Can we get married in the USVI?

[Krikit 1,164]

Moving from New Life in America to Working & Traveling section.

[MinkKC 0]

Regarding Hawaii - We got married in Hawaii on December 6th, 2009, and just got our certified copies in the mail a few days ago - about a 6 week turnaround. I do not recommend it.

I was silly enough not to look into the differences between the states when we planned on where we got married, figured they would all be about the same. And I had enough vacation time left to do the wedding/honeymoon there, and a simple beach ceremony in Hawaii sounded nice. This thought was encouraged by the guy who issued the marriage license who said if we send in the certified copy form a few days after getting married, we should have them within 10 days or so.

Their website says 3 to 4 months for the actual certificate. You can request certified copies for an extra fee and they state they will arrive in 4 to 6 weeks after you apply for them. Other than that, they say there is no way to pay extra to have it "rushed." We expected to have it by the time we got home from the wedding/honeymoon considering what the guy at the license office had said, but we called and called and we were told each time that it wasn't in the system at all. They couldn't even tell us that they had received it from our justice of the peace (it had to be mailed from Kona to Honolulu, we did confirm with him that he had sent it). They just said they had "boxes and boxes" and were back-logged. Then it magically showed up in the mailbox on Tuesday, and was apparently printed on the previous Thursday, which was the last date that I had called them and was told they didn't have us in the system.

[driver 9]

My calling to Hawaii resulted in the same run-around. We are getting married in California then jumping on a plane to Hawaii.

As far as I'm concerned - you are lucky you got something in 6 weeks. My experience talking with them was very depressing.

[driver 9]

I decided to risk it by getting married in Hawaii. I noticed a little blurb on the Dept of Health's records department where you can get same day (or under 10 day) turn around if you came in person and showed proof you *must have documentation* for *something important*.

The day after getting married (4/22/2010), the officiator dropped off the marriage license. Five mins after, I walked into the records department with K1 Visa, passports, AOS instructions, and they took photocopies of it all and put a rush on my Marriage Certificate.

When I returned from honeymoon the cert was in my mailbox. They mailed it on 4/24/2010. So it took them 2 days.

:)

[sugarapple 1]

My wife and I visited the USVI and BVI past August for our 3rd wedding anniversary. We don't really regret doing it, but wouldn't do it again, ever. It's a third world country with poverty screaming in one's face. Let me suggest Maui on Hawaii instead. Have been there many times, cheaper, nicer, cleaner, better in every way. Even my daughter flew in from Europe in order to get married there and we all agree it's as perfect as it gets for wedding and honeymoon.

Hi Just Bob,

I diagree with saint thomas being a third country. We do have running water and is very well developed. I am sorry that your stay was not very well. your stay would have been better you stayed at a ritz carlton or a suar bay or the marriotts cove.

I live in the VI and see people from the mainland come here to work or go to school. I am also from the the VI