birth certificate & tax details

[Fienaar 0]

Hi All

First, thank you for a wonderful site - it is the most useful tool for getting all this paperwork done.

I was hoping to get some advice on an RFE my wife and I received whilst waiting for AOS. We got a yellow letter asking for all tax documentation for the previous year and a birth certificate for myself.

On the tax issue - my wife works at a university and is supported by a national science foundation grant - this exceed the poverty line by some way, but as it is considered a stipend, there is no other tax information other than a W2 (i.e. there are no tax schedules etc). We are not sure how to get around this other than trying to explain this to whover is reviewing our case, but I assume there is no way we could get in touch with him / her. The other option is to ask her parents to become my sponsor, but we are not sure if we can change sponsors during the process?

On the birth certificate issue (which is probably unique to South Africa) - I sent in something called a vault copy, which is a certified copy of the original handwritten birth certificate, containing parentage information for both parents. My understanding is that there is something called an unabridged birth certificate, which is a typed version of the same thing - but that it would take up to 6 months to obtain such a document (which is way past the amount of time given for a response to the RFE). Has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, did you find a solution to this dilemma?

Many thanks in advance

[Miss M 54]

Hi Fienaar

I know nothing about the tax issue, but with regards to the birth certificate, see this thread - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/375089-question-rfe-birth-certificate/

Maybe that guy can help you.

Good luck.

[ceadsearc 515]

Re: taxes. What did you send? It doesn't matter if you file with or without schedules. You should send your entire tax return + W-2s from 2011 OR (better and easier) a complete tax transcript from 2011. You can request that straight from IRS and it will include everything you filed and the W-2s.

[shenaaz 5]

Hey,

You do need an unabridged birth certificate.If you are on facebook go to the group:docs4expats.The women there (Norma) is able to get the unabrideged birth certificate for a small fee in a few weeks.I have gone with her (she did my police clearance certificate as well as other documents) and she is reliable though you might want to pay half first and the balance when she does receive it.

Hope that this helps and all the best!

[f1000 0]

Does the birth certificate and police certificate need an apostille certificate?