The other common question that we've been receiving a lot about the National Visa
Center is when you're at the National Visa Center phase of your case and
you're preparing documents to upload into the CEAC portal, if you're on that step,
you probably have already logged into your CEAC portal and can see all of
those required documents. Part of that document list, there's a lot of notes where it says, original
marriage certificate, original birth certificate. I've had a lot of people recently
that have been asking, "What is an original document? What does the
National Visa Center mean by an original document, original marriage certificate and original
birth certificate? Does it have to have a seal or exactly how do I know if I have an original?"
A good place to go, actually the place to go would be something called
the National Visa Center reciprocity table. I will post that link in the show notes
as well so you have reference to that table. The National Visa Center reciprocity table
will tell you exactly what the birth certificate should look like,
what information the birth certificate should have or the marriage certificate
any civil document that's required. The National Visa Center reciprocity table has a list of
all the countries and it will tell you based on that particular country
what that original document is, exactly what the contents of that document need to be, how
it should look, the color of the seal. It's a very detailed chart so you can make sure you have the
the correct civil documents. This original document requirement, I know a lot of people are
asking, "Is that the same? Is that different than a certified document?" Your original
is the birth certificate that you received when you were born or when you were married, that
certified marriage license. Those would be the originals but sometimes, in life you might
lose those documents or those documents could be damaged. If that happens, there's a way
to order a certified copy which is also considered an original. I know that's not the
original because it's not the original document that you received when you were
born or when you got married but it constitutes as an original for National Visa Center
requirements. That National Visa Center reciprocity table would have
information about not only what the document should look like but it will also have information
about how you can obtain a certified version of that same document if you don't have the
original one. That would constitute as an original to beat the requirements of the National
Visa Center. Something though that I do want to note is there could be documents too that you need
from the United States. If that happens to be the case, it probably will, there'll be documents
you'll need from other countries and then also from the United States. To answer your
question, this individual who had a question, they were asking both about documents from other
countries and documents in the United States. It's good to know that in the United States too
there's many different states, there's many different courts and each court,
each clerk's office, and each vital records office has their own process .
An original document could be, in the example of a divorce,
if you went through a process and you were divorced and you received a certified divorce
decree at the time that the divorce was finalized. That document can be considered the original
or you might need to order a certified version. It will really depend on that clerk's office or
that court as to what would constitute a certified version or an original version. Some courts in the
United States will put a seal on it, an ink seal or a raised seal that shows that it's
a certified document or an original. Other clerk's offices
have a process which is very nice. When we have clerks and courts that we work with around the
country, some of them have a really streamlined process where you can order the records online
and they will provide you with a certified version electronically. If that is
their process and that is what they consider a certified record then that would work as
well for an original document. The answer to this original document requirement
is that it'll really depend on the state in the country and it's just a matter of
either using that National Visa Center reciprocity table to make sure you have the right version
or checking with the local clerk's office, court vital records office, etc. in the United States
to figure out what their process is and what is considered a certified
version of that original document. Hopefully, that helps give you some clarity on
that original document requirement that you'll see on the National Visa Center instructions.