Two marriage certificates with different dates: religious and civil

[Laud12345 0]

All, I need help in how to proceed with my situation. Any help is appreciated.

I went to India with the plan of getting married in both a religious ceremony (church) and civil ceremony ( goverment register's office) on Feb. 25, 2011. Unfortunately on that date, the government was shut-down because of the strike, so I was not able to complete the civil ceremony. I was only able to complete the reglious wedding ceremony in the church and I received a certificate with a date of Feb. 25, 2011. On March 09, 2011, I went to the government register's office and had a civil marriage and the date on that certificate is March 09, 2011. So, now I have both a church certificate and a goverment marriage certificate with different marriage dates.

Now, when I submit my application, should explain my situation or simply use the March 09 date and not mention the religious wedding? When they ask for marriage pictures, can I use the wedding pictures from the Feb 25 religous wedding even if I use the civil marriage certificate? Will they ask me to provide my wedding cards? Those have the date of Feb. 25? Please help.

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

Use March on all the forms, but feel free to include Feb wedding pics. It is quite common to have religious and legal weddings on different dates, nothing to worry about.

[calibob 73]

Use March on all the forms, but feel free to include Feb wedding pics. It is quite common to have religious and legal weddings on different dates, nothing to worry about.

The civil date is the primary concern of USCIS.

[hobokenworkingman 4]

All, I need help in how to proceed with my situation. Any help is appreciated.

I went to India with the plan of getting married in both a religious ceremony (church) and civil ceremony ( goverment register's office) on Feb. 25, 2011. Unfortunately on that date, the government was shut-down because of the strike, so I was not able to complete the civil ceremony. I was only able to complete the reglious wedding ceremony in the church and I received a certificate with a date of Feb. 25, 2011. On March 09, 2011, I went to the government register's office and had a civil marriage and the date on that certificate is March 09, 2011. So, now I have both a church certificate and a goverment marriage certificate with different marriage dates.

Now, when I submit my application, should explain my situation or simply use the March 09 date and not mention the religious wedding? When they ask for marriage pictures, can I use the wedding pictures from the Feb 25 religous wedding even if I use the civil marriage certificate? Will they ask me to provide my wedding cards? Those have the date of Feb. 25? Please help.

I was in a similar situation - had 1 small ceremony 1st and then a larger ceremony 3 months later. we got registered after our small ceremony. govt only cares about when the marriage was regsitered. use the church wedding pics - perfectly ok...