Non-Availability of Birth Certificate (NABC): USCIS Evidence Rules

If your home country never issued you a birth certificate, or the record was lost or destroyed, USCIS will accept a Non-Availability of Birth Certificate for USCIS purposes: an official letter from the foreign civil authority confirming, after a search, that no birth record exists for you. The letter, usually called an NABC, replaces the missing primary document and lets you move on to secondary evidence. It comes up most often on Form I-485 adjustment of status, immigrant visa processing, and naturalization, and the way you assemble it makes the difference between an approval and a Request for Evidence.

When USCIS Wants an NABC

USCIS asks for a birth certificate from every applicant to confirm identity, country of citizenship for visa chargeability, and family relationships. The I-485 instructions require a copy of the birth certificate issued by the appropriate civil authority in the country of birth, listing at least one parent.¹ When no certificate exists, the regulation at 8 CFR 103.2(b)(2) treats the missing document as a presumption of ineligibility that you have to overcome with the best available evidence.² The NABC is how you begin that.

Check the Reciprocity Schedule Before You File Anything

Before you spend time chasing a letter from a foreign registry, look up your country on the Department of State’s Reciprocity Schedule. USCIS officers consult it to decide whether birth certificates are generally available in a given country. If the schedule says birth certificates are unavailable for your country, or for the time period when you were born, USCIS will not require a certification of non-existence at all.³ You go straight to secondary evidence instead.

Each country page on the schedule includes a tab for birth certificates and explains how to obtain the document, whether it is considered available, and what the Department of State accepts as substitute evidence.⁴ Looking this up first can save weeks of effort.

What the NABC Letter Has to Say

A vague note from a foreign office saying “we don’t have it” will not clear the bar. USCIS lists four things the letter must contain:

An original document, on the official letterhead of the civil authority responsible for birth registration in the jurisdiction where the birth occurred.
An explicit statement that no birth record exists for you after a search of the archives.
A reason the record does not exist — registration was not required at the time, records were destroyed, or the birth was never registered.
A statement about whether similar records for that time and place are otherwise available, which tells USCIS whether the gap is yours specifically or a wider records problem.

All four elements have to appear.³ Missing any one of them is a common RFE trigger. The letter also has to come from the right office — the authority that actually maintains birth records in your birth jurisdiction, which varies by country. The Reciprocity Schedule identifies that office for each country.

Secondary Evidence and the Hierarchy Behind It

Producing an NABC does not end the evidence question. Regulation 8 CFR 103.2(b)(2) sets a strict hierarchy for proving facts like date of birth, place of birth, and parentage.² The NABC lets you move down that hierarchy:

Primary evidence is the government-issued birth certificate. If you had one, you would not be here.
Secondary evidence is what you submit once unavailability is established. Church baptismal records, school enrollment records, and hospital records of the birth are the standard categories.
Affidavits come only after you also show secondary evidence is unavailable. Two or more sworn statements from people with direct personal knowledge of the birth.

Each level requires proof that the level above it is unavailable before USCIS will consider the next.² You cannot skip secondary evidence and jump to affidavits unless you can also show no church, school, or hospital records exist. In practice, most applicants file the NABC together with whatever secondary documents they can gather, then fill remaining gaps with affidavits.

What a Birth Affidavit Must Contain

USCIS treats affidavits seriously and expects specifics. Each affidavit has to come from a person who is not a party to the immigration petition and who has direct personal knowledge of the birth — someone who was alive and aware at the time. Relatives are allowed, and the affiant does not have to be a U.S. citizen.³

Each affidavit should include:

The affiant’s full name, address, and contact information
The affiant’s own date and place of birth
The affiant’s relationship to the applicant, if any
A copy of the affiant’s government-issued identification
The specific facts about the birth — date, location, parents’ names, and any other relevant details
An explanation of how the affiant personally knows these facts

You need at least two affidavits from two different people.² The strongest statements come from people who were present at or shortly after the birth and can describe specific circumstances rather than repeat family lore. An older sibling who remembers the day, a midwife, or a neighbor who visited the family carries more weight than a distant cousin recounting what they were told.

When the Foreign Government Will Not Issue the Letter

Sometimes the issuing office itself is the problem. Registries in conflict zones or in countries with limited record-keeping infrastructure may not respond at all. USCIS accounts for this. If you cannot obtain the written statement of unavailability, you may instead submit evidence of repeated good faith attempts to get it.⁵

USCIS does not define “good faith attempts” precisely, but the paper trail generally includes copies of written requests you sent, postal or courier tracking showing delivery, any responses you did receive (partial or unhelpful ones count), and a personal statement explaining why the authority could not or would not comply. The more complete the record of your efforts, the more likely USCIS will accept the substitution.

Late-Registered Birth Certificates

Some countries let you register a birth years or decades late. If yours does and you can complete the process, you may end up with an actual certificate rather than an NABC. That is not automatically the better option. USCIS gives a late-registered birth certificate less weight than one issued around the time of birth, because the fraud potential is higher.⁶ Officers weigh the delayed certificate against the rest of the record and often ask for supporting secondary evidence anyway. If you go this route, plan to supplement it the same way you would supplement an NABC.

Translation Rules

The NABC, church records, school records, and most affidavits from abroad arrive in a language other than English. Federal regulations require every foreign-language document submitted to USCIS to be accompanied by a full English translation, with a certification from the translator stating that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from the foreign language into English.²

USCIS does not require the translator to hold any particular credential. A bilingual friend can do it as long as they sign the certification, which should include the translator’s name, signature, address, and the date. The translator does not need to be a disinterested party. But a foreign-language document submitted without a certified translation is treated as if it were not submitted at all.

If USCIS Sends a Request for Evidence

Even careful filings sometimes draw a Request for Evidence. USCIS issues one when the record does not yet establish eligibility for the benefit sought.⁵ The usual triggers on birth evidence are an NABC missing one of the four required elements, secondary evidence USCIS considers insufficient, affidavits without enough detail, or a late-registered certificate that raises reliability concerns.

Response deadlines depend on where the evidence lives. Evidence available from overseas sources generally allows 84 calendar days; evidence available inside the United States allows 42 calendar days. RFEs sent by mail add three days. There is no extension past the maximum, and missing the deadline is grounds for denial. Treat the RFE as a checklist: it names what the officer found insufficient, so your response should address each item directly rather than re-sending the same package.

USCIS applies the preponderance of the evidence standard, meaning the officer has to conclude that your claim is more likely than not true based on everything in the record.⁷ Some doubt does not require denial if the overall package tips the scale in your favor. An officer who still finds the evidence thin, or who spots inconsistencies across documents, may refer you for an in-person interview before deciding.

DNA Testing for Relationship Cases

When the NABC package still cannot establish a biological relationship — most often a parent-child link underlying a family-based petition — DNA testing becomes an option. Neither USCIS nor the Department of State can require it; it is always voluntary. When no other credible proof exists, it may be the only realistic path to approval.⁸

The testing has to be done by a laboratory accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Commercial ancestry tests are not accepted. For applicants overseas, the AABB lab ships a collection kit to the U.S. embassy or consulate, which supervises the sample collection. Results go directly from the lab to the government; the applicant never handles the kit or the results.⁹

For parent-child relationships, the Department of State accepts only results reporting a 99.5 percent or greater probability of the biological relationship. For full siblings, the threshold is 90 percent, and results between 9 and 89 percent are considered inconclusive. All costs — lab fees, shipping, and related expenses — fall on the petitioner or beneficiary and are paid to the laboratory in advance.⁸ Testing is not recommended for extended relationships like cousins or aunts and uncles because the results cannot reach the required probability. Submitting to a test also does not guarantee approval; it is one piece of evidence weighed with everything else in the record.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence
2
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.2 – Submission and Adjudication of Benefit Requests
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 4 – Documentation
4
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Visa Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 6 – Evidence
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 5, Part D, Chapter 8 – Documentation and Evidence
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 4 – Burden and Standards of Proof
8
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 601.11 – Visas and DNA
9
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Information for Parents on U.S. Citizenship and DNA Testing