Can we use an unofficial Cert. of Marriage to file AOS?

[tcgator 1]

Hello all,

My husband is here on a K1 visa, we got married last week in Florida. The lady at the courthouse gave us an UNOFFICIAL Certificate of Marriage and told us it will take about a month before we get the Official Copy from the county. We want to start the AOS process as soon as possible b/c we are living off of one income and it's really tight. Can we file the AOS forms and Work Authorization with the unofficial Certificate of Marriage, or do we have to wait until we get the other one in the mail. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[kzielu 1,153]

You have to wait for official one. Sending this one will likely delay your AOS as you will get RFE which will stop everything including EAD / AP.

[Zedayn 485]

You'll need the official marriage certificate.

[Dave&Roza 748]

Hello all,

My husband is here on a K1 visa, we got married last week in Florida. The lady at the courthouse gave us an UNOFFICIAL Certificate of Marriage and told us it will take about a month before we get the Official Copy from the county. We want to start the AOS process as soon as possible b/c we are living off of one income and it's really tight. Can we file the AOS forms and Work Authorization with the unofficial Certificate of Marriage, or do we have to wait until we get the other one in the mail. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

I would go ahead and start the process with the copy you have. Get several certified copies of your marriage certificate so you can respond to the RFE and also so you can take them to the interview should you have one. If you respond to the RFE quickly, the process should not be slowed down too much. I would think it would be less than a month. This way you can have the AOS and the marriage certificate processed in parallel and save a couple of weeks. Best case is they schedule you for an interview and you give them the certified copy of you marriage certificate at that time.

Good luck,

Dave

[canusa920 11]

I disagree with the above, we filed with an unofficial one and received an RFE and we still have yet to receive my EAD...it's been over 100 days, and was delayed do to the RFE. My personal opinion would be to wait till you get the official one.

[tcgator 1]

Thank you for the advice. Looks like we will wait to get the official one. Don't want to risk any more delays.

[MiniKoala 13]

Call the Courthouse where you got married and explain that you are doing the K-1 visa immigration process and that you need the certified copy sooner. Our marriage certificate was supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive (we got married at San Francisco City Hall). I e-mailed the Office of Assessor-Recorder here and they responded within just a few hours saying that we could pick up our certified copy a day after the ceremony. Sometimes Government people are nice and are willing to help It's worth a try!

[agnesb 47]

Or check with your county clerk of court to see if you can get a copy in person. Usually it is possible to get to the office, pay like $5 and get a certified copy right away.

[Alex&Amy 28]

Go and ask for a Certified copy from the County Clerk. I used an unofficial but certified copy and it worked fine.

[meandterry 3]

The county secretary of Court will simply photocopy and sealed many as you can, I wonder why they ask you to wait. A photocopy with seal is official.

[Hypnos 6,578]

Go and ask for a Certified copy from the County Clerk. I used an unofficial but certified copy and it worked fine.

There's no such thing; if it's a certified copy then it's an official copy.

[Alex&Amy 28]

There's no such thing; if it's a certified copy then it's an official copy.

It wasn't the original that was copied, it was a copy they had on file, while the original was being processed at a different location. What the original question was 'do you need to submit original/official?' The answer is no you don't, as long as you have a copied version certified by someone from the county clerks office then that is fine...

Edited March 5, 2014 by Alex&Amy

[pete_falcone 7]

You should be fine with that copy. We used such a copy provided by the officiant and had no issues. CA officiants give them out in lieu of the certified copy as it goes through processing.