US Immigration Requires a Notarized Divorce Decree
People attempting to immigrate to the United States would have a much easier time if they only had a few forms to fill out and turn in to USCIS. However, the reality is that you must also provide the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) with documentation in support of your application. You will also have to submit birth certificates, Marriage Certificate translation and divorce decrees or certified copies of them along with your application materials. It is also likely that you will need to provide school or university transcripts, death certificates, and/or identifying documentation on the US citizen who is sponsoring you. At some point, whether for admission into the USA or to get a visa, you will need to present your passport from your home country. You will need to get the passport before leaving your home country for the USA. Avoid obtaining documents from non-government organizations, as these may not be accepted by USCIS. The United States government only considers certain document sources as acceptable, and these can be found in the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM), which can be found at the U.S. State Department’s website. American law libraries may also be able to provide you with guidance. If you do not have internet access and are located outside of the USA, you should contact your closest US consulate regarding document requirements and acceptable sources.
If you need to submit documents but they are not in English, the USCIS will not accept them unless they are a Certified and Notarized Translation of the original document. And, they must be word-for-word. This is particularly true if you’re submitting the document to a USCIS office; consulates can often deal with documents that are in the language of that country (their instructions will usually tell you if they can’t). The latest correspondence from USCIS requires that all translations, including a Divorce Certificate Translation be carried out by established translation agencies. A good translation agency will provide you with a draft translation for your review before certifying, notarizing and mailing you the hard copy. The translation agency should provide you with a signed statement like the following: I, so-and-so, certify that the attached document translated from X to Y is a true and faithful rendering of the source document provided. The statement should then be signed by the translator. The agency should also stamp the translation and provide an original signature attesting to the accuracy of the document. One thing to look out for is that the translation agency has your name correctly spelled, or USCIS will not accept the certified translation. This can be tricky when dealing with source languages like Chinese, Arabic and Russian, among others, which have different alphabets from the Latin alphabet. Consider it your responsibility and right to review a draft of your notarized translation before you accept it as complete.
This concludes another installment in our continuing series on significant issues on United States immigration and naturalization. We hope you will stay tuned for more articles and visit our site regularly to keep up with the latest news. Our next article will help you narrow your selection to a few types of green cards and visas that are most likely to apply to your specific needs