My wife is from the Philippines and is here on a J1 visa for teaching. We have sent all of our paperwork in, however the paperwork needed from the Philipino consulate is getting riduculas. We need them to authenticate my birthcertificate and our marriage certificate so that we can apply for her waiver. First they tell us to send it to the LA office. The LA office sends it back and tells us to send it to the DC office, which we do. The DC office sends it back and tells us to have it certified by the Secretary of State. I am assuming they mean the state I was born in and not Conde***za Rice. Anyway, any advice on dealing with them and a J1 visa conversion would be helpful.
Thank you,
Utnorris

You are referring to the no objection waiver on her two return requirement? You will need to send the info they requested to the DC office. Each country can request what ever documentation they desire. Its their call.

Since your birth and marriage certificates are probably from two different states each will need authenticated by the state who issued it. While your at it ask what other forms they may want. You need to remember. In your situation your dealing with two governments, ours and hers. For best results when dealing with her consulate let her do the talking since she can talk to them in Tagalog. Always ask for details when sending in forms. All the who, what, where questions.

I recently had to deal with Philippines consulate in Chicago, and they screwed up some of our paperwork (report of marriage and renewed passport). They sent some paperwork back to us, stating we had to send it New York City. I almost sent the paperwork to New York, but I gave the consulate a call, and spoke to the girl that sent the paperwork back. She looked at it and realized her mistake, and told me to send the paperwork back to her. She was apologized several times and told me she would work on our paperwork immediately. Three days later, we received her passport and authenticated "report of marriage". You may want to try to talk to the person that sent your paperwork back and make sure they didn't make a mistake. Davdah is right...It is better to talk to the workers at the consulate in Tagalog, the worker I talked to there did not speak very good english. Hopefully, you'll get everything worked out.

Thank you both for your responses. I am not sure how to get my birth certificate certified. i thought since it had a seal of authenticity from the records office that would be good enough, obviously I was wrong. I am now checking to see how the state of Tennessee authenticates the birth certificate.

On a side note, the USCIS has still not cashed the checks we sent them a month ago. I am not sure if this is a bad sign or if they are just slow going about it. I know my passport only took a week for them to deposit the checks. Hopefully they are just taking their time. I never realized how difficult of a process this could be. I thought about going to a lawyer, but I have been quoted somewhere in the $4-$5k range to have them do it. Personally I think this is excessive. any opinions on the amount be asked?
Thanks,
Utnorris

If the birth happened in Tennessee, the only way you can get a certified copy is through the state's Vital Records Office, since they won't even let you have the original document. If you already have such a copy, it'll say "State of Tennessee/Office of Vital Records" on the top, will be printed on special paper, and have the seal of the state on both of the bottom corners. (The hospital copy of the same record, which is what's initially provided to the mother, will be on plain paper and won't have the state seal on it.)

If you have the certified copy as I just described it and the PHL embassy or consulate is not accepting it, I'm puzzled. But let me ask you this: Did you notarize the "report of birth" or "report of marriage" forms themselves? If not, they could have kicked it out for that reason.

One other note. This link will redirect you to the correct PHL consulate or embassy location to use (along with their forms), based on your state of residence:

http://www.philippineembassy-usa.org/services/forms.htm

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that each consulate has their own set of forms, and they seem to be unique. So if you downloaded the forms from Chicago or San Francisco and it turns out you need to go through D.C., you may want to download the forms again. If the forms are sufficiently different, it may be worth the time to redo them.

Good luck. --SJR

Oh, regarding the USCIS filing: I would not be alarmed--YET--regarding the fact they've not cashed the check yet. In fact, I think this USCIS press release may address the concern:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/ReceiptingTimes081007.pdf

My own experience is it takes USCIS at least three weeks just to initially process the mail, even on their best days. If you didn't send the package "certified mail/return receipt requested," I recommend doing that on future mailings with them as a way of making sure they got it and to cover yourself in case you run up against an extended delay. --SJR

some documents (like birth or marriage certificates) issued in one country and to be used in another (or consulate) have to be authenticated (or get apostille).

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/forms/apos.pdf
http://health.state.tn.us/vr/FAQ.htm

I saw the references, and that's good information, I just find it puzzling that the embassy in DC is now requiring that. In the past, they've accepted Tennessee Vital Records documents without the need to perform this additional step. Thanks. --SJR

Filipino, not Philipino.

Correct. A common mistake. Hope he likes baluge.

My apologies on the misspelling, believe me, my wife has already corrected me on that.

I got in touch with the Secretary of State for Tennessee and they knew what needed to be done, so apparently this is not out of the ordinary. I am surprised that the County Seal is not adequate enough for this or why the consulate even has to authenticate it in the first place. You would think everything could be sent to one place. Anyway, never knew doing a visa change would be such a pain in the ****.

As far as tracking, I always send everything priority mail with delivery confirmation, that way no one can say "We didn't get it". Anyway, thank you everyone for the help on this. I will post updates as I get them just in case someone else needs it as a reference.
Utnorris