Interview document questions

[ES0603 9]

I was researching what documents are needed at the interview stage (my husbands will be done at the embassy in Tokyo, Japan.).

some websites said a copy of all documents submitted with the i-130 would be needed? Is this true? 

 

also, my husband can pic up an official copy of our marriage certificate in Japan, but does it need to be the exact copy that I scanned and sent with the I-130?

 

Does our marriage certificate and his birth certificate need an official translation even though it’s at the Tokyo embassy? (I had emailed them a while back and they said my husband won’t need an interpreter, but I wasn’t sure if that counts for the documents as well...) 
 

documents like the deed to our house, life insurance, etc., copies are fine?

[JFH 12,189]

If his birth deryogucate and the marriage certificate are in Japanese or English, they don’t need to be translated. Only if they are in any other language.

 

The embassy wants to see originals of the civil documents, not photocopies. The list of required documents should be on the embassy website. 
 

Other documents such as deeds, bank statements, etc can be copies but it’s very unlikely you will need those for the Tokyo embassy. It’s not a high-fraud country. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by JFH

[ES0603 9]

1 minute ago, JFH said:

If his birth deryogucate and the marriage certificate are in Japanese or English, they don’t need to be translated. Only if they are in any other language.

 

The embassy wants to see originals, not photocopies. The list of required documents should be on the embassy website. 

ok, thank you. I’ll check their website.

i was wondering because the updated deed with my husbands name was emailed to us by a lawyer I used at the time, and the life insurance original copy is kept by the HR department where I work, so I’m not sure how I would attain an original copy of those items...

[JFH 12,189]

9 minutes ago, ES0603 said:

ok, thank you. I’ll check their website.

i was wondering because the updated deed with my husbands name was emailed to us by a lawyer I used at the time, and the life insurance original copy is kept by the HR department where I work, so I’m not sure how I would attain an original copy of those items...

Those are not required items. People like to take them to interviews to strengthen their case of a bona fide marriage, especially at embassies where they have an uphill battle (the likes of Nigeria, Ghana, etc) or where the couple has various factors in their situation that count against them and where extra evidence would be helpful (huge age gap, several previous marriages, short period of time between marriages, married on the first meeting, and pairings that are beyond the societal norms of the beneficiary’s country - e.g. young North African Muslim man with a much older white divorced Christian woman who is beyond the usual age of childbearing). 
 

I took a bagful of evidence with me to the London interview. Almost every item never made it out of my bag.