Aaron&Riab

From my recollection I had to fill in details of my parents, not just a question of submitting the Birth Certificate.

Anyway let us know how it goes.

That is correct, but who her parents are is irrelevant to her immigration case. Unless, of course, their last name is bin Laden.

Using the false birth certificate her mother is now appearing to be her sister, so she can use a sibling petition and wait out the 14 years. Otherwise you risk her having her citizenship revoked and being permanently barred from the US.

I have always wondered how and why someone would make plans to emigrate 15 years in the future. Who knows where you would be at that time and if you would still want to emigrate when the time came.

Anyway, I have investigated this and she is not at risk of having her citizenship revoked or being barred from the U.S.

Further fraud will not help matters.

This is not a case of fraud. There was no unlawful gain or intent to defraud. However, perhaps using the incorrect birth certificate for her mother to immigrate as her sister would be fraud since the birth certificate would be used as evidence of the relationship.

" My wife immigrated using this incorrect birth certificate ".

Her basis for being here is the fact that she submitted a false birth cert which allowed them to grant the visa. If she hadn't done that she either wouldn't be here or you wouldn't now have this unique problem.

I doubt at the time you cared about the factual qualities of that B Cert. Its is now that you need the correct indication of the maternal parent to allow her to immigrate.

You have also found that someone in Thailand will extort money from you to break the law and produce the doc that you need. I caution you that the price will rise and the document, if you ever get one will be questionable. To submit this could result in grave consequences that even a lawyer may not be able to overcome.

Her basis for being here has nothing to do with her birth certificate. She immigrated to the U.S. based on marriage to me. Her birth certificate simply documents her date and place of birth and her parents. It isn't a fake birth certificate, but it does contain some inaccurate information. Her immigration is based on marriage to a U.S. citizen and is not based on any of the information in her birth certificate.

Yes, at the time we weren't concerned about the error. We were not able to correct it and just went with it since at the time we wouldn't have thought that someday we would want to petition for her mother. Past mistakes sometimes come back and bite you in the ###. I am confident that we will figure out how to deal with it, but I am asking for advice here in case someone else has dealt with this same situation or knows how to.

We are not being extorted about the birth certificate though. We just inquired about the official way to correct it and it seems there might not be one. That doesn't concern me though, as the USCIS doesn't really care about a Thai birth certificate. They care about evidence of the relationship. And while a birth certificate would likely be definitive evidence, they should still able to approve a petition with other evidence of the relationship like financial support, age differences, affidavits, and even genetic testing if it comes to that.

Thanks for your comments.

Maybe at some point get DNA tests to show relation?

From what I have read the USCIS may recommend DNA testing, but it is usually only as a last resort. Hopefully they will be able to approve the petition with a couple affidavits and the fact that my wife's grandmother was 50 years old at the time of her birth.

I get the same impression you do not appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

I understand this might be a difficult process, but I am not sure what you mean by seriousness of the situation. Can you explain?

Might be time to lawyer up, her basis for being in the US is based on false information that she swore was true.

Well, her basis for being in the U.S. was based on marriage to me, however I might need to consult with a lawyer to figure this petition out. I think it might be difficult though to find a good one that knows how to deal with this.

Who did she list as her parents on her permanent residency and naturalisation documentation?

What work was her mother doing?

Her grandmother was listed on all of her documents because the birth certificate has the grandmother as the mother.

I don't know what work she was doing. Maybe farm labor.

My wife immigrated to the U.S. in 2008 from Thailand. In 2011 she became a U.S. citizen. Now we would like to bring her mother to the U.S. However, there is a problem. Her grandparents are listed as her parents on her birth certificate. How should we address this issue when filing the I-130 petition for her mother?

Here is some more information:

1. My wife immigrated using this incorrect birth certificate. At the time we obviously weren't thinking about the future and decided we would just go with it since that is what the paperwork showed.

2. We have contacted lawyers and officials in Thailand in an attempt to correct the birth certificate, but were told it cannot be done multiple times. However, one person said they would be able to if we were present and paid some large fee. We were not sure if this method is official or necessary and it would be expensive and time consuming so we have not yet pursued it.

3. We don't really know why her grandparents registered the birth in their names. The birth occurred at home in a small rural village with no known father. The grandparents and other family members usually took care of my wife as a child since the mother was frequently out working in other parts of the country. My wife has a sister whose birth certificate also lists the grandparents as her parents.

4. The grandparents would have been in their 50's at the time of my wife's birth and her real mother would have been in her early 20's which makes it unlikely that her grandparents were her real parents, but I supposed it would not be impossible. Both grandparents have passed away.

5. My wife has always had a mother-daughter relationship with her real mother, but we don't have any good evidence of it. There are no church, school, or census records that show their relationship. We send her money sometimes, but the account is in my wife's sister's name.

The only thing we can think of is to get signed affidavits from other family members that were present during my wife's birth stating that they have knowledge of the mother-daughter relationship. I have also read that genetic testing may be requested by USCIS.

Your advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.