Birth Certificate - Frankfurt Embassy

[crmadsen 0]

I had a question for anyone who has been through Frankfurt's embassy: my fiancee is currently in the K-1 Visa process and has her interview appointment on the 21st of April. The paperwork states that she is required to have a certified copy of her birth certificate present at the interview, but do they take possession of it or just look at it? The reason I ask is that she only has one copy of that certificate and due to the bureaucracy that Germany is famous for, getting another copy is a time-consuming headache of a process. They didn't specify whether or not two copies are necessary and the embassy has been giving her the runaround, so I was hoping to get a few words from someone who has been through the nightmare before. Did you just bring one copy or two?

[Captain Ewok 1,900]

Welcome to VJ! I am not able to personally address this question, but I wanted to help point you in the direction of some people that might! If you pop into the Germany Portal page you should be able to find quite a few members that may have gone through this:

http://www.visajourney.com/portals/index.php?country=Germany

Also you can check the VJ Review Section on Germany. There may be useful feedback there as well :

http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/inde...p;cty=Frankfurt

and

http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=Germany

That said you may get plenty of responses here as well! Good luck on your Journey ahead!

[Otto 83]

I had a question for anyone who has been through Frankfurt's embassy: my fiancee is currently in the K-1 Visa process and has her interview appointment on the 21st of April. The paperwork states that she is required to have a certified copy of her birth certificate present at the interview, but do they take possession of it or just look at it? The reason I ask is that she only has one copy of that certificate and due to the bureaucracy that Germany is famous for, getting another copy is a time-consuming headache of a process. They didn't specify whether or not two copies are necessary and the embassy has been giving her the runaround, so I was hoping to get a few words from someone who has been through the nightmare before. Did you just bring one copy or two?

They do not take possession of your original/certified birth certificate - it may be reviewed and given back. (By the way - we both; Karin and I - obtained International Versions of each of our German BC's since we were both born there - it was simple and didn't take that long - it's not required but we did it to possibly make things easier down the road - which it did when we filed AOS in the US.)

p.s.

We brought originals to the interview and also a copy of each in case they wanted to retain one - which they did not.)

[crmadsen 0]

I had a question for anyone who has been through Frankfurt's embassy: my fiancee is currently in the K-1 Visa process and has her interview appointment on the 21st of April. The paperwork states that she is required to have a certified copy of her birth certificate present at the interview, but do they take possession of it or just look at it? The reason I ask is that she only has one copy of that certificate and due to the bureaucracy that Germany is famous for, getting another copy is a time-consuming headache of a process. They didn't specify whether or not two copies are necessary and the embassy has been giving her the runaround, so I was hoping to get a few words from someone who has been through the nightmare before. Did you just bring one copy or two?

They do not take possession of your original/certified birth certificate - it may be reviewed and given back. (By the way - we both; Karin and I - obtained International Versions of each of our German BC's since we were both born there - it was simple and didn't take that long - it's not required but we did it to possibly make things easier down the road - which it did when we filed AOS in the US.)

p.s.

We brought originals to the interview and also a copy of each in case they wanted to retain one - which they did not.)

Is the birth certificate picked up from the Staatsarchiv by any chance? I read about an Office of Vital Records, but I'm not sure what the German name of the office is. Thank you so much for your help, I recommended that she get a copy regardless just for safety's sake. Thank you again!

[Otto 83]

Is the birth certificate picked up from the Staatsarchiv by any chance? I read about an Office of Vital Records, but I'm not sure what the German name of the office is. Thank you so much for your help, I recommended that she get a copy regardless just for safety's sake. Thank you again!

You can obtain the BC at the city of birth (or the city where it was recorded as was the case for me since I was born in a really small town/dorf) the office is called "Standesamt" - it (usually) doesn't take long and is relatively inexpensive -

If you don't ask, you will get a German BC, but if you ask (and I'd suggest you do so) you can get the International BC (this way you do not have to deal with translation later on) - the cost is somewhere between 7 and 13 Euros (I believe the International one costs a bit extra); ours took about a week.

[WROCLAW 0]

good luck w/everything.