Does INS still accept notorized birth certificates issued by foreign governments?

[cherrycrest]

I saw in the press that INS is becoming more strict with birth certificate documents. It is now requiring the original hospital birth certificate, and rejecting notarized birth documents issued by foreign governments. This is pretty hard a problem for many people from developing countries such as China, as in those old days, hospitals usually didn't issue birth certificates at all, nor would they keep original documents for several decades.

For those who came from China or India, does any one have any experience with this lately - were you or your relative required to submit the original birth document from the hospital? Was the government-issued document accepted?

Thanks,
CherryCrest

 

[LucyMO]

never heard about hospital issued birth certificates. In the former USSR all you got was a government issued birth certificate. That's all I have.

 

[unnati]

For those who came from China or India, does any one have any experience with this lately - were you or your relative required to submit the original birth document from the hospital? Was the government-issued document accepted?

I had to submit BC for my wife (she sponsored me), as mine didn't have a name on it !! Well, it was irrelevant cuz she's a citizen, but anyway, we only had a note from the doc which we submitted.

Then we got a mail from them saying, we need to provide a letter from magistrate/govt. official stating, they don't have record of your birth. Unfortunately her country wasn't ready to do that (my cousin however submitted such letter from Indian magistrate) and so, we had to get one made from their records.


Hope that helps.