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POINTE-CLAIRE · GOLD CARD FIELD GUIDE

Which records prove a child's age and marital status?

Sources checked:

THE DIRECT ANSWER

A civil birth record establishing the parent-child relationship and date of birth, plus evidence of current marital status, such as a marriage certificate or a divorce decree where either applies. Provide the documents for each child you intend to include, including the one whose status you expect to be examined separately.

Status is a fact on a date, so date every document

Consider a daughter who marries between the day the file opens and the day documents are requested. Her marital status changed on a specific date, and the record showing that date is what an officer works from. Keep originals together with clear translations where needed, note when each was issued, and answer requests with the current document rather than the one you gathered months earlier.

Documents filed with USCIS in a foreign language need a full certified English translation. A recruiter’s invoice may document a private employment expense; it is not by itself evidence that the instructed government gift was paid. Before answering anything, reconstruct what really happened: incorporation and name-change filings, the merger documents, employment letters, pay records and the dates each name was in use. Get the scope in writing: which years are reviewed, how many documents are retrieved, whether translation is billed separately, and what happens if a second request arrives.