Original Marriage Certificate not accepted.

[pakiman 0]

Hi all, i have a issue. i am sponsoring my wife who is in Pakistan. I just finished my case with the NVC and my case has been forwarded to the Embassy in Islamabad. Ill just give a little background on what is going on.

I submitted all my documents to the NVC, but did not submit the original marriage certificate and birth certificate at first. (Sent attested notarized copies). I ended up getting an RFE for the original documents. I then responded to the RFE with the original civil marriage certificate and birth certificate. My Marriage Certificate is issued by the Christian Marriage Registrar and it is in english. After a week or so my case got completed and i was waiting for an interview date. a few weeks ago i called the NVC to find out my interview date, and they told me that they are still waiting for a date however to tell my wife to bring the original marriage certificate to the interview. I told them i mailed the original marriage certificate along with the original birth certificate already. They said it is showing that you sent a translation of the marriage certificate. I then told them that the Christian Marriage certificate is issued in English and that it is not a translation. They said they did not know what to do, and just said that they were not accepting that and for me to take it up with the embassy at the interview. I recieved an interview date for Nov, and to my dissapointment it says to bring the original marriage certificate to the interview. I do not have the original as i have already submitted it to the NVC. i have wrote an email to the Embassy regrading this issue and i am still waiting for a reply back. My thinking is that maybe the NVC does not know how the christian marriage certificate looks like. i know that they had to recieve it because they recieved the original birth certificate with the same packet. Has anybody gone thru a similar case or has any exp in this issue. i am unable to get another original as i am in the states and am unable to sign a new certificate. I do however have pictures of me and my wife signing the documents at the civil cermiony. Thanks in advance for all your help.

[EAbbas 213]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/212186-sent-in-ds-230/

Look at this thread... start with #12... it talks about exactly what your asking about...

It says to have the original marriage certificate attested at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office

And that you can get another original from the place you received the first one to be able to do this.

Also did you take it to NADRA and put it in their data base? We had a nikah nama but we did go to the MFA and NADRA...

Hope this helps...

[pakiman 0]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/212186-sent-in-ds-230/

Look at this thread... start with #12... it talks about exactly what your asking about...

It says to have the original marriage certificate attested at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office

And that you can get another original from the place you received the first one to be able to do this.

Also did you take it to NADRA and put it in their data base? We had a nikah nama but we did go to the MFA and NADRA...

Hope this helps...

hi thanks for your reply, i think my case is a little different. my marriage was not a church marriage, but a civil marriage. There is only one person who has the authority in karachi to perform civil marriages for christians. He is appointed by the government, therefore his certificate is from the government itself. inorder for me to get a duplicate i would have to go back to pakistan to sign another certificate. Nadra accepts that certificate as being a govt issued certificate, i had taken it to nadra inorder to get my wifes ID changed. i had called NVC today and spoke to a rep. it seems that because the certificate is not in urdu they think that it is not original. i explained to the rep that the christian certificates are issued in english and not in urdu. She said if that is the case when its time for the interview to explain it to them. Hopefully the embassy will be aware of what a christian civil certificate is like. Once again, thanks for your reply.