As part of the K1 visa process, we will be required to submit originals of birth certificate, marriage certificate (for prior marriages) along with photocopies to an agency contracted by the American Consulate in Bombay few days before the actual interview.

Parting with the orginals is a pretty scary thought.

Does anyone know at what point are the originals returned to the applicant? How reliable are they in this regard?

RaRe,

You should get them returned at the interview.

I don't believe that is correct. The forms and documents submitted are held by the USCIS in their file on each of you. The best thing to do is get certified copies of birth from the legal authority where each of you were born. As far as prior marriages, I think they are only concerned with your divorce and not with the actual prior marriage certificate. So, you will need the divorce decree issued by the court where you were divorced. Contact the court office where that occurred or whatever the legal authority is called where the divorce was made official.

RaRe, assuming you are the usc, you should file all originals with your local clerk of court's office, then get copies from there. It can be a "true" or "certified" copy.

Thanks everyone for their input. Looks like every consulate works in a different manner so there no "standard" procedure at the consular level.

I e-mailed the Bombay Consulate with my question and they replied within a few hours. The agency that works for consulate returns the originals to the applicant after they are matched up with the photocopies and sends the validated packet to the consular officer. The applicant is still required to carry the originals for the interview in case the consular officer wants to look at them.