US Citizen filing for siblings overseas, mother's exact day and month discrepencies

[letmein 2]

Dear VJ members,

USC wants to file for I-130 for his siblings overseas. USC and the beneficiary overseas have birth certificates showing the name of the mother establishing sibling relationship. USC went though H1B-GC-USC process and provided date of birth of USC's mother but doesn't remember what he filled in the forms. USC remembers what the year was filled in the forms but doesn't remember day and month.

 

Now filling up I-130, the concern is what to enter in the day and month for mother's DOB. The year will match what was provided to USCIS by USC during his immigration journey. 

 

Thinking to enter the year in I-130 form and submitted a paper application as the online version will force the petitioner to enter some date but I'm thinking the paper version one can enter ??/??/1990 (1990 as an example). Or 01/01/1990 and maybe attached explanation in the additional pages.

 

Mother is deceased, never had a formal birth certificate but has country's ID card (think Pakistan, National ID card) but the date on that may not match what was provided by USC to USCIS years ago!

 

Has anyone gone through this and what would you advise the USC? Please help! Thank you!

[appleblossom 5,503]

2 hours ago, letmein said:

Dear VJ members,

USC wants to file for I-130 for his siblings overseas. USC and the beneficiary overseas have birth certificates showing the name of the mother establishing sibling relationship. USC went though H1B-GC-USC process and provided date of birth of USC's mother but doesn't remember what he filled in the forms. USC remembers what the year was filled in the forms but doesn't remember day and month.

 

Now filling up I-130, the concern is what to enter in the day and month for mother's DOB. The year will match what was provided to USCIS by USC during his immigration journey. 

 

Thinking to enter the year in I-130 form and submitted a paper application as the online version will force the petitioner to enter some date but I'm thinking the paper version one can enter ??/??/1990 (1990 as an example). Or 01/01/1990 and maybe attached explanation in the additional pages.

 

Mother is deceased, never had a formal birth certificate but has country's ID card (think Pakistan, National ID card) but the date on that may not match what was provided by USC to USCIS years ago!

 

Has anyone gone through this and what would you advise the USC? Please help! Thank you!

He can do a FOIA request to get his immigration file and see what date he put. 
 

He’ll need to provide the following - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Pakistan.html

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:36 AM by appleblossom

[letmein 2]

1 hour ago, appleblossom said:

He can do a FOIA request to get his immigration file and see what date he put. 
 

He’ll need to provide the following - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Pakistan.html

 

Thank you for your reply. I'm aware of the FOIA request but I'm in a mini panic given the current immigration env to file as soon as possible. The FOIA request seems to take a long time, I have not idea what the current times are but internet searches suggest that it's as quick as one would like it to be.

 

Here's what's known:

1. Mother's year of birth is known, supported by her ID card issued by Pakistani authorities when she was alive. The ID card has expired but it does bear her year of birth. It's not in English language.
2. Family Registration Certificate shows her year of birth and doesn't show month and date. Please note this used to be common for people born before 1970 or digitization of records. 
3. The USC sponsor may have provided USCIS during his immigration journey (probably G-325 form) with month and date as well as the year of birth of mother.
4. Now when filling up I-130, if USC provides just the year of birth of mother and leave out the month and day, would this cause RFE at the time of filing I-130?
5. One could request FOIA and find out what's in USCIS records for mother's complete date of birth and then submit correction to already files I-130 form?
   1. What makes it tricky is that there may not be any supporting documentation to corroborate the date and month of the mother's DOB.
6. I thought there was some sort of guidance in the Family Adjudication policy manual ( or was ir foreign service policy manual) about people born before certain year in Pakistan could provide just the year as records were not kept meticulously back then.

 

[appleblossom 5,503]

He can either wait for FOIA and have the dates match, or file now and have them not match. 
 

He’s got ~25-30 years before he’ll need to worry about actually applying for a visa so plenty of time to sort it before then and explain any mistake on the I-130. 

Edited Tuesday at 11:42 AM by appleblossom

[SalishSea 18,655]

11 hours ago, letmein said:

I'm aware of the FOIA request but I'm in a mini panic given the current immigration env to file as soon as possible. The FOIA request seems to take a long time

In light of the 30 years you will have to wait to bring them over, a FOIA adding several months to a year is nothing.

[letmein 2]

Thank you for your replies. So if I understand it correctly, it's ok to enter the year of birth in the I-130 form and hopefully it wouldn't be an issue for the adjuducation of the I-130 form itself. One can figure it out before the the eventual visa issuance (long long time time in future 15-20 years).

 

I could do the FOIA but wouldn't want to delay filing for I-130 any longer. Please share your perspectives. 

 

Both parents of the USC are deceased, their year of birth is known and documented but dates and months are not documented. Both have expired ID cards from Pakistan and have only year mentioned on them.

 

Could one say in the additional information section that month and date are not known to USC at the time of filing or something along those lines to play it safe.

[appleblossom 5,503]

32 minutes ago, letmein said:

Thank you for your replies. So if I understand it correctly, it's ok to enter the year of birth in the I-130 form and hopefully it wouldn't be an issue for the adjuducation of the I-130 form itself. One can figure it out before the the eventual visa issuance (long long time time in future 15-20 years).

 

I could do the FOIA but wouldn't want to delay filing for I-130 any longer. Please share your perspectives. 

 

Both parents of the USC are deceased, their year of birth is known and documented but dates and months are not documented. Both have expired ID cards from Pakistan and have only year mentioned on them.

 

Could one say in the additional information section that month and date are not known to USC at the time of filing or something along those lines to play it safe.

 

Yes, you could add that in, put that the exact date isn't known for now, but then I'd still do the FOIA so you can correct it at the NVC stage.

 

15-20 years isn't likely to be realistic, add a decade or so to that. 

 

Good luck. 

[Boiler 48,317]

I knew my Parents birthdays for many many years before I ever saw it on a document. And my Grandparents, now as a kid I may have not known the year.

 

Now whether F4 will be around in the 2050's I have no idea, and am unlikely to be around then. Presumably you will be reaching retirement, hopefully they are a lot younger.

 

 

[letmein 2]

Different times and cultures treat it differently. I never knew the actual day and month but I did know the year for both parents. I guess what I'm hearing from others here is to go ahead and fill in the year DOB for both parents and get the I-130 process started. I know this is a long process once I-130 is approved but have to start somewhere.

 

If furing I-130, there's an RFE on the DOBs (specfically asking for days and months, I don't know how to handle that ...I'm inclined to say that day and months are not known and even affidavits from relatives could only confirm the year and not the day and month...My grand mother is alive and she probably doesn;t even know here own DOB let alone my mom or dads 🙂

[SalishSea 18,655]

9 hours ago, letmein said:

Different times and cultures treat it differently. I never knew the actual day and month but I did know the year for both parents. I guess what I'm hearing from others here is to go ahead and fill in the year DOB for both parents and get the I-130 process started. I know this is a long process once I-130 is approved but have to start somewhere.

 

If furing I-130, there's an RFE on the DOBs (specfically asking for days and months, I don't know how to handle that ...I'm inclined to say that day and months are not known and even affidavits from relatives could only confirm the year and not the day and month...My grand mother is alive and she probably doesn;t even know here own DOB let alone my mom or dads 🙂

Why would there be an RFE?  Nothing will be looked at for a long while.  And if you do eventually get an RFE, the brief delay will not make a difference overall in the timeline.

 

Do your relatives realize it will take 30 years before they will have a visa available to them?

[letmein 2]

I was thinking that I-130 approval process would require USCIS to look at the information and may trigger RFE. I understand that it take that long but want to get the process started regardless and let the chip fall where they may.

[appleblossom 5,503]

8 hours ago, letmein said:

I was thinking that I-130 approval process would require USCIS to look at the information and may trigger RFE. I understand that it take that long but want to get the process started regardless and let the chip fall where they may.

 

I-130 approval could be a decade away though, certainly at least a few years. Which is why you should submit the I-130 stating that the DOB is to the best of your knowledge, then do the FOIA asap as well. You can then update as needed.

 

Good luck. 

[letmein 2]

Thank you! I thought I-130 standalone application processing times are few months to maybe a year or so . The long processing was after that for the availability of visa. I could be wrong.

On the DOB (to be best of my knowledge), I know the year for sure so I assume enter that then state that I may provide month or day later. I didn't want to direct USCIS attention specifically to the missing day and month.

 

 

[appleblossom 5,503]

18 minutes ago, letmein said:

I thought I-130 standalone application processing times are few months to maybe a year or so

 

Approx 15-16 months for immediate relatives. But non immediate relatives take much longer, USCIS don't rush to adjudicate them as they know there is a long time until there would be a visa anyway.