Hi everyone! I’ve been a longtime lurking on this site, but now finally I found a question that I can’t find an answer for. I’m trying to get my parent’s marriage certificate (and birth certificate) only authenticated (not Chinese translated) at TECO LA, but I’m unsure what exactly to do since my dad isn’t a Taiwan citizen. Do I only mail in my mom’s Taiwan passport, copy of mom’s passport, marriage certificate, and a copy of the marriage certificate? Or do I have to mail in my mom’s Taiwan passport, copy of mom’s passport, dad’s foreign passport, copy of dad’s foreign passport, marriage certificate, and a copy of the marriage certificate? And do these copies of passports and marriage certificate have to be notarized, or would a copy alone be sufficient? I’ve been trying to reach TECO LA for a week now and no luck since all I get is an automatic email and no answer on my phone calls…
Interesting that they’re not answering the phone…are they closed due to COVID?
In my experience with TECO Chicago, they’ve been great about answering all my questions promptly. Actually, you could maybe call them with your questions and and tell that that LA isn’t answering you. But I bet COVID has something to do with it…
My experience with TECO Chicago came on the heels of me dealing with Mainland China’s “embassy”, which quite literally has no humanly possible means of contacting a human and everything has to go through a third party paid service (in the ballpark of US$150+/service). In comparison, TECO Chicago has tended to be very patient and personable and will contact you right away if something is missing. I do say that as someone who got a human with a helpful answer every time I called (or had someone call for me when I was in TW). Twice I got a visa within 20 hours of mailing them my documents and passport.
I guess my point it, maybe just send them everything you think they might need and cross your fingers that they’ll call you if something is missing. But check that they’re open, otherwise you’re just adding documents to the piles that aren’t even being looked at.
They had a COVID outbreak back in early August, so I’m assuming the office has limited staff right now and that’s why they aren’t answering the phone. Thanks for the advice I’ll try calling a different TECO tomorrow!