Child's Birth Certificate

[101south]

Hi Folks,

I hope that this is an appropriate place for this post, the topics in this forum seem to cover a lot of ground... Although not a certainty yet, I may end up marrying an Indonesian woman. I'm a US citizen, she currently resides in a 3rd country, we would live in the US, and we would be going the K1 route. This woman was previously married and divorced in Indonesia, she has a daughter who is under 21 years old. All well and fine, but the paperwork wrinkle that we may need to deal with is in regards to the daughter. My prospective wife tells me that her daughters birth certificate list her (my prospective wife's) parents as her daughters parents. She is originally from a rural area of Java and she tells me that this is not uncommon, OK, but it seems like it could be a sticking point somewhere along the line.

Has anyone run into something like this? Is the practice of using the child's grandparents names on the birth certificate a somewhat known practice?

Thank you all in advance for any input or guidance.

[jukung11]

This is not uncommon for certain situations. She likely had the child out of wedlock. In Indonesia the birth certificate is the main form of identification (as opposed to Americans with social security cards and drivers licenses). It is needed to enroll the child in school and in the old days it was common to not let children from an unmarried woman into a good school or religious school and there were subtle other ways the child could be discriminated against for the rest of its life. It cost around $10 U.S. to get a false one. I am also guessing that for it to be even plausible to register the child to the parents, she was very young at the time. Otherwise I see this with siblings or cousins.

There is a whole procedure for the K-1 visa. Now with DNA testing, it is easier than ever.

If she gave birth in a hospital, they will have the correct birth record, not the one with the kantor sipil.
You will also probably need affidavits from the parents attesting to the fraud. (In the K-1 instructions)
Also the procedure of the state department on DNA testing should probably be used. I actually just dug this up again for a recent poster.

http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-and-dna-testing.html

You are certainly not the first to go through this with the state department, especially with Indonesia.

"paternity and/or maternity"

She could also hire a lawyer to change the birth certificate with an Indonesian court order. This would expose her to massive liability and penalties for the original fraud.
The problem is she would have to use the daughter's fraudulent birth certificate to get a passport for the daughter. Which is Indonesian immigration fraud, but not American. I doubt the American government cares about that part.

You may want to hire an immigration lawyer to help smooth it out.
To put it bluntly, yes it will be a pain in the ass.

I did not see you mention in your post if she had the daughter out of wedlock. That is the only situation I have seen this in. Which also could give reason why she lives in a third country (not with the daughter?). There is social pressure on a person that gives birth out of wedlock.

[jukung11]

If you do go through with it, stick around the forum or drop in with your experience. It can be helpful to a lot of people.

[101south]

This is not uncommon for certain situations. She likely had the child out of wedlock. In Indonesia the birth certificate is the main form of identification (as opposed to Americans with social security cards and drivers licenses). It is needed to enroll the child in school and in the old days it was common to not let children from an unmarried woman into a good school or religious school and there were subtle other ways the child could be discriminated against for the rest of its life. It cost around $10 U.S. to get a false one. I am also guessing that for it to be even plausible to register the child to the parents, she was very young at the time. Otherwise I see this with siblings or cousins.

There is a whole procedure for the K-1 visa. Now with DNA testing, it is easier than ever.

If she gave birth in a hospital, they will have the correct birth record, not the one with the kantor sipil.
You will also probably need affidavits from the parents attesting to the fraud. (In the K-1 instructions)
Also the procedure of the state department on DNA testing should probably be used. I actually just dug this up again for a recent poster.

http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-and-dna-testing.html

You are certainly not the first to go through this with the state department, especially with Indonesia.


She could also hire a lawyer to change the birth certificate with an Indonesian court order. This would expose her to massive liability and penalties for the original fraud.
The problem is she would have to use the daughter's fraudulent birth certificate to get a passport for the daughter. Which is Indonesian immigration fraud, but not American. I doubt the American government cares about that part.

You may want to hire an immigration lawyer to help smooth it out.
To put it bluntly, yes it will be a pain in the ass.

I did not see you mention in your post if she had the daughter out of wedlock. That is the only situation I have seen this in. Which also could give reason why she lives in a third country (not with the daughter?). There is social pressure on a person that gives birth out of wedlock.

Wow! Nice response, along the lines of what I had hoped for, but much more detailed and informative than I could have expected.

As I understand the situation right now, she was 18 and married. She did not give birth in a hospital, this was in rural East Java. Correct, the daughter lives with my prospective wive's parents, and yes, in a third country working to support her daughter.

When I started researching the situation then the only references that I came across to a child's birth certificate using the mother's parents names were in situations like you described. Pity to hear that it will likely be a PITA, but then she did mention this to me very early on, I had already been thinking that we'd probably need an immigration lawyer, so I'm not falling off my chair in horror. Yet. ;-)

Thanks!

[101south]

If you do go through with it, stick around the forum or drop in with your experience. It can be helpful to a lot of people.

Indeed, I will.

[Paper trouble]

Hi Jukung,

I see you mention "could hire a lawyer to change the birth certificate with an Indonesian court order".

I married my wife 4 months after our daughter was born - my daughter. We waited to marry after the birth (now regretfully). From what lawyers have told me I can not create a birth paper with my name on it (the father). Can I have a court order change an original birth paper (though still we haven't go that, the office in her home town has rejected making a birth paper with only my wife's name on it).

Thanks in advance, and any other ideas you may suggest. (Another route to getting a legal birth paper with both our names on it?)

[jukung11]

There are marriages done that are not registered with the civil registry. I believe these are called siri. Because the parents are not legally married in the eyes of the government, the children are then born out of wedlock for civil registry purposes.