Big dillema and really scared about possible outcome!

[monky 0]

Well, I guess the first thing to say is that you learn from your mistakes. My wife is freaking out because we probably screwed up everything with our immigration journey. We met last year and we fell in love....now we are married! but here is the story. I was waiting for my ex-wife to sign the final divorce papers on July 2009, (we were separated from more than a year), after more than 9 months of dealing with it. My fiance and I had everything planned to get married on September 2009 and I had asked my ex-wife to sign the divorce on July and she agreed to do so. But to my surprise she didn't show up to sign the papers on the date the court told us to appear. My fiance and I had everything ready to get married two months after my divorce was final. Part of her family had already plane tickets to go her country, I had paid for a nice place for our wedding ceremony and for our wedding party....every single detail was planned and paid for. But the new appointment date to appear in the divorce court was delayed to Dec 2009 (mostly becuase of ex-wife). I didn't care that technically I was still married and we celebrated our catholic wedding ceremony on Sept 2009......I was fed up with everything that I had to do to get divorced from this person plus that I was going to screwed big time financially canceling our wedding. So my fiance and I decided to get married.

So my fiance and I got married thru a catholic ritual on Sept 2009, my final divorce paper got done on Dec 2009....WE NEVER registered our catholic marriage to the Colombian government because to us it was just a ritual for us to share our love. On January 2010, My wife and I got married again in a Civil court in Colombia and our marriage was registered. But now we have to provide a bautism certificate with marginal notes that shows that I am married to my wife but it is going to show that we got married on Sept 2009, even though our marriage wasn't registered to the Colombian Government and that was prior to my divorce date(Dec 2010). So my question is how this can impact our immigration journey? Can this screwed everything up even though I have my divorce degree from my previous marriage and now I am married to the love of my life.

Any help or guidance on what to do would be very appreciated!

Thanks!

[jundp 191]

Well you can't legally be married to one person while still legally married to another. I'm not sure how you were able to get a marriage license or register your marriage if you were still legally married to someone else?

[christeen 966]

Forgive my ingorance, but the Catholic ceremony was just a cultural one and not the legal marriage, the Civil ceremony which took place AFTER the divorce is the one you are using to petition your spouse with... Correct?

[monky 0]

Forgive my ingorance, but the Catholic ceremony was just a cultural one and not the legal marriage, the Civil ceremony which took place AFTER the divorce is the one you are using to petition your spouse with... Correct?

Correct! My Catholic ceremony was just a cultural one, it was never registered with the Colombian government. That's why I had to go back and marry my wife in a Civil court in January 2010 and that is the one i used to petition my wife. But what i don't know is if the cultural one would have any impact on the USCIS decision

[Terca 6]

Why do you need a baptism certificate?

Did NVC or USCIS resquest one?

Are you not able to obtain a Birth certificate?

Edited February 25, 2010 by Terca

[monky 0]

Why do you need a baptism certificate?

Did NVC or USCIS resquest one?

Are you not able to obtain a Birth certificate?

A birth certificate is one of the documents asked by NVC as part of the DS 2032 and it is also asked by the embassy in Colombia.

[Patrick808 0]

... But now we have to provide a baptism certificate with marginal notes that shows that I am married to my wife but it is going to show that we got married on Sept 2009, even though our marriage wasn't registered to the Colombian Government and that was prior to my divorce date(Dec 2010). So my question is how this can impact our immigration journey? Can this screwed everything up even though I have my divorce degree from my previous marriage and now I am married to the love of my life.

Any help or guidance on what to do would be very appreciated!

Thanks!

Just my opinion: Although we think of the immigration process as some dark mysterious machine that just wants to spit out rejections for any cause, every once in a while, we see things get approved despite some problem or mistake with our applications. The truth is that real live people process our paperwork. I would hope that the your explanation (above) will be accepted as reasonable. I think you'll be just fine.

(However, I have no knowledge of your journey's path, as I took another route.) Good Luck.

[Terca 6]

Exactly. That is why I ask why do you need a Baptismal certificate instead of the birth certificate?

I thought they were separate papers, one expedited by church and the other by state. The birth certificate being from a state agency should bear no information about your sept 2009 marriage.

[monky 0]

A birth certificate is one of the documents asked by NVC as part of the DS 2032 and it is also asked by the embassy in Colombia.

Sorry a baptism certificate is one of the documents asked by the US embassy in Bogota.

[Terca 6]

oh! Ok, I understand now.

dang, then I have no more helpful input.

[dakay ♥ 10]

Sorry a baptism certificate is one of the documents asked by the US embassy in Bogota.

baptism certificate is not asked is "suggested", there are people who are not religious, and not present it because they don´t have it.

[pushbrk 13,179]

baptism certificate is not asked is "suggested", there are people who are not religious, and not present it because they don´t have it.

Only Christians are "baptized". The certificate is NOT a requirement. Even if it is provided, I don't think it will present a problem. If asked about the two marriage dates, give the honest explanation. Not all the why and wherefore, just that the first was not a legal marriage and that the filing was done after the legal marriage. They understand these things. It's not as if you're wife is presenting herself as a fiancee, where they would use the margin notes to say she's married.

[edward toro 3]

Sorry a baptism certificate is one of the documents asked by the US embassy in Bogota.

Forget the baptism certificate. The document you need is the marriage cert. So far you are good to go. did you already send the I-130 ?

[monky 0]

Forget the baptism certificate. The document you need is the marriage cert. So far you are good to go. did you already send the I-130 ?

Thank you and the other guys for replying!

I have been researching and neither NVC or USCIS ask for a baptism certificate, you are right about that! They are used to support your case either because you got married thru a catholic ritual or to see if you were married before and you have to provide proof of divorce. I guess if i don't provide one is not going to affect anything, since my wife wasn't married before. Now I can explain the whole situation to my wife, so she can sleep tonight

Thank you guys again!

[jcrom 2]

Hello everybody, I send you another big hug from another Colombian friend as me. Ok, Dude, you are in Orlando, Florida. I think (not sure at all) that the Catholic Marriage is not accepted under State of Florida Law, I think that the only one accepted in Florida is the Civil with the notary, judge or whoever, anyway please figure this item out or else you are going to committ another mistake or waste your time. In our home country Colombia is accepted both Civil and Religious marrage under the law. You have to be aware that in case the Catholic marriage is valid, you cannot get married before you get your divorce done, or else, your new marriage is not valid and worse you get in trouble in case of any further petition or something like that. Thanks and bye,