spouses. By the way, my mother said that the letter she received mentioned that she could take the documents to the interview instead of submitting to VFS if she wanted, but it was mandatory to pay the courier fees to VFS. The letter, however, 'strongly urged' her to submit documents to VFS.
 
Az -

What Jyo said makes sense... the verification/examination of docs for marriage based cases probably go thro a completely different routine than the parents'. That way, it seems logical that your wife was not asked to submit docs to VFS. But having known about this VFS thingy, confirmation from the Consulate about this, is something you or your wife should definitely pursue.

The other thing is, until Jyo recently posted that her Mom also got the letter asking to submit docs to VFS, I was under the impression, the requirement may be was for Chennaiites only.
 
Jen,

You (and Jyo) may be right that the consulate is following a different procedure for marriage-based cases, hence my wife did not receive the letter. I hope that is the case.

I have emailed the consulate asking them to clarify, my wife also has been calling them today, so far she has not been able to talk to anyone.

Thanks for all your support, I will let you know if I hear anything from the consulate.
 
update

Jen, Jyo,

I got an email response back from the consulate within an hour of sending them my question !!

The VFS document submission requirement is only for those applicants with appointments after Nov 15th. My wife's appointment is on the 14th, so her case does not fall under this requirement.
 
az -

That's super fast response from the Consulate.
Lucky your wife, she doesn't have to go thro submitting Original docs to VFS and worrying about whether it would reach the Consulate properly. Also this way, the originals would hardly leave her hands for a few minutes, the Consulate should return the originals back to her much like how they do it in DOs here.
 
A minor update

In response to my message to the Consulate asking them to clarify the situation with VFS, I received this one-liner:

"Please contact the VFS after November 1, 2006."

which probably means that the VFS will be updated of the new procedure after that date. By the way, the Consulate website has just posted the following notice:

"Tip of the Month: "As of November 01, 2006, VFS (contract courier) will begin accepting paperwork for immigrant visa applications that have been previously refused for documentary reasons. As of November 15, 2006, all immigrant visa applicants will be expected to visit VFS for document processing 10 – 15 days prior to their interviews at the Consulate.""
 
Thanks for the update, Jyo.

When my Dad contacted VFS, they too confirmed that they will start accepting documents from Nov 1st.

BTW Jyo, is your Mom planning to submit your Original BC to the VFS?
And the Original I-864 + supporting docs also, to VFS?
 
Jen,
No, my mother does not plan to submit my original birth certificate or the I-864 documents to VFS. She will take them with her to the interview.
 
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