CR-1 Visa (DCF in Seoul) Documentation Question

[ermattson 0]

My fiancee (a Korean citizen) and I will be getting married in Hawaii later this month. After our wedding we will be able to do the Direct Consulate Filing in Seoul, where we are living right now. My question is: when submitting all of the necessary paperwork, will we be able to use a temporary marriage license from Hawaii or will we need to wait for the real thing to arrive in the mail?

I called the USA Embassy in Seoul regarding this question, and they directed me to the USCIS field office. However, after trying to call the two listed numbers, I was only able to reach two voicemails (one being full). I will try and call the USA office later, once they're open for the work week.

Any information will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[Ian H. 207]

A marriage license isn't the same as a marriage certificate, if that's what you mean. A marriage license simply allows the couple to get married after filling out the marriage license application. Then, once you have the marriage license, you can then have the marriage ceremony.

Once your marriage is performed, you should receive your marriage certificate. If it takes a while for them to issue the certificate, then you would have to wait to submit that with the petition.

Now, if they give you a "temporary marriage certificate" that's another story, but I wouldn't know if it would be valid outside of the state of Hawaii.

[ermattson 0]

Hi Ian,

Thanks a lot for your reply, and also thanks for the correction. I have heard previously that people married in Hawaii were able to print out a Temporary Marriage Certificate, so that's what I am hoping to be able to use due to the wait time for the original one to arrive in the mail.

Thanks again.

[Ian H. 207]

You would have to find out with the marriage clerk's office if that temporary certificate is valid outside of Hawaii. Sounds like it should be since it should say you're married, if so you can get it apostilled or legalized and you should be able to use it outside of the US. Again that's assuming that it's valid outside of Hawaii in the first place, so make sure that you ask the clerk. If not, you can ask if there is a way to expedite the actual marriage certificate.

[ermattson 0]

Thanks again, Ian!

[NikLR 13,231]

~~moved to DCF from IR1/CR1 process and procedures as OP intends to go that route~~

[AudreyND 14]

When filing DCF, the clerk at the consulate is the one accepting documents or refusing them, so i don't understand why they would redirect you to the USCIS. Good luck getting a direct yes or no from them tho. I had a question for my consulate about documents to know if they would be admissible, and the reply was "On your interview date please discuss your concerns with the consular officer. Your documents and case will be reviewed accordingly."

I don't know how it is for the Korean consulate, but here at the Montréal consulate, the receptionnist are truly incompetant/clueless and will not answer the most simple questions regarding immigrant visa. They always redirect you to write emails (mind you, they gave me the wrong email adress TWICE lol). So if i were you i would go on their website, get the email adress and send the question this way. But you will get a very generic reply, especially since you do not have a case open yet.

I would do what Ian H. said and hope for the best. If the clerk refuses it, he will simply ask you to send in your real marriage certificate when you get it. But I'm not sure if he will hold anything back waiting for the certificate or go ahead with the process, depends on the clerk and the situation.

Best of luck to you!

[ermattson 0]

Thanks AudreyND!

[Confusedtinybird 41]

My fiancee (a Korean citizen) and I will be getting married in Hawaii later this month. After our wedding we will be able to do the Direct Consulate Filing in Seoul, where we are living right now. My question is: when submitting all of the necessary paperwork, will we be able to use a temporary marriage license from Hawaii or will we need to wait for the real thing to arrive in the mail?

I called the USA Embassy in Seoul regarding this question, and they directed me to the USCIS field office. However, after trying to call the two listed numbers, I was only able to reach two voicemails (one being full). I will try and call the USA office later, once they're open for the work week.

Any information will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

You might not be able to do DCF if you leave for Hawaii and return to Seoul. It really depends on how tough the Embassy is. They might restart the 6 month clock again for DCF since you are out of the country. I would really try and e-mail and get and answer regarding this!

[ermattson 0]

Hi Confusedtinybird,

I appreciate your reply. Since I hold a legal resident card (since October of last year) I highly doubt they would be that strict in telling me I haven't been residing in Seoul for more than 6 months. I travel all around Asia for my job, and so it would be impossible to meet this requirement. My visa is also multiple entry.

Of course I will check on this when I submit the I-330 petition. I have read and heard from others that the Seoul field office is great and those at the USA embassy here are very helpful. I'll post our progress once things get rolling.

Thanks!

[ermattson 0]

Wanted to provide a quick update:

My wife and I actually processed the paper work in Korea before we left to Hawaii for our actual wedding ceremony. Therefore, in Hawaii, I let the officiant know that we were "renewing our vows," and didn't need him to fill out any paperwork.

We filed the I-130 petition on September 19th. There was one interesting thing to note: currently, my residence in Seoul, only allows a foreigner to register his/her address as their "home." The landlord said that this is done for tax purposes. If a Korean citizen may rent the place I am living as an office (hence the name officetel), but may not reside there. My wife and I are living at this address, but were nervous when filing the I-130 petition because we didn't have the same legal mailing addresses. I even drafted a letter explaining this, proving that we really did get married (and our love is valid), etc... When we turned in the petition, the employee at the embassy asked us "why do you have two different addresses? are you together now?" We replied yes and I quickly told him the story. He said "oh, that doesn't matter, if you're living together just put down the address where you are living." I was actually shocked because I thought that a US government office would want things done exactly by the book. He allowed us to cross off her legal mailing address and write in my address underneath. It was messy, and I thought that was going to delay things.

Once the employee had taken all of the necessary papers -- petition, G-325A for both of us, a photo for both of us, and our marriage certificate in korean / english translation (and having already paid the $420 in CASH -- we were out the door in 10 minutes.

We received an email on Monday October 6th, 2014, with further instructions (packet 3). Thanks to this website and the help of others, we have almost everything else completed, except the DS-260. I quickly went onto the website ustraveldocs.com/kr to book the visa interview appointment. When I first tried to create an account, I received an error saying that my request couldn't be completed. I had emailed support and I was surprised that they emailed me back within 30 minutes saying please try again because it was a server error on their part. I tried to sign up again and received the same error. I then tried to "recover a forgotten password." I received an email, surprisingly, with a link to reset my password. I didn't know I already had an account. The only other account I made was to file the petition, and I didn't think that was an account. Perhaps they made it for you?

After entering information about the type of visa we are applying for, my passport information along with my spouses passport information, I was able to choose the first appointment for October 28, 2014.

The biggest takeaway from this so far is if you are a foreigner in Korea and have a different address from your spouse, don't worry. Write down where you are living together, and they'll accept it. Oh, and bring cash, too. I, like everyone else, brought a lot of extra paperwork with the petition, but the employee had taken it all, grabbed what he wanted, and returned the rest.