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Questions about Final USCIS Interview for SIJ (Special Immigrant Juvenile) status
Hi everyone,
I have a couple of questions regarding my USCIS interview for SIJ status, which is to be held on August 5, 2014. I was abandoned by my parents from China (I was born in China as well) around April of 2012. Ever since then, I have been living with one of my best friend's family. On August 27, 2013, two days shy of my 18th birthday, I was approved by the juvenile court and granted guardianship to be under care by the said family. My case has been ongoing ever since. However, the USCIS request that I show proof of my birthday via my Chinese birth certificate. In China, this is not really an official birth certificate, since I was born not in a hospital but in a home; this was simply a statement of birth written by the Chinese government.
I was born on August 29, 1995, but what concerns me is that my Chinese "birth certificate" states that I was born on August 29, 1994. The year on my Chinese birth certificate is incorrect of course. However, I have my official Chinese I.D. card, and offical Chinese passport which all list my legitimate birthday, the one from 1995. Since I had to turn in my Chinese birth certificate, I chose not to send it in for it contained an error in my birth year as said before. Instead, I photoshopped my Chinese "birth certificate" very realistically so the birth year could be correct. This was the document that I turned in.
I have a set of questions about this issue, especially since my USCIS interview is coming up on August 5th. My first question is:
Is it legal to change any original document information, even if you have proof from other official documentation that there were typos or errors in the document you changed, such as in my Chinese "birth certificate"?
My second question regards to the answer to my first one:
Should I inform the USCIS interviewer that I changed the birth year on my Chinese birth certificate (and show him the proof that it was indeed a typo on the original document), or keep quiet on the issue unless asked?
I have a couple of questions regarding my USCIS interview for SIJ status, which is to be held on August 5, 2014. I was abandoned by my parents from China (I was born in China as well) around April of 2012. Ever since then, I have been living with one of my best friend's family. On August 27, 2013, two days shy of my 18th birthday, I was approved by the juvenile court and granted guardianship to be under care by the said family. My case has been ongoing ever since. However, the USCIS request that I show proof of my birthday via my Chinese birth certificate. In China, this is not really an official birth certificate, since I was born not in a hospital but in a home; this was simply a statement of birth written by the Chinese government.
I was born on August 29, 1995, but what concerns me is that my Chinese "birth certificate" states that I was born on August 29, 1994. The year on my Chinese birth certificate is incorrect of course. However, I have my official Chinese I.D. card, and offical Chinese passport which all list my legitimate birthday, the one from 1995. Since I had to turn in my Chinese birth certificate, I chose not to send it in for it contained an error in my birth year as said before. Instead, I photoshopped my Chinese "birth certificate" very realistically so the birth year could be correct. This was the document that I turned in.
I have a set of questions about this issue, especially since my USCIS interview is coming up on August 5th. My first question is:
Is it legal to change any original document information, even if you have proof from other official documentation that there were typos or errors in the document you changed, such as in my Chinese "birth certificate"?
My second question regards to the answer to my first one:
Should I inform the USCIS interviewer that I changed the birth year on my Chinese birth certificate (and show him the proof that it was indeed a typo on the original document), or keep quiet on the issue unless asked?
