US Immigration from China

Greetings to all, I hope you are well,

tldr: My wife no longer has her Chinese Birth certificate and is no longer a Chinese citizen, and she never had a National ID, so we are struggling to get a Notarial Birth Certificate to satisfy the State Department requirements for a Green Card. What can we do?

DETAILS

My British-Chinese wife and I are in the process Consular Processing to obtain an IR1 visa (green card, post 2 years marriage). Our I-130 was approved by the Department of Homeland Security and we have moved on to working through the State Department National Visa Center (NVC). We have nearly all the paperwork needed to file except my wife no longer has her Birth Certificate from China. Apparently, this was lost at the British embassy in Beijing decades ago when she and family immigrated England in the 90s, when my wife was 10 years old.

According to the State Department's Civil Document reciprocity schedule for China, my wife needs a Notarial Birth Certificate (Gong Zheng Shu: ) from the Local Notary Public Office (Gong Zheng Chu: ).

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/China.html

We have attempted to hire a Taobao agent (www.taobao.com) to handle the matter of procuring a Notarial Birth Certificate (Gong Zheng Shu: ) and were told that we need the following documents:

• Hukou ( )
• Single Child Certificate ( )
• The marriage certificate of my wife's parents -- to establish a familiar relationship -- ( )
• National ID/Resident ID Card ( )

We have everything listed above except the National ID ( ) because my wife left China at 10 years old, before turning 16, so never had one issued. Furthermore, she is no longer a Chinese citizen so there is no chance that see can get a National ID ( ) now. The three Taobao agents we spoke with say they cannot help us. We really do not know what to do at this point.

Is it not possible to get a Notarial Birth Certificate (Gong Zheng Shu: ) because she is not a citizen with a National lD? That does not seem right. I'm sure more complicated cases have been resolved then ours so there must be away through this beureacratic mess.

If it is not possible, how do I get a notarized statement from the Chinese government saying they will not issue a Notarial Birth Certificate (Gong Zheng Shu: ), so I can demonstrate good faith effort to the State Department and send in that "its hopeless" document instead?

Has anybody on this forum ever had to struggle with replacing a birth certificate as a former citizen/resident of China or know someone who has conquered this challenge? What should we do?

Thank You for time and consideration.

My wife has been here a little more than a year now and her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter are getting ready for their interview at the American Consulate in Guangzhou. They are asking me for preparation questions so that they can practice before the interview. I've looked almost everywhere and haven't found any. Anybody have a clue where to look or what they might ask?

Dear friends,

I got a complicated and challenging situation. I received RFE about the birth certificate having an inconsistent parent name with the Parent information provided in the Form.

On my birth certificate, it was my first stepfather's name. My birth father just left me when I was born, so there wasn't enough time to get a birth certificate from him. Then my mom and my first stepfather divorced and my mom started to be with my current father when I was 10. He raised me and supported my schooling, but they never had a formal marriage certificate. At the time, I didn't realize that, so I naturally put my current father (second stepfather)'s name in the form. Now what I should do to respond to the RFE?

I have messaged USCIS, not sure whether they will give any specific instructions. Should I just get a translated version of my birth certificate and the divorce certificate of my mom and my first stepfather?

Btw, where can you get a certified translation service?

Your help would be much appreciated!

Sincerely,

A lady with a complicated family background

My wife is considering filing an N400 in October this year. For the I-485 AOS we hired a VIP top-tier immigration attorney in case if any issues came up. The attorney knew pretty much all the IOs and staff at our field office and brought along a massive stack of court decisions as a defense in case if any issues cropped up (e.g. Communist Party Membership). The interview was only about 7-8 minutes long and she did a lot of the talking, corrected the IO, clarified answers, basically guided the process etc. Definitely worth the money.

To make the process smoother we were thinking of hiring her again for my wife's N400 (money is no issue) - is this allowed?

Hi all,

The U.S.C.I.S. received my I-751 on December 16, 2020. In November 2021, my case was transferred to Lee s Summit, MO to speed things up.

It is July 23, 2023. I m still waiting for an interview to be scheduled.

LOL. I feel I am never going to get an interview date and my status will be in limbo forever.