Full birth certificates - Resident visa

[augustoaltman]

Hello everybody,

We have applied with my girlfriend to the Talent (Accredited Employer) resident visa two weeks ago. We have received today all our stuff back via post mail (sadly we cannot apply online to this scheme) plus a cover letter explaining that the lodgement of our application had failed. This is a quote from the text we got on the cover letter we received: "I acknowledge receiving plain copies of birth certificates with English translations for both, however INZ requires an original or certified copy of mandatory documents. Please provide either certified copies or original birth certificates upon resubmission of your application for both applicants".

The issue that we have now is that the full birth certificates we submitted are indeed certified copies, they even have the Haye Apostille (therefore they are definitely not plain copies, despite what they say). I believe the problem is that in the country where I was born, Argentina, they have recently changed the "format" in which the full birth certificates are issued to a digital form. They don't have any stamp nor endorsement of any kind, they are digitally signed (a unique code is provided for digital verification) and in the issued document there is an entire page stating that it is a certified copy and how can you verify it. As far as I know there is no way of getting the "old version" format of the document, with the stamp and everything.

So I am not sure how to proceed now, I have already written to the Argentinian embassy and I am waiting for they reply. Do you have any idea of what can I do? how can I explain INZ that they are indeed certified copies?

Best regards,
Augusto.-

[cakes88]

I think it's better if you go to your nearest JP and show them the digital version of your original birth certificate and therefore, the JP can provide the certified copies for you which will be valid at INZ.

[Cadb]

Yep I agree with cakes88. JP can certify the digital copies which you can send to Immigration.

[augustoaltman]

I managed to solve it by writing to the Argentinian embassy and getting my birth certificates stamped by them. The process took 3 days exactly. I re-submitted my application a couple of weeks ago and today it went through successfully (I was charged).

As far as I understand, what the Argentinian embassy does is to verify the digital certification and signature and if everything is correct they stamp-certify it.

[JandM]

Thank you for the update.