Request for Unabridged Birth Certificate

[carly+anton 1]

Hello, my husband is in change of status from an H2A visa, he is originally from South Africa. We submitted his AOS packet back in December 2020 and we received a requested late March for his unabridged/long form birth certificate. We realized after receiving the notice that we had an older form of BC for him that is very basic. After a certain point in time, they began including more info on them and you can request that longer version from the Dept of Home Affairs. We hired a company based in SA to submit the request on his behalf the first week of April. They have just given an update that his long form BC appears to be misfiled aka lost. They are still working with someone at the Dept of Home Affairs to try to put more people on researching to find his, but we were warned that it might be deemed lost. There is a process for basically having the government create a brand new one but it can take 3 months.

 

The request for evidence gave a due date of 6/21. We still have some time but not 3 months for sure...The letter does state that there is an alternative option if the BC cannot be produced, but it requires a government letter stating the reason, i.e., that is it lost. There are some requirements listed as to what all needs to be part of that letter to be considered acceptable. 

 

I am very nervous because it does state that on 6/21 based on whatever information we provide back, they will make a decision on his case. If we do nothing, they will deny his case so the version we provided is clearly not going to be acceptable. We do have email communication and receipts with the company we hired to procure the BC and I would certainly include printed copies of all of that showing the responses back and our efforts to provide the requested information but I am just really worried if they cannot locate it. I am 23 weeks pregnant so the extra stress is very hard on me. Any advice or past experience on something similar would be appreciated. 

[Crazy Cat 41,980]

18 minutes ago, carly+anton said:

The letter does state that there is an alternative option if the BC cannot be produced, but it requires a government letter stating the reason, i.e., that is it lost.

Give them what they ask for.  

Edited May 12, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[Mike E 11,740]

28 minutes ago, carly+anton said:

We hired a company based in SA to submit the request on his behalf the first week of April. They have just given an update that his long form BC appears to be misfiled aka lost.

...

The request for evidence gave a due date of 6/21. We still have some time but not 3 months for sure...The letter does state that there is an alternative option if the BC cannot be produced, but it requires a government letter stating the reason, i.e., that is it lost.

You need the company you hired to get  the BC to get you that letter from Home Affairs that says no long form birth certificate is available. 
 

Whatever you do, respond to the RFE on time.  
 

Then work on getting a long form birth certificate as you’ve indicated this is possible.  This way it will be ready for the AOS interview.  

[carly+anton 1]

Yes, we plan to provide everything and anything we can and will submit a response before the deadline for sure! I am just nervous that if it's lost, the letter we get stating it is lost may not tick all the boxes they are asking for and we may not have an easy way to go back and forth with the government trying to get a 'better' letter. I guess that is my main worry. 

[Crazy Cat 41,980]

2 minutes ago, carly+anton said:

Yes, we plan to provide everything and anything we can and will submit a response before the deadline for sure! I am just nervous that if it's lost, the letter we get stating it is lost may not tick all the boxes they are asking for and we may not have an easy way to go back and forth with the government trying to get a 'better' letter. I guess that is my main worry. 

If the BC is lost, it's lost.  You stated that USCIS has said a government letter will suffice.  I think @Mike E gave you excellent advice.

[carly+anton 1]

Understand and I mean, we can only do what we can do. It's just that there are several statements about the signature required on that letter, it must include certain titles like judge and must include a seal...Things like that, I don't remember all of the things it outlined but it's incredibly specific about what that 'lost' letter would need to include. So just hoping the letter we get satisfies those requirements...I would assume there is a standard type of letter that office would issue for a lost BC but also, it's SA and they don't necessarily do things the way we do in the US. 

[carly+anton 1]

Update...The company we hired just replied back on my last request and confirmed that home affairs in SA will NOT under any circumstances issue letters stating that a BC cannot be located. He says they were sued in 2017 for this reason so they stopped 'admitting fault'. He is aware that USCIS asks for these letters but said he has not seen home affairs issue even 1 in the 4 years he has been doing this job.

 

I can print all the email correspondence between this BC company and myself but does anyone have other ideas of documents I can try to include if the BC is not located in time? I don't have the notice in front of me but I think the last resort if no BC and no government letter was something else showing the parent child relationship. My husband's father passed away March 1st and nothing could be found in his files that would support this (his brother tried looking for the long form BC in case his dad had it and we just didn't know) but possibly his mom could supply something?

 

Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and had success...thanks