Question about birth certificate of a child to be petitioned

[KC813]

Agree with OMW, you need to talk to an immigration lawyer.  But until then, I’ll take a shot at what you will be doing.

If I read this right ( you a US Citzen and your children born prior to your marriage to their mother), you have two separate but interrelated cases:  the twins and the wife.

Whether you married before or after their births, US citizenship and passports for the kids is not difficult.  In your case, once you legally “legitimate” the children under US immigration law, they will become U.S. Citizens.  The CRBA (and passport) will be evidence of their citizenship.  This is not complicated and can be done by sworn affidavit.  You do the affidavit with your application for a Consular Birth Abroad (CRBA) before they are 18 years old.  This will all be done at the embassy in Manila.  Although it is possible to waive the presence of one of the parents when applying for a CRBA, in your situation, you definitely need to be there!  All the information you need is on the embassy website at https://ph.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/citizenship-services/.

The birth certificates may not as big a problem as it seem as long as you are honest at the embassy and divulge the correct marriage date, since the date of marriage is irrelevant to the purpose of the Birth Certificates – proving parentage.  However, it does put a shadow on the document, so there is a very high chance DNA testing will be suggested (do not do DNA in advance).

But even then, you need to check in to having the BC's corrected.  Since you are only correcting an unimportant piece of data on the certificate, not the name or date of birth, it may not be a terribly big fight.

For the wife, you file the I-130.  The marriage certificate will support the date of marriage shown on the petition.  The twins’ birth certificates will be part of the evidence of your valid relationship.  If you do not correct the marriage date on the twins’ birth certificates, it may raise eyebrows, but since by then you should have the CRBA confirming parentage.  The date of marriage on that document is then immaterial.

So, the sooner you start on the CRBA, the quicker they all will be in the U.S.

 

 

[OnMyWay]

59 minutes ago, KC813 said:

But until then, I’ll take a shot at what you will be doing.

That is generally my take on it as well.  I think they should get the CRBA's in the Philippines.  Once the kids are citizens, the rest should be easier.  The date problem might not even come up.