Photo of Polish birth certificate for inland sponsorship questions

[AceOfSpeights]

Hi everyone, I’m a Canadian citizen sponsoring my Polish fiancée for PR through the inland common-law. We’re getting pretty close to submitting our application, and I have a couple of questions about her birth certificate that I’d really appreciate your help with.

1. Photo of birth certificate:
Her birth certificate is in Poland, and we only have a high-resolution photo of it (see link at bottom please) taken by her brother. Does this photo meet IRCC’s requirements for submission, or does it need to be a certified true copy (e.g., notarized) to be accepted?

2. Translation requirement
The birth certificate is primarily in Polish, but includes French translations for the title, labels, etc
. Do we still need a certified English translation?

Thank you so much in advance

Link to photo of birth certificate: https://ibb.co/kg4btYhT

 

[armoured]

Hi everyone, I’m a Canadian citizen sponsoring my Polish fiancée for PR through the inland common-law. We’re getting pretty close to submitting our application, and I have a couple of questions about her birth certificate that I’d really appreciate your help with.

1. Photo of birth certificate:
Her birth certificate is in Poland, and we only have a high-resolution photo of it (see link at bottom please) taken by her brother. Does this photo meet IRCC’s requirements for submission, or does it need to be a certified true copy (e.g., notarized) to be accepted?

2. Translation requirement
The birth certificate is primarily in Polish, but includes French translations for the title, labels, etc
. Do we still need a certified English translation?

Thank you so much in advance

Link to photo of birth certificate: https://ibb.co/kg4btYhT

This is a case of judgment. Personally I'd not worry about submitting this as is on basis that it is in French (as well as Polish). If they were to be picky about it, they could ask you to submit with a translation - which chances are they'd via email request, and do without considering the application incomplete (and having you resubmit, which would waste time for you).

You have to decide for yourself. There is a risk it'd waste some time for you - which could impact your common-law's status in Canada, so make sure to extend whichever status that is.

So: to be 100% safe you'd get the translation with true copy etc (which should only take a week or two plus courier and translator fees?).

Me, I'd submit on basis that it is also in French in original (which I suppose you could point out in a letter of explanation?). PLUS seems to be in accordance with some EU format that provides all the key details/formats/meaning in the key at the bottom in multiple EU languages, including English. (I think this is supposed to be an EU-standard format that makes the original/extract from the register valid without translation throughout the EU - which hopefully would give IRCC pause before rejecting).

(I think it may also help that Warsaw has a regional visa office hub that does spousal files)

 

[AceOfSpeights]

This is a case of judgment. Personally I'd not worry about submitting this as is on basis that it is in French (as well as Polish). If they were to be picky about it, they could ask you to submit with a translation - which chances are they'd via email request, and do without considering the application incomplete (and having you resubmit, which would waste time for you).

You have to decide for yourself. There is a risk it'd waste some time for you - which could impact your common-law's status in Canada, so make sure to extend whichever status that is.

So: to be 100% safe you'd get the translation with true copy etc (which should only take a week or two plus courier and translator fees?).

Me, I'd submit on basis that it is also in French in original (which I suppose you could point out in a letter of explanation?). PLUS seems to be in accordance with some EU format that provides all the key details/formats/meaning in the key at the bottom in multiple EU languages, including English. (I think this is supposed to be an EU-standard format that makes the original/extract from the register valid without translation throughout the EU - which hopefully would give IRCC pause before rejecting).

(I think it may also help that Warsaw has a regional visa office hub that does spousal files)

Thanks so much for your reply! I really appreciate it. Since we’re on a tight timeline to submit (fiancée’s work permit expires Aug. 1), we’ll go ahead and submit as-is with a letter of explanation. We’ll also try to get her brother to scan the birth certificate instead of using the photo. Do you think this LOE wording works?

[Principal Applicant’s Name]’s birth certificate is primarily in Polish but includes French translations for the title and labels, as well as an EU-standard multilingual key (including English) at the bottom, which we believe may meet IRCC’s language requirements.

Thanks again for your help!
Brian

 

[alex00]

We submitted a German police certificate with English and French translations already on it in a similar format to the French translation on the birth certificate here. They accepted that with no issues, so we didn't have to get any additional translation of it. By law, IRCC has to accept French-language documents as equal to English-language documents. I would expect this birth certificate to be fine.

ETA: I just remembered that the police certificate contained a mistake (they incorrectly listed the PA's place of birth as his mother's place of birth), so we submitted an explanation for that error, but we didn't say anything about the language requirement.

 

[armoured]

Thanks so much for your reply! I really appreciate it. Since we’re on a tight timeline to submit (fiancée’s work permit expires Aug. 1), we’ll go ahead and submit as-is with a letter of explanation. We’ll also try to get her brother to scan the birth certificate instead of using the photo. Do you think this LOE wording works?

[Principal Applicant’s Name]’s birth certificate is primarily in Polish but includes French translations for the title and labels, as well as an EU-standard multilingual key (including English) at the bottom, which we believe may meet IRCC’s language requirements.

Thanks again for your help!
Brian

I would not mention that it is 'primarily' in Polish, but rather simply that it is in Polish and French. The French is just a smaller font. May be cleaner to just state that is in Polish and French with EU-standard multilingual key below. (BTW it used to be fairly common throughout Europe to issue some official docs in local language + French - a bit old school but still shouldn't be a surprise to anyone).

To be honest I'm not sure the letter of explanation even needed. I note the comment by another that one of these multilingual EU things was accepted without issues by IRCC, too.

 

[AceOfSpeights]

Thanks you guys, really appreciate the replies!

 

[armoured]

Thanks you guys, really appreciate the replies!

O forgot your other question - get a decent scan done, not just a phone photo (unless you can make it look good). PDF format better.