Marriage License in Ontario, Canada

[Shakil 4]

Hi Guyz,

Just need a little guidance. I got married very recently, which is the 23rd of June, 2006. In Ontario, you need a marriage licence to get married. You have to obtain the licence from the authorities in order to get married which ever way you want either in a church, temple or court. To get the certified marriage "certificate" we have to get the marriage registered which takes about 6-8 weeks in the state of Ontario. After that, an official marriage certificate can be issued. Also there is a part of the marriage licence which says the record of Solemnization of marriage between "" and "", also includes the name of the witnesses and the authorized person performing the marriage. Now the main question is:

I have submitted the I-130 application and going to submit the I-129F application with the copy of this solemnization as I cannot wait for it to get registered and then get the certificate issued and then get it done. It would take about 3 months just to get this process done meaning acquiring the marriage certificate. So I submitted this temporary unofficial marriage proof and wrote in the application that the marriage is in the process of registration and as soon as I am able to get the official one, I would send it. If you want to verify, on the copy of the solemnization or temporary marriage certificate there is a reference number through which it can easily be verified and this marriage is in the registration prcess. Have I done something wrong? Should I wait for the official one to come before proceeding? Anyone been through this before?

[tommysgirl 0]

I don't think the solomization certificate will work. I got my certificate in 6 weeks by getting my member of parliament involved. If you live in the Toronto area you can go to their office and get it done. The registration part of mine took 5 weeks. Don't know if the MP helped speed that up. I also called the Registrar Generals office in Thunder Bay several times. When I called Montreal this week they said I needed the long form mariage certificate. She may have thought I was talking about the the birth certificate. I have a copy of both. We sent a copy of the shorter certificate in with the I-130 application and had no problems.

Get 2 copies of your birth, marriage and police certificates in case your I-130 and K3 are approved close together like a lot of us at this time. They keep the original copy of the police reports also.

Hope this helllps some.

[Cygnet 0]

I have submitted the I-130 application and going to submit the I-129F application with the copy of this solemnization as I cannot wait for it to get registered and then get the certificate issued and then get it done. It would take about 3 months just to get this process done meaning acquiring the marriage certificate. So I submitted this temporary unofficial marriage proof and wrote in the application that the marriage is in the process of registration and as soon as I am able to get the official one, I would send it. If you want to verify, on the copy of the solemnization or temporary marriage certificate there is a reference number through which it can easily be verified and this marriage is in the registration prcess. Have I done something wrong? Should I wait for the official one to come before proceeding? Anyone been through this before?

They need the copy of the marriage certificate. All you can do now is wait for the USCIS to respond to your application. I'm guessing they'll either return your I-130 application or send you an RFE.

We got married in Quebec and had to wait for the the marriage certificate before sending in the I-130. I think ours took 6 weeks. We got married on a Saturday, then 2 days later (Monday), we went to the Directer de l'etat civil and applied for a copy. Of course at that time our marriage wasn't registered yet (the church had to send them all the info). However, we told them we needed it right away. The woman who helped us at the counter said it's fine; they'll process our application as soon as they get the paperwork from the church etc.

I don't think the USCIS will bother looking up the reference number to verify that your marriage is in the registration process. This is, afterall, the USCIS.

[zimmy64 0]

Hi Guyz,

Just need a little guidance. I got married very recently, which is the 23rd of June, 2006. In Ontario, you need a marriage licence to get married. You have to obtain the licence from the authorities in order to get married which ever way you want either in a church, temple or court. To get the certified marriage "certificate" we have to get the marriage registered which takes about 6-8 weeks in the state of Ontario. After that, an official marriage certificate can be issued. Also there is a part of the marriage licence which says the record of Solemnization of marriage between "" and "", also includes the name of the witnesses and the authorized person performing the marriage. Now the main question is:

I have submitted the I-130 application and going to submit the I-129F application with the copy of this solemnization as I cannot wait for it to get registered and then get the certificate issued and then get it done. It would take about 3 months just to get this process done meaning acquiring the marriage certificate. So I submitted this temporary unofficial marriage proof and wrote in the application that the marriage is in the process of registration and as soon as I am able to get the official one, I would send it. If you want to verify, on the copy of the solemnization or temporary marriage certificate there is a reference number through which it can easily be verified and this marriage is in the registration prcess. Have I done something wrong? Should I wait for the official one to come before proceeding? Anyone been through this before?

We sent in a copy of the solemnization certificate with the applications, I just wrote a note explaining that Ontario takes a long time to process the actual certificate and that we would send it in when we got it. When I did get the real certificate from thunder bay, I just sent a copy in with a cover letter. We never got an RFE, and as far as I can tell it didn't slow down the already slow processing.

[Shakil 4]

As far as the thunder bay certificate is concerned, this would take approximately 8-10 weeks and its too long. Since I-130 is already applied, I believe that I have to wait for the NOA1 or RFE, if they sent us. I don't know when I am going to be issued. I got a return receipt with the USCIS received stamp on 6th of July. I don't think that I can use that return receipt from USPS as an evidence of submitting I-130 petition with I-129F petition which I am planning to send now. What do you guyz say?

[Cygnet 0]

As far as the thunder bay certificate is concerned, this would take approximately 8-10 weeks and its too long. Since I-130 is already applied, I believe that I have to wait for the NOA1 or RFE, if they sent us. I don't know when I am going to be issued. I got a return receipt with the USCIS received stamp on 6th of July. I don't think that I can use that return receipt from USPS as an evidence of submitting I-130 petition with I-129F petition which I am planning to send now. What do you guyz say?

I think you'll need a copy of the NOA1.

[zimmy64 0]

As far as the thunder bay certificate is concerned, this would take approximately 8-10 weeks and its too long. Since I-130 is already applied, I believe that I have to wait for the NOA1 or RFE, if they sent us. I don't know when I am going to be issued. I got a return receipt with the USCIS received stamp on 6th of July. I don't think that I can use that return receipt from USPS as an evidence of submitting I-130 petition with I-129F petition which I am planning to send now. What do you guyz say?

Maybe i wasn't too clear... we applied for the I-130 and then I-129 with ONLY the record of solemization only and at the same time requested the marriage certificate from Thunder bay. Then, 10 weeks later the marriage certificate arrived and we sent in a copy of the actual marriage certificate for both cases to the service center.

The NOA1 was issued in about 2 weeks for both the I-130 and I-129, and we did not get an RFE at all for the lack of marriage certificate. However, you will need to wait for the NOA1 from the I-130 to apply for the I-129F.

Anwyays, if you look at the timelines, you will see that it is typically taking significantly more than 10 weeks for either the I-130 or the I-129 to be approved by USCIS (more like 6 months). So sending in a copy of the actual certificate in 10 weeks is probably not going to delay your app. Makes sense?

Good Luck!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

If you seek assistance in expediting the copy of your marriage certificate, you would approach your MPP - Member of Provincial Parliament - and not your MP - Member of Parliament as the MP addresses federal issues only, and marriage licenses and registrations fall under Provincial jurisidiction. Just wanted to clarify that so you didn't waste a trip.

[QC2CO 1]

Hi Guyz,

Just need a little guidance. I got married very recently, which is the 23rd of June, 2006. In Ontario, you need a marriage licence to get married. You have to obtain the licence from the authorities in order to get married which ever way you want either in a church, temple or court. To get the certified marriage "certificate" we have to get the marriage registered which takes about 6-8 weeks in the state of Ontario. After that, an official marriage certificate can be issued. Also there is a part of the marriage licence which says the record of Solemnization of marriage between "" and "", also includes the name of the witnesses and the authorized person performing the marriage. Now the main question is:

I have submitted the I-130 application and going to submit the I-129F application with the copy of this solemnization as I cannot wait for it to get registered and then get the certificate issued and then get it done. It would take about 3 months just to get this process done meaning acquiring the marriage certificate. So I submitted this temporary unofficial marriage proof and wrote in the application that the marriage is in the process of registration and as soon as I am able to get the official one, I would send it. If you want to verify, on the copy of the solemnization or temporary marriage certificate there is a reference number through which it can easily be verified and this marriage is in the registration prcess. Have I done something wrong? Should I wait for the official one to come before proceeding? Anyone been through this before?

I know exactly what you are going through. We got married in Ottawa in December 2005, we sent a copy of the Solemnization, explained the situation that in Ontario it takes such and such time to get the certificate, and it will be provided as soon as we get it. We got the certificate in April, so about 4 months after getting married to get it registered. And at the same time, US gov sent us a later stating that before they can continue processing our case, we need to provide them the marriage cert within the next 90 days (if i remember correctly). We did, and we got approved. ) hope this helps!

[Shakil 4]

Thanks guyz. I have the MPP on this issue and marriage certificate will be issued within four weeks. I would send the marriage certificate as soon as I get it. Right now, I am waiting for NOA1 of I-130. What do you expect how much time does it take for NOA1 to be issued from CSC. I sent it with the return receipt and they got it on the 6 July, 2006

[KnowledgeIsPower 2]

Hey guys sorry to bring this post back up, but I had to do the same thing as we got married in Ontario 10 days ago and we need to wait the 8-10 weeks to get the official certificate. I wrote a note saying I will provide the official certificate once I receive it from Ontario. My question is, can I submit this to USCIS before I get the RFE if I get my certificate soon, or do I have to wait for the RFE? How exactly can I submit it without an RFE to ensure it goes to the right place? Thank you for all your help!