A birth certificate is a very important document required for many immigration related matters including getting a green card, sponsoring parents' visitor visa, sponsoring relatives on a green card etc.

A birth certificate must contain the:

• Person's name
• Person's date of birth
• Person's place of birth
• Names of both parents, and
• Annotation by the appropriate authority indicating that it is an extract from the official records.
• The seal of the issuing office, i.e., the municipal authorities or the village authorities (gram panchayat or talati-cum-mantri).

Your birth record may not be obtainable because of several reasons such as:

• Your birth was never officially recorded.
• Your birth records have been destroyed.
• The appropriate government authority will not issue one.

Please obtain a certified statement from the appropriate government authority stating the reason your birth record is not available. With the certified statement you must submit secondary evidence. For example:

• A baptismal certificate that contains the date and place of birth and both parent's names providing the baptism took place shortly after birth
• A school leaving or matriculation certificate, or
• An adoption decree for an adopted child, or
• An affidavit executed by either the parents of the applicant, if living, or other close relatives older than the applicant, all of whom must have personal knowledge of the birth, may be submitted. The affidavit should set forth the relationship between the deponent and the applicant, how well the deponent knows the applicant, how the deponent came to know about the facts to which he or she is swearing, date and place of applicant's birth both parent's names, and the mother's maiden name and any other related facts.
  
  Note: An affidavit must be executed before an official authorized to take oaths or affirmations (such as First Class Magistrate in India). If the persons who are signing the affidavit are already in the USA, it can notarized in USA.

Sample - No availability certificate - birth

Sample birth affidavit

If the birthcertificate is available but it does not have enough information (such as no name) or incorrect information, secondary evidence, as described above, should be submitted along with the certificate.

If your birth was registered more than 3 years after your were born, you must submit the certificate along with a magistrate's order concerning the late registration.

A birth certificate can be obtained at local municipal or village authorities (gram panchayat or mamlatdar). Under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 late registration of birth is possible.

A person who has used a different name from the one shown on the birth certificate, must produce a document explaining the use of such name. The following documents are commonly available as evidence:

1. Baptismal certificate
2. Deed Poll
3. School records showing early use of adopted name.

If none of the foregoing documents are available, any other document, or combination of documents, which appear to resolve the difference in names will be considered. Your personal sworn statement is not acceptable unless there is other evidence to substantiate it.

If the birth certificate is not in English, it can either be translated by a professional translator or it can even be translated by anyone who is fluent in both the languages (other than the beneficiary for whom it is being prepared).

Sample birth certificate - Not in English

Sample birth certificate - English translation

It must be translated word for word and it should say at the end,

I, <translator name>, certify that I am fluent (conversant) in the English and <native language name> languages, and that the above/attached document is an accurate translation of the document entitled <document title>.

Signature:                                                           
Date:               Typed Name
                        Address

You can alternatively attach a separate affidavit for the translated document.