u/Aurora-Clairealis

So yesterday I came across a very troubling email from IRCC. they said that they needed my wife's birth certificate in order to continue our application. This was after we received an AOR on 4/21

So we had every document in order, we had her CRBA, her parents birth certificate, her G0's records, and her G0's parent's baptism and birth records. But it turns out IRCC does not accept hospital birth certificates, and they do not accept Consulate report born abroad certificates in lieu of a birth certificate.

It was a surprise to me, and I know it was a surprise to others in this subreddit as some of us have submitted a CIT0001 and CIT0014 with a CRBA as those who have a CRBA, may or may not have the original birth certificate for whatever country they were born abroad to, especially if it's Italy or Japan as they do not do birth certificates the same way the US or Canada does. And life can often be very messy and lead you to a lot of places, The reason why she was born in the Dominican Republic in the first place and not the US or Canada was that her father worked for an American shoe company that was bought out by Warren Buffett years later and it went out of business, and was considered his worst investment ever.

We went to the Dominican consulate in Chicago at 1PM, we were there for about an hour and we had the original extenso de acta (extensive record of a birth certificate) instead of acta de nacimiento (which means birth certificate in English.) We provided that, and they issued us a brand-new birth certificate for $25. During this process we were able to get some answers and got in contact with her dad. The consulate told her that she can even get a Dominican passport as well because her parents were residents and she is a Dominican citizen.

This story does have a happy ending, we find out she has Canadian descent, and we find out she's likely a Trio-citizen. Now what's left is to get that document translated into English, submit it to IRCC via email, and wait.

If you are ever in this situation where you need a birth certificate from another country you're not currently living in, it would be wise to contact the proper authorities and don't be afraid to ask for help, these people get paid to help and they're often very nice. I think it's important that the subreddit is aware that CRBA's in lieu of a birth certificate aren't allowed for IRCC and I hope the wiki could get updated with this new information.

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u/Aurora-Clairealis — 24 days ago

I wish I knew this before but nobody mentioned this in the subreddit but I just go an email back from IRCC, my application is fine but my wife's application was not. Turns out CRBAs, despite having your parents' date of birth, your name, and establishing a connection between you and your parents, do not count as a valid birth certificate to IRCC.

So I'm a little unsure how to approach this, since she was born in the Dominican Republic, and living in Chicago that place is a little out of reach at the moment. My best idea is that we go to the consulate. She's not a Dominican citizen, her birth record that we have on hand is an Extendo De Acta and not an Acta De Nacimiento. I'm leaning towards our best bet would be the consulate.

u/Aurora-Clairealis — 25 days ago