When you apply for the green card through marriage, USCIS requires that you provide a photocopy of your birth certificate and a photocopy of the birth certificate of each family member applying with you.
Please be advised that each of the birth certificates must include all of the following information:
Applicant’s Full Name
Full Date of birth (Month, Day and Year)
Place of birth (City, Province/State if applicable, country)
Full Name of Mother (BOTH First Name and Last Name – maiden or married name.)
Full Name of Father (Both First Name and Last Name.)
(Both first names and last names must be spelled out.)
A Birth Certificate is available from most countries.
Birth certificates issued by consulates are not acceptable.
For countries that issue Long Form birth certificates (including U.K. and Canada):
- For immigration purposes, you must obtain a copy of your “long form” birth certificate, which includes all of the information mentioned above, including your parents’ full names.
- Extracts, abridged versions and wallet-size birth certificate cards are not acceptable for immigration purposes.
If a birth certificate exists but does not contain all of the required information as stated above, or was registered more than one year after the birth, alternative documentation must be submitted.
Acceptable alternative documentation includes church or school records, or sworn affidavits.
Translations:
Any document containing foreign language submitted to the USCIS must be accompanied by the full English translation, which the translator has certified as complete and accurate, and the translator must certify that s/he is competent to translate from the foreign language into English.
The translation must be done by a third party (non-family member).
Country Specific issues:
Saudi Arabia:
Birth certificates are available at the time of birth as long as one of the parents registered the birth.
For persons born prior to 1968 in the western (Jeddah) and eastern (Dhahran) provinces and 1980 in the central (Riyadh) province birth certificates are not available.
Only in those instances can the nationality card (Tabiya) be used in lieu of the birth certificates.