K1 Fiance has both spanish and czech birth certificate, which should be used?

[trvs 0]

My fiance was born in Spain to a British father and a Czech mother, and has a certificate from Spain. But a divorce led to her mother moving her to Czech, where she has lived nearly all of her life. Her mother evidently obtained a birth certificate for her in Czech at some point (Czech law requires notification within 3 days of birth but am unsure if this has always been the case or what special exceptions may have existed at the time). The Spain birth certificate lists both parents and uses her father's surname. The Czech birth certificate lists only her mother and uses her mother's divorced name. Later in life, her mother remarried, resulting in a surname name change in Czech. She has since (as an adult) moved to the UK to live with her father and obtained British citizenship and has been employed and taxed there for going on 2 years now. Her Czech and UK passports reflect the surname of her Czech mother's second marriage. My question ultimately is which birth certificate should be used for the K1 requirements? The Czech certificate is legally valid, and her british citizenship speaks to her being the legitimate child of her father, so would USCIS care about the Czech cert not showing the father's name?

[OldUser 4,838]

She was born in Spain, hence Spanish birth certificate should be provided. It was also the first birth certificate ever issued to the child.

 

I know some countries in that region of the world issue birth certificates based on parent's nationality, but it is super confusing.

 

Essentially, USCIS tries to determine the person's origin. As they were born in Span, Spanish older birth certificate should be provided.

 

I may be wrong, but in the eyes of USCIS that is the valid birth certificare that was generated shortly after child's birth. Not a certificate from some other country generated at some point.

 

I bet, the moment US official hears / learns she was born in Spain, they'd expect to see Spanish certificate and would be very confused by Czech one, without father etc.

 

~ This is not a legal advice ~

 

P.S. I'm curious to learn what is the place of birth on Czech certificate.

Edited March 10 by OldUser

[trvs 0]

4 minutes ago, OldUser said:

She was born in Spain, hence Spanish birth certificate should be provided. It was also the first birth certificate ever issued to the child.

 

I know some countries in that region of the world issue birth certificates based on parent's nationality, but it is super confusing.

 

Essentially, USCIS tried to determine the person's origin. As they were born in Span, Spanish older birth certificate should be provided.

 

So is it of no issue that her current name does not match her original birth certificate? Her current surname matches that of her stepdad's from Czech, so legally it matches her mother's current surname, but not her father's. Thank you for your quick reply by the way!

[OldUser 4,838]

11 minutes ago, trvs said:

So is it of no issue that her current name does not match her original birth certificate? Her current surname matches that of her stepdad's from Czech, so legally it matches her mother's current surname, but not her father's. Thank you for your quick reply by the way!

Many people's name change over the course of life for various reasons.

 

For example, if your fiance was married before, her current legal name could have been of her ex husband.

 

When you fill the forms for visas and immigration, there's often a question about current name and any names used in the past. She'd have to list her name at birth in the "other names used" field.

 

I was also born in country X, lived for a while in country Y as a child and country Z as an adult. I was coming to the US from country Z. My birth certificate was from country X even though I'm not a citizen of that country don't even speak their language!

 

Wasn't an issue in my case.

 

Let's hear from others and their opinions.

Edited March 10 by OldUser

[Lemonslice 4,557]

11 hours ago, OldUser said:

Many people's name change over the course of life for various reasons.

 

For example, if your fiance was married before, her current legal name could have been of her ex husband.

 

When you fill the forms for visas and immigration, there's often a question about current name and any names used in the past. She'd have to list her name at birth in the "other names used" field.

 

I was also born in country X, lived for a while in country Y as a child and country Z as an adult. I was coming to the US from country Z. My birth certificate was from country X even though I'm not a citizen of that country don't even speak their language!

 

Wasn't an issue in my case.

 

Let's hear from others and their opinions.

My documents/birth certificates are similar to OP's situation, but with less variation in last names.  I only submitted the birth certificate from the place I was born (as described on the reciprocity schedule), and then wrote a note on why the name on my passport was slightly different [birth certificate lists me as Anna Barbara Christina Daniella Estella WHITE SMITH (not my real name, obviously, but similar structure with 5 first names), but my passport and my all IDs are only displaying Anna SMITH, and have been for all my life].
Also listed all names on the forms under other names used, when required, and requested my police certificate with all names being checked.    

Never shared with them the other birth certificate, since it was not required, and might have created more confusion.  

[Ryan H 3,791]

13 hours ago, trvs said:

My question ultimately is which birth certificate should be used for the K1 requirements?

 

The certificate issued in Spain.