You are excited and entering the last phase of getting the US permanent residency (Green Card) and you are collecting the documents to file the I-485 application or adjustment of status. One important piece of document you will be required at this stage is your birth certificate. Many I-485 applicants don’t have their birth certificates or have some issues relating to there name in the birth certificate.
What if your name is not clearly mentioned in the birth certificate or the name just says “Boy” or “Girl”!! Yes. It does happen, often in India where unlike USA names don’t have to be given at the time of registration birth. Things are changing in India, but if you go back few decades it is very common to have no name or some kind of nick name in the birth certificate. If you have such a situation then you should get an affidavit from your parents and some relatives attesting the date of your birth, name of your parents and clarifying that the person referred to in the birth certificate is you.
In the event, country of birth is India and you don’t even have a birth certificate and your birth date was later than April 1, 1970 then you have to get a non-availability certificate from the municipality of city/town you were born. We have seen from our experience that municipalities in India routinely issue such non-availability certificates. Along with the non-availability certificates you should also get affidavits from parents and relatives. Note that affidavits from relatives are also important. In fact, USCIS may say that affidavit from parents carry less weightage since parents have a vested interest in you getting permanent residency. After all, one day you may end up sponsoring them for Green Card. Same does not apply for your uncles or aunts or some neighbors. Along with these affidavits we also routinely include old records like School Leaving Certificate which has the date of birth.
You would have noted from the above that we gave a cut off date of April 1, 1970 for people born in India. This is because only after April 1, 1970, Indian government made it mandatory to register birth. Department of State as a policy acknowledges this fact. This policy becomes relevant when many people sponsor their parents for permanent residency. In these situations when you apply permanent residency for Indian senior citizens you can enclose their Income tax card (PAN Card) and Aadhar Card (Indian equivalent of Social Security Card) and some other things like election card. You should upfront mention in the cover letter that USCIS should accept these documents on record and request for birth record. If you don’t do this, you are bound to get a Request for Evidence (RFE) asking for birth certificate.
In conclusion, we feel potential I-485 applicants should plan ahead to start getting the documents ready so that last moment they are not scrambling to get proof for their date of birth.
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