Korean Citizen with USA permanent resident visa (greencard) applying outland

[Kimmy520]

Hello everyone!

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who is a part of this forum for all the invaluable information. I'm hoping someone out there can help us, or offer some sound advice. It's kind of complicated...

I am a Korean citizen with permanent residency in the US (same as having a greencard) applying outbound. My husband is from Nova Scotia and currently a student in Nova Scotia. I am living in California working. We met while teaching English in Korea. We've been together for 4.5 years (3 years in Korea and 1.5 years long distance from California to Nova Scotia) and are now in the process of applying for my permanent residency in Canada. Although we had trouble getting my parents to come onboard with our relationship (they wanted me to marry a Korean), they have finally accepted our decision. We recently got married in Canada and I am now back in the States preparing my application. We have plenty of evidence of our relationship: pictures, emails, reference letters, evidence of trips back and forth etc. I'm not a mail order bride.

I have a couple questions regarding the "Country Specific Instructions." For Korea there are three documents that I need:

1. Family Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English of your Family Relation Certificate. This document should have been recently issued.
2. Marriage Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English
3. Old (deleted) Family Census Register and one certified true translation into French or English

Here are my questions:

1. I called the San Francisco Embassy about the Family Relation Certificate and Family Census Register and they said that only a relative could obtain these papers from Korea. The other option would be that I fly to Korea to get the documents myself. Really?! What are your experiences with obtaining these documents?

2. Am I correct in guessing that I do not need a Marriage Relation Certificate because we got married in Canada and we have a Canadian Marriage Certificate.

3. How do we go about obtaining a "certified true translation into French or English?"

4. What are the Korean translations for "Family Relation Certificate" and "Family Census Register"

5. Also, I am planning on traveling while the application is being processed. I'll be going to Thailand for a couple of months. In our application I wrote down my parent's address (they reside in the US) and plan on using their address as my permanent one for the sake of the application. Does Canadian Immigration send documents to the sponsor or to the immigrant?

6. Any other general advice/guidance is much appreciated!!

Thank you for reading!

 

[RobsLuv]

Because you have permanent status in the US, I'm not sure why you're using the Korean "Region Specific Guides". Your application will be processed through Buffalo - which might eliminate the need for some of the documentation that Korea requests. You will need to get a translation into English of your Korean birth certificate but you shouldn't need a translation of your marriage certificate if you got married in Canada. Right, you don't need a "Marriage Relation Certificate". See what I mean? Not sure what a "Family Relation Certificate" and "Family Census Register" are, but you probably won't need them either - if you process through Buffalo.

No problem, really, with you traveling as long as someone is available to collect your mail. Any documents sent to you by Immigration Canada could be time sensitive. Your sponsor will only get a letter telling him whether he's been approved to sponsor - that should be about 6 weeks after the application is submitted. Then, about a month later, you'll receive your Acknowledgment of Receipt letter from Buffalo. I would suggest that you wait to leave for Thailand until after you at least have confirmation that an interview is not going to be required. It sounds like it should be waived - and they'll send you an "initial assessment" letter that lets you know that they've completed the initial assessment and they do (or don't) need any additional documentation, and an interview will be required or appears not to be necessary (although they'll reserve the right to ask for one at a later date if they need to - that's a formality). Be sure you include all of your good evidences of your "genuine" relationship and you shouldn't have to worry about an interview. But wait until you know for sure before you leave - you wouldn't want to have to reschedule because it would delay finalizing your ap.

 

[Ha Nguyen]

Hi Kimmy,

If you got married in Canada, it's acceptable as legal document for application. You just need to have your Korean birth certificate translated into English and one more important thing is your police record in Korean which would take 2-3 months to process and also FBI record from US which would take the same period. I just got the FBI record cause I have been in California for over 6 months. Send them as much as evidence about your relationship as you can, email, chat text, phone bills, financial support, pics, plane ticket, wedding pics,....
Good luck!

 

[Kimmy520]

Thank you so much for the replies!

I do want to note (in case there are others following this thread) that although I am a permanent resident of the US, I DO need to send in the region specific documents for South Korea because I am a national of South Korea, not the US. This has been confirmed by the Canadian Immigration Government hotline (only available in Canada, unfortunately).

I've gotten most of my paperwork in order but now am waiting on my FBI clearance. Some other threads mentioned that this is taking up to 3 months...I'm thinking of sending in another couple of copies FED EX just in case. I don't want to wait 3 months for rejection of my fingerprints.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[bartjones]

4. What are the Korean translations for "Family Relation Certificate" and "Family Census Register"

I realize I'm dredging up a dead thread, but the question of what an "Old (deleted) Family Census Register" is stumped me and my wife as well. For future reference the visa office in Seoul provided me with this Korean translation.

Old (deleted) Family Census Register= 제적등본

It seems a few posters here were confused about this too. Hopefully this will help someone somewhere down the line. You can get this document at any local or district government office.