Date of Birth Issue for Green Card

[rln8316]

I am an Indian Passport holder.
I am in the process getting all the supporting documents for my GC process. I am stumbled upon providing Birth certificate. I guess many of us has gone through the process at some point of time in your filing process or on the same path as i am in. Any valuable suggestions would be helpful.

The month listed per Birth certificate is June (which is correct) but all my school documents and Indian documents (Pan, Passport, DL, Aadhar) + US documents (US Visa, SSN, Driving license) are printed as July.

What should be the correct approach to sail through the process?

1) What if i change the DOB in Passport now by applying through Indian Consulate? Does that mean, i should change my US Visa right away or in future? If i succeed in this, all my secondary documents will have different DOB.
2) Shall I go through the process of NABC and prove that i dont have a BC which has July as birth month? I found that Form 10 should be submitted for NABC but i could not find that form in the website of my municipality where i was born. I am from the state of Kerala. Anyone else of Kerala who went though this process?

[rln8316]

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[verbose]

Not sure if I have a suggestion for you, but I did come across some information that for a passport there is some time limit after issuance that change of birth date requests are entertained. After that, the government doesn’t accept the request or issue a new passport.

Also, I think you will run into the same issue of a birth certificate proof when applying to change DOB on the other documents you listed.

I am not advising you what to do but in my opinion, it will be quite difficult to change all these documents at this stage or perhaps would be impossible.

Would like to know what other forum members think about this situation too.

[rln8316]

Thanks Verbose... I guess my best bet would be to go through route of applying for NABC.
Does anyone knows how that process works? I heard that they really search all the records that year before issuing the NABC.If they do, i am sure they will find my record in different month.

Also, i heard there is provision of using "affadavit for Date of birth" which can be done through Lawyer/Notory. How does that work?

[verbose]

The reciprocity schedule applies in regards to documentation.
Please read: https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...try/India.html

Below is the section relevant for you:

Birth Certificates


Available: For persons born after April 1, 1970, birth certificates are available. For persons born prior to April 1, 1970, birth certificates are considered unavailable.

Fees: Fees vary from each Municipal authority, or any office authorized to issue birth and death certificates by the Registrar of Births & Deaths.

Document Name: Birth Certificate

Issuing Authority: Municipal Authority, or any office authorized to issue birth and death certificates by the Registrar of Births & Deaths.

Special Seal(s) / Color / Format: Varies substantially from state to state.

Issuing Authority Personnel Title: There is no issuing authority personnel title.

Registration Criteria: The registration criteria varies

Procedure for Obtaining: Procedures vary from each authority.

Certified Copies Available: There are no certified copies available.

Alternate Documents: If an individual is born after April 1, 1970 and is unable to obtain a birth certificate, the individual must obtain a certificate of non-availability from the local authorities with jurisdiction over their place of birth. In addition to a non-availability certificate, the following documents can be accepted as secondary evidence:

• School-leaving Certificate (document provided to students when they cease attending a particular school, be it public or private),
• Matriculation Certificate,
• Certificate of Recognized Boards from the school last attended by the applicant (Boards are exams)
• A notarized affidavit executed by either a parent, if living, or another close relative older than the applicant. This affidavit should clearly state the relationship between the deponent and the applicant, how well the deponent knows the applicant, the date and place of the applicant's birth, the names of both parents, and any other related facts. If the applicant has no living relatives that witnessed their birth, a self-attested affidavit detailing their knowledge of the facts of their birth may be accepted.

Exceptions: None

Comments: For all births after April 1, 1970. It is mandatory under the law (as per the Registration of Births & Deaths Act, 1969) to register every birth with the concerned state or union territory.

[rln8316]

UPDATE
I spoke with my attorney about my issue. Their verdict is if you have DOB and that is correct, then I should start with updating all my documents - Passport, SSN, Driving Licence and what not.
I do see a provision of changing DOB in passport in the application.
Not sure about SSN and others.

Any one else on the same situation can put in your thoughts, comments...

[Rohan1221]

UPDATE
I spoke with my attorney about my issue. Their verdict is if you have DOB and that is correct, then I should start with updating all my documents - Passport, SSN, Driving Licence and what not.
I do see a provision of changing DOB in passport in the application.
Not sure about SSN and others.

Any one else on the same situation can put in your thoughts, comments...

Hi Rin I am also in the same state as you are now. Recently I went to Kerala to obtain NABC but with in a min they found out my birth certificate was there with different month, Wanted to check if you Were you able to change the dob in passport as I heard that its very difficult to change dob.

[rln8316]

Rohan1221 - Applied for change in the passport on 02/24/2021... I got my name printed in the Birth certificate.
Are you planing to take any additional affidavit from your parents, relatives? i guess you may not need that.

[raghu_visa]

rln8316, I had the same issue as you: date of birth mismatch in all documents when compared to birth certificate. I did the following steps for this case:

1. Got my original birth certificate from the local municipal office.

2. I went to Indian Embassy and requested for a change in my passport for the date of birth based on the original birth certificate. They rejected (orally, not in any written format) my application at the center. Then, I requested to give me a birth certificate. Then the embassy provided me a birth certificate that is based on my passport. At the bottom of that certificate, it clearly indicates that this DOB is based on your passport.

3. I found the following document from Ministry of External Affairs, India : https://www.passportindia.gov.in/App...DOB_Change.pdf. In this document, based on point 4 (ii) and (iii), you cannot change the DOB in your passport if you are passport is more than 5 years old.

4. I took a letter from my parents which states that my DOB is orally given at the joining of school to meet some requirements and in those days there is no requirement for birth certificate to join in school. Since then this date was continued and never needed the birth certificate until the I-485 process.

5.I wrote an explanation letter that shows why my date of birth is incorrect in all the documents when compared to original birth certificate and why I cannot change the DOB now in all other documents such as passport. In the letter I refer all the above explained points and provided those documents as supporting documents to this explanation letter.

After all the above works, I submitted the I-485 with the explanation letter and the supporting documents and I got approved. So, you can try a similar approach. Again, following are the documents that I submitted:

Explanation letter that describes the mismatch of DOB and the following supporting documents:
1. Original birth certificate.
2. Indian passport rules (webpage or a document) for applying a new passport which indicates 10th marks memo is a valid DOB certificate.
3. 10th marks certificate (which has DOB that is different from birth certificate)
4. Ministry of External Affairs document which indicates that you cannot change your passport now.
5. Birth certificate provided by the Indian Embassy based on your passport.
6. Parents affidavit that describes discrepancy in DOB.

Also, in the explanation letter, I clearly indicated that I tried to change the DOB in passport and could not change it and requesting to accept the DOB from my passport for the GC.
One more point, I given the DOB from my passport in "Personal Information" section of I-485 and at the end (additional information section) I have given my original date of birth as secondary date of birth and indicate to look for the Explanation letter and the supporting documents.

Finally, make sure to run through all the documents to an attorney for all the correctness.

Hope this helps and good luck,

[rln8316]

raghu_visa Thanks for the detailed explanation. I will keep a note of it. I wish if you could have send this a month back..... Can you tell me which year you went through this correction? since you said you have visited Embassy, i guess it should be pre- Covid era (prior 2020?)

Anyways, i am on the road to correct my DOB in passport. I have already sent my passport to VFS for the correction.
The current passport application has a provision to change personal particulars which includes place of birth or date of birth. Though the process does not seems to be black and white. We have to get an approval from the Vice Consular Passport from the Consulate. I have heard that they would send to regional passport office and police verification to approve this correction.

My attorney also advised me to make an attempt to correct my passport. If you have failed, we can mention in the application that what attempts we have made and reason for the failure.

Would you mind sharing a draft affidavit you have submitted from your parents?
Also, draft explanation letter submitted for I485 so that it will be useful for anyone who is having the same issue.

[raghu_visa]

rln8316 I have worked on all the details in the year of 2018 and collected all the documents in the same year itself, but I applied my I-485 in 2020 because my PD become current in 2020. You are correct that there is provision in the passport application to change your DOB, but when you actually go through the application process and if your passport is beyond 5 years, most likely they will reject your application. When I did the same process, they have a rule to visit embassy and get an authorization before applying online for the change of DOB. So, I went to embassy and they did not authorize me to apply for it. Hence I requested a birth certificate from them at the same time. So, I never even get a chance to apply this application. I'm not sure how the current process (due to covid) has changed. However, as your attorney advertised keep all the details of all the attempts that you made to correct the passport. Then you can list all of them (as I did in my explanation letter) in your explanation letter.

Unfortunately, I'm not comfortable sharing my documents. But the content in both of the documents is the same: You need to specify what is the main reason for this discrepancy in DOB happened (in my case, my parents gave a different DOB at the joining of the school and I'm guessing is the same reason for you as well) and why you cannot change it back at this moment. Clearly mention that because of this situation, you are requesting to use the DOB from passport in I-485/GC. Also, be honest in what you are writing. Do not provide any details that you have not done/ aware of. Also, as I mentioned in my earlier response, provide both birth certificates (from local municipality and the one from Indian embassy) and use the birth certificate from Indian embassy as your main certificate and the birth certificate from local municipal office as the secondary one. One more point is that my attorney suggested to notarize the affidavit from parents.

Again good luck.

[rohini538]

raghu_visa Hi May I know from which consulate you tried back in 2018.congrats on getting GC without changing anything. Thanks for the details.

[raghu_visa]

rohini538 I went to Indian Embassy in Washington DC.

[rohini538]

raghu_visa Thanks for the reply. I recently corrected my passport from Houston. I asked so that others reading this will get benefited. You are right one friend of mine tried in DC in 2019 and got rejected and later he approached the vice - consul with the latest circular where it mentions “genuine cases can be corrected irrespective of the time delay” and got the passport corrected. From what I understand is talk to the Vice-consul and do some research on the court cases from your respective states in India and carry them along to convince them. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[es2100]

rln8316 I am in the same situation as you described. Did you able to get your passport updated? Also, did they perform police verification in India? Also What was the total time taken to correct the passport?