Ask the Consul
Accurate Documents Expedite the Immigrant Visa Process
On the day of your immigrant visa appointment, you must
bring certain official documents to the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy.
It is imperative that you review the list and allow yourself sufficient time to
obtain all of the documents.
Certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death need to
be legalized, and the Consular Section will only accept the extended, or in
extensa, version. We cannot accept extracts of birth certificates,
otherwise known as extractos de acta. You can obtain the original in
extensa document at the Civil Registry office where the event was first
declared. The document must then be legalized at the Oficina Central del
Estado Civil in Santo Domingo.
Another document that can potentially slow the visa process
is the Certificate of no Police Record, or Certificado de no Antecedents
Policiales. This certificate is required for all applicants 16 years of age
and over. The Certificado de no Antecedents Policiales is a blue
document that is issued by the Dominican National Police. It must have a photo
of the applicant in the upper right hand corner with an official police seal
that touches both the photo and the blue certificate. The applicant must ensure
that the information on the certificate is correct. The number one reason that
the consular officer requests a new police certificate is an error in the
applicant’s date of birth on the police certificate. The applicant must ensure
that the date of birth on the police certificate matches the date of birth
listed on the applicant’s birth certificate. The most common cause for the
discrepancy is an erroneous date of birth listed on the applicant’s nation
identification card, or cédula.
In many cases, the date of birth on an applicant’s cédula is the date
that the applicant was declared and not their actual date of birth. Therefore,
when you receive your blue police certificate, ensure that the certificate is
accurate, that your photo is in the upper right hand corner with a seal that
touches part of the photo and part of the document, and that your date of birth
matches your original date of birth from your birth certificate and not the date
that you were declared.
Although the above might sound trivial, the delay in
processing your visa is not.
For answers to other questions please visit
http://www.usemb.gov.do/index.htm. | 
