Dave&Aya

Is the birth certificate of a married child over 21 being sponsored by their US Citizen mother required to supply their birth certificate?

The information on VJ seems to contradict the direct instructions of the USCIS.

On this VJ page it is indicated that a birth certificate is no longer required:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

"A copy of the intending immigrant's birth certificate and/or passport along with English translation. (If in any language other than English) (no longer needed)"

But the instructions on the I130 say otherwise:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-130instr.pdf

I'm wanting to know if an I-134 would generally help or hurt a tourist visa application. (I-134 is an affidavit of sponsorship/financial support.)

Some of the self-help websites out there indicate that you should do this is part of your application package, to show that you have financial resources...That you at least have some money.

Some of the self-help forums out there tell you that the I-134 will simply help you get a more speedy denial, because it shows that you have strong ties back to the United States.

I realize that an application for a tourist visa depends solely upon you and your own circumstances. But, your own circumstances are partly a function of your situation and your family. So I can see both sides of the argument: if your family has money that helps. But, by showing strong financial support in the US you are showing strong ties back to the United States.

Is there a consensus on whether the I-134 should be used or not?

They live in Japan. You are supposed to apply in the country in which you reside.

My 87 year old mother is in the US, she cannot travel. She would like her great-grandson to come to the US, along with her grandsons and grand daughters. My mother is wheelchair bound and she has never met her grandsons, granddaughters, or great-grandson.

All of them live in Japan. But they are Chinese citizens. My wife is a US Permanent resident. Her two sons are Japan permanent residents and have no US status. They live in Japan.

So my wife's two sons, their wives, and their son would like to visit the US for a week, preferably for Thanksgiving.

The issue is the reputation of the Tokyo embassy as being very reluctant to grant tourist visas to Chinese nationals, even if they have permanent resident status in Japan. The basic problem is that the Tokyo embassy is a standard career stop for hopeful diplomats. They need a perfect track record. So they are reluctant to take any chances in granting tourist visas, lest there be a problem on their record.

But really I am asking:

1) Is it reasonable for everybody (5 persons) to seek tourist visas? Or, its it more likely if not everybody comes? That is, does more people in a family asking reduce the chances of being approved?

2) Does anybody know about the current attitude of the Tokyo embassy when it comes to granting tourist visas to Chinese citizens? Historically they have a terrible reputation, but perhaps this has changed?

Thank you.

My 87 year old mother in US wants to see her first great-grandson (recently born) this thanksgiving.

Are tourist visas more likely to be approved if all members of a family apply for a tourist visa, or just a few? I assume that some staying behind doesn't satisfy the embassy that those going will return. Would it be OK for all 5 people to apply, or is that just asking for troubles and making things worse?

I understand about "strong ties" and in our case it's the usual situation. One couple owns a home in Japan, the other rents. Neither is especially prosperous, but they live OK. But if "strong ties" is really a code-word for wealthy, then they don't have that.

They desire to come for one week, Thanksgiving week, this year.

Is it mostly pointless to apply (Tokyo used to have a bad reputation when it comes to Chinese.) And, would it be better for some to apply, or everybody.

On the US side of things, I am financially successful. So buying airplane tickets and paying expenses is a non-event. Money is no problem. But perhaps even that would raise red flags for the paranoid and closed-minded officials.

FINALLY: Does the argument that everybody would, of course, return because if they didn't then they would have no chance in the future of immigrating if they ever wanted to? (My wife could sponsor them and they would queue for 12 years, I suppose. But that possibility is out if they jumped their visas.

Thank you for your advice.

The family tree I am discussing is this:

Me (US Citizen)

Wife (US Permanent Resident)

Son & Wife

Great Grandson

Son & Wife

How is the 50% physical presence for the N400 calculated when early filing (90 days before the 3 or 5 year residence period)?

There are two potentially conflicting pieces of language:

This implies 50% of the time up to the early-filing date:

The 50% physical presence requirement would be 548 days if counting the three year period.

If filing early, is it 50% up to the date of the early filing, or 50% up to the date the green card was issued. That is, 50% of the number of days up to the filing, or 50% of the days as of eligibility to the third year anniversary?

Here is the specific policy language:

"Physical presence refers to the number of days the applicant must physically be present in the United States during the statutory period up to the date of filing for naturalization” (See USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12 Chapter 4.) (Emphasis added.)

Thus, if the 50% rule applies up to the early filing date, there will be 1007 days and the requirement would only be 503 days and not 548 days (for the full three years.)

Our schedule is very tight, without an extra day. It's NOT that we are playing games.

We are expecting our first grandchild in about a week. If we are to be there for the birth and to help, we need to leave soon. (And we have tickets.) We are literally down to the very last day (548 days in the US.) It was not our choice, our children have been trying to have a child for several years.

By the time we come back, we will be past the 3 year period when days will start dropping off because they are beyond 36 months.

I appreciate your suggestion to leave a margin of error. Of course. But we don't have extra days we feel safe about.

OK, Answer 1, which is not what any of the others have said. Your answer seems consistent with the language "Has been physically present in the United States for at least [18] months of the five years preceding the date of filing the application".

​So filing is the date it is signed, not the date it is received, or processed, or any other date, but the signature date.

--> How totally certain are you of this? We will be exactly at 548 days--the legal requirement--without a day to spare. Getting this one perfect will be important.

Thanks!

Which date does the 548 day physical presence requirement (18 months of the previous 3 years) of the N400 be met?

1) To the date of signing and mailing the N400.

2) To the date the N400 is accepted ("filed")

3) To the date that the Green Card will have been valid for 3 years.

4) To the date of the actual interview?

5) To the date of the Oath?

Darnell, I have found your answers to be a bit "snippy." Perhaps I am overly reacting to your use of slang ("yer") instead of real english. But I have felt a bit like I was being "brushed off". I am just sharing this feedback so you might now how I have felt. It is a bit like that old Microsoft joke of a guy in a helicopter in the fog who is lost, he shouts down to somebody on the ground: "Where Am I?!" The person on the ground shouts back: "You are in a helicopter!" The answer is correct, but useless.

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Now, I have the answer, and it may be useful for some future victim.

When you go to a Notary office in China to obtain Notary Certificates (Birth, Divorce, Police, etc) it can be important to know that these certificates are not all prepared the same way.

Most countries accept the "domestic" version and so unless you specify that the certificates are for the United States you may get the domestic version. The Domestic version does not contain the translation or the additional certifications. This format is accepted by most countries, including Japan.

A Notary Office will often ask what the intended use of the Notary certificates is, or where the applicant lives. Then, the certificate will be prepared in the appropriate format. Usually, that is just fine If you answer: "I am applying for a visa to the United States" the Notary office knows to prepare the certificate in the special format required by the United States.

As it happened, my wife is Chinese and she is also a permanent resident of Japan. So, when the certificates were ordered, they noticed that she had already immigrated to Japan and they didn't ask her what the intended use was. They assumed that it was for use by Japan. They prepared the certificates in the format required by Japan, which essentially is the domestic format.

She didn't know there was a different format. In fact, it seems that most people on this forum didn't know the Notary Certificates are prepared in multiple formats. So she blindly submitted what she got (in glossy white books, but only in Chinese.) She also followed the USCIS, NVC, and Tokyo Embassy instructions and obtained certified translations of those Chinese-only documents. For all the world, she and I believed we had done exactly the correct thing, and we could not comprehend why the Tokyo Embassy rejected them and asked for something different.

We came to this form asking for help. We were told to do exactly what we had already done, which was no help. Unwittingly, the same ignorance that caused the problem in the first place caused the question to not be answered informatively.

The unspoken source of the problem is that the Chinese Notary office knew my wife resided in Japan and my wife wasn't informed enough to know to know to specify that the Notary Certificates needed to be prepared in the special format used by the United States.

Eventually, showing the Chinese Notary office the request by the Tokyo Embassy brought the problem to light.

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So the instructional point for other members of the VJ Forum is to know that Chinese Notary Certificates are prepared in several different formats. While it will often come out of the conversation when ordering the Notary Certificates that they will be needed in the United States format, this cannot be taken for granted.

Japan does not require this format, and they accept the standard "Domestic" format with certified translations.

This may only be a problem for Chinese who have dual residency and are now applying to immigrate to the US. But it is something to know and share worth others in the future; politely.

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Sorry to be long in this post. Call me old-fashioned, but I still try to compose sentences, paragraphs, and to use english grammar. I know that is probably out of style.

I answered him in his other post, but he's asking again, in a new topic.

I would not be asking here if you really had answered my question. You directed me to a thread with dozens of posts, and many links elsewhere. As far as I can tell, my question was NOT answered anywhere in that thread. Or, as far as I understand it anywhere. Certainly you didn't *answer* my question but just tersely kicked me to another thread with a vaguely similar topic.

Really, I am asking for help and understanding. Perhaps I have the wrong thing. I would like to get the right thing. I don't know how to do it. My wife doesn't know how to do it.

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What we have is a glossy white booklet that has a single sheet of paper in it. That is the Police, Birth Certificate, etc. It has a red stamped seal on the paper. These were obtained from the local city Notary office. We thought this was what the USCIS and NVC had requested.

Yes, we followed the instructions posted on the USCIS and the NVC websites which directed us to obtain English translations, along with the specified certification language. So we did that, exactly as these websites explain is required.

The Tokyo embassy is now wanting the documents in what they call "4 page format" where the first page is the certificate, the second is the English translation, the third is a certification that the translation is accurate, and the fourth is the translation of the certification.

We don't know how or where to obtain what is being called the "4-page" Notary Certificate. Possibilities that we can think of might include:

• The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo
  
• The central government in Beijing.
  
• The Fujian Province offices (the city is in Fujian Province
  
• Some other place
  

Help would be appreciated...either a direct answer or a link to some finite amount of information that would actually enable us to obtain the documents.

I assume that somebody has produced these Chinese documents for an Embassy outside of China. We would love to know where and how.

Thank you.

We have obtained Chinese Notary Certificates for the Birth Certificate, Police Certificate, and Divorce Certificate from the local city of Fuqing. These Notary certificates were submitted with the CR-1 visa applications (I-130 and DS-230).

The Tokyo Embassy is now requesting that these be "legalized." Apparently, this is a process of authentication that can be done by the central Chinese government.

Does anybody know what the process is of getting Chinese Notary Certificates "legalized"?

• Can this be done at a Chinese Embassy, such as in Tokyo?
  
• Can this be done in Fujian Province? By what agency?
  
• Do we initiate it using the certificates that we have, or must it be initiated by the city Notary?
  

Note that this process may be different than most Chinese applicants because my wife resides as a permanent resident in Tokyo ans so this is NOT being processed by Guangzhou.

What have been the experiences of other Chinese applicants?

We did previously obtain the "White Book" versions of the Birth Certificate, Police Certificate, and Divorce Certificate. Those were the correct, official ones from the city.

We had those translated in the United States and we submitted a "Certified Translation" with the certification required by the USCIS and NVC.

So, Tokyo has the "White Books" and the Certified Translations.

Even though they have those in hand they are asking for the "4-page" Notary Certificates. (See the original post at the top of this thread.)

We don't know what Tokyo means by this, or what we are to do. We showed the Tokyo request (again, top posting of this thread) to the city Notary office in China and they were confused by it. The China Notary office said that they don't know about any "4-page" version and that the standard "White Book" is what they always supply. They agreed that they could add an English translation and bind that into the White Book. But that would still not quite be this "4-page" version.

Has anybody heard of the "4-page" Notary Certificate, or have they been requested by Tokyo similarly?

We submitted Birth and Divorce certificates in the form of Chinese Notary Certificates, obtained by the local city in China. Along with these were certified translations in the format prescribed by the USCIS and NVC and Tokyo Embassy.

The Tokyo Embassy responded with this rejection:

Has anybody else gone through this? The Chinese Notary Office doesn't know what is required, even after being shown the request from the Tokyo embassy. The Tokyo Embassy web site does not mention this requirement anywhere.

I tried including links to the NVC and USCIS and Tokyo Embassy requirements, but this forum system prohibits new users from being that helpful.

Again, we provided the original Certified Notary Certificates (which ONLY had the Chinese version inside of them) and we also supplied a Certified Translation, done by a translator in the US, and that included the required certification language and signature.

What can we do to meet the needs of the Tokyo Embassy?