RFE: They ask for marrige certificate type that doesn't exist ?!

[Ryan H 3,810]

There's nothing on the back of the original document.

We didn't send any copies - we send original certificate as we got them from the court.

Because you sent the original document to USCIS instead of a photocopy (USCIS only requires photocopies), you will now need the court to re-issue the certificate they gave you the first time. The NVC will require the original document.

[Cathi 5,716]

they are not looking for the marriage certificate from the court, they are looking for the one from the civil status department where the court would have sent it to be registered.

[M&O 0]

Because you sent the original document to USCIS instead of a photocopy (USCIS only requires photocopies), you will now need the court to re-issue the certificate they gave you the first time. The NVC will require the original document.

Well, I'm not sure what you understand under 'copy' and what is an 'original document'

As our marriage ceremony was over, they offered us to send us a marriage certificate in a few days by post, and the cost for that was a few dollars.

Instead of one, we asked if we can get more of them, and payed the price for three.

A few days latter we got three marriage certificate delivered by the post.

Those certificates I call "original documents" as they are made by the court and have original stamp and signature made by human hand of the court clerk.

But, except for a stamp and signature, the rest of the paper contains photocopied material of some other paper, but nevertheless, as this is the only certificate we can get from the court (or registration office) - I consider it to be original document.

When you say 'photocopies' I think of a papers that I can produce myself by photocopying the original documents in a copy machine...

Nevertheless, both original and copied document contain the same data, and they didn't complain about 'originality', but of the missing data from the document (certificate number, book number, page number....) that they expect to see on that paper. So, even if i send them copy - they won't see anything else on it what they can't see on the original.

[pushbrk 12,609]

Well, I'm not sure what you understand under 'copy' and what is an 'original document'

As our marriage ceremony was over, they offered us to send us a marriage certificate in a few days by post, and the cost for that was a few dollars.

Instead of one, we asked if we can get more of them, and payed the price for three.

A few days latter we got three marriage certificate delivered by the post.

Those certificates I call "original documents" as they are made by the court and have original stamp and signature made by human hand of the court clerk.

But, except for a stamp and signature, the rest of the paper contains photocopied material of some other paper, but nevertheless, as this is the only certificate we can get from the court (or registration office) - I consider it to be original document.

When you say 'photocopies' I think of a papers that I can produce myself by photocopying the original documents in a copy machine...

Nevertheless, both original and copied document contain the same data, and they didn't complain about 'originality', but of the missing data from the document (certificate number, book number, page number....) that they expect to see on that paper. So, even if i send them copy - they won't see anything else on it what they can't see on the original.

Sounds like you ordered three certified copies of your marriage certificate. You'll need a second of the three for NVC. You have three original certified copies. You could have filed a photocopy of a certified copy with the petition.

[M&O 0]

they are not looking for the marriage certificate from the court, they are looking for the one from the civil status department where the court would have sent it to be registered.

You are right. As we get stuck with this problem we learned in the meantime that this marriage certificate we have was not from the court were we got married but from some registration office or something with similar name. I thought it was from the court as we only had deal with the court at that time. In fact, you can't even obtain one in court.

Nevertheless, we also asked that registration office who issues marriage certificates and they told us that the certificate we already have is the one and only there is. That is the only marriage certificate one can obtain in Orlando, Florida. There exist no other type of "marriage certificate" nor "certificate of marriage" nor "certified copy" nor "certified certificate" or anything else that has anything to do with marriage, no matter how you name it

It seems we can't do anything else but write a letter to California office and try to explain to those people that marriage certificate in Florida looks different as the one from Alaska.

[redsnap 13]

Oh man, it seems like they are very good in finding small little unimportant issues thus causing a huge backlog for thousands of others... Worst case scenario: Get divorced and re-marry in Austria, they took our Austrian marriage certificate with no problems...

[M&O 0]

they took our Austrian marriage certificate with no problems...

Maybe you just had luck and your papers were delivered by post on Wednesday...

[bsd058 296]

Just to let you know, what you have is a typical Florida marriage certificate. They MUST file the original for you. You are not allowed to keep the original; otherwise the marriage has no record. The court of clerks will issue a certified copy of the marriage certificate which is just the saem as the certificate of marriage. Only the copy must have the seal of Florida signed by an official clerk.

I sent a photocopy of my certified copy in, and hopefully will not receive as much trouble as you have been given.

[M&O 0]

^^

That's perfectly clear to us. The only problem is how to educate the respective USCIS clerk on that subject...

[M&O 0]

Just a quick update:

We mailed a certified copy of our marriage licence together with the letter of explanation on Tue, 14th Avgust 2012.

The letter reached USCIS next day around 11 AM.

By the end of the day, our status on uscis.gov was changed from "Request for evidence" to "Response review".

That was pretty quick, although I don't know if that means somebody is actually working on our case, or they are just notifying us that they received 'response'.

I'll be back as soon as there are some news/changes...

[pushbrk 12,609]

Just a quick update:

We mailed a certified copy of our marriage licence together with the letter of explanation on Tue, 14th Avgust 2012.

The letter reached USCIS next day around 11 AM.

By the end of the day, our status on uscis.gov was changed from "Request for evidence" to "Response review".

That was pretty quick, although I don't know if that means somebody is actually working on our case, or they are just notifying us that they received 'response'.

I'll be back as soon as there are some news/changes...

The status change is nothing more than an acknowledgment they received your response. Usually it's less than two weeks before they either RFE again or approve the petition.

[M&O 0]

Just a quick update:

Yesterday (September 25th, 2012) we received NOA2 - Approved! (an sms-notification), and the status on USCIS site changed to "Post Decision Activity"

We're waiting for the rest to arrive by mail.

So, it took them 40 days to respond to evidence.

We expected it to be under two weeks since we mailed "missing" evidence (which was just a simple explanation that the requested data are already provided) just a 2-3 days after request, so we got a little bit nervous lately, but it's ok now.

Thanks everybody on Your support!

We're going to read now what's expecting us next...

Bye bye!

[pushbrk 12,609]

Just a quick update:

Yesterday (September 25th, 2012) we received NOA2 - Approved! (an sms-notification), and the status on USCIS site changed to "Post Decision Activity"

We're waiting for the rest to arrive by mail.

So, it took them 40 days to respond to evidence.

We expected it to be under two weeks since we mailed "missing" evidence (which was just a simple explanation that the requested data are already provided) just a 2-3 days after request, so we got a little bit nervous lately, but it's ok now.

Thanks everybody on Your support!

We're going to read now what's expecting us next...

Bye bye!

Probably took extra time because the case approval had to be escalated to a higher level.

[M&O 0]

Probably took extra time because the case approval had to be escalated to a higher level.

If you could only know how that "higer level" echoes in my ears...

Is it a normal procedure, or is it maybe because something about our case was suspicious or ambiguous so that it needed to be approved from higher rank?

[pushbrk 12,609]

If you could only know how that "higer level" echoes in my ears...

Is it a normal procedure, or is it maybe because something about our case was suspicious or ambiguous so that it needed to be approved from higher rank?

Most likely, the "higher level" just evaluating the marriage certificate.