RFE for Marriage Certificate

[pcraddy 0]

Hello Everybody!

I just thought I'd give people a quick heads-up to try to avoid an RFE. After filing in November, I received the "Card Production Ordered" and "Welcome notice mailed" e-mails yesterday. It all went very smoothly except for one RFE requesting another wedding certificate. The reason was that "the certificate submitted does not show evidence of being registered or recorded. The certificate must indicate that the marriage was registered or recorded with the county, state or country's civil authorities".

This happened because Michigan supplies you with 2 copies of your wedding license/certificate before the wedding. Both are signed by yourselves and the presiding official. One is then filed with the county, the other you take away with you. It was this 2nd copy that we submitted a photocopy of with our AOS papers. What we should have done is wait for the county to record the marriage certificate we filed with them, then go to the county clerk and get a certified copy of the marriage license/cert. This come with all of the filing date information completed and also has a section at the bottom that says "I certify that this is a copy from county records" etc etc.

In all, the RFE only delayed us by about 3 weeks as I returned it the same day we received it.

Hope this helps somebody avoid an RFE for something so minor!

--Pcraddy

[Dr_LHA 3]

Yes, USCIS require a copy of the "Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate" which costs $5-10 from your clerk's office. They should probably state this more explicitly on the I-485 instructions. However, what you gave them was the marriage license, not the certificate. A license doesn't proof you are married, hence the RFE.

Congrats on getting your GC (orded)!

Edited March 1, 2007 by dr_lha

[rebeccajo 14]

Doc, it actually sounds to me like what pcrady sent was a 'souvenir copy'.

For the record, ALL official documents sent to USCIS or DOS must be certified. They are satisfied with a photocopy of a certified copy, but the document itself must bear certification by the County Clerk.

[Joey559 1]

Doc, it actually sounds to me like what pcrady sent was a 'souvenir copy'.

For the record, ALL official documents sent to USCIS or DOS must be certified. They are satisfied with a photocopy of a certified copy, but the document itself must bear certification by the County Clerk.

Mrs. Pcraddy here, that's exactly what happened! The funny thing is we had to get a registered certified copy of our marriage license for my passport name change and we got my new passport with the certified copy returned the day before the RFE so we just popped it out of that envelope and shipped it off to USCIS. RFE's suck, but we really couldn't have asked for a better reason to get one. Avoidable though, and PCraddy wanted everyone else out there to watch out for the same stupid mistake

Our process took exactly one year - Good luck to everyone else out there! xxx

[Dr_LHA 3]

Doc, it actually sounds to me like what pcrady sent was a 'souvenir copy'.

Yeah, I didn't want to say that though.

[Joey559 1]

Doc, it actually sounds to me like what pcrady sent was a 'souvenir copy'.

Yeah, I didn't want to say that though.

No, trust me, I was never so happy to shout: "OH MAN WE'RE IDIOTS! MY FAULT!". When we saw the RFE email we thought he'd have to get another medical or they'd lost something OR even though we had plenty of finances that they wanted a co-sponsor...then to find out it's because we'd sent an unregistered copy! It cost us a little bit of time, but once they saw that registered stamp approval was in two days. Laugh all you want everyone. Now we're just hoping to get VERY VERY lucky and get Paul's greencard before we head home to the UK for a visit in two weeks. It'd be nice to just hit em' with the greencard then have to use AP, but we aren't holding our breath.

It's blizzard conditions in our corner of Michigan and I'm still a happy camper!

[Benj42 0]

Arg, I sent the wrong copy, and was just notified with an RFE Unfortunately, I live in HK, so shipping takes a bit longer too. Anyways, glad to read this post. I was a little confused because the RFE said that I needed the "page and book number" for where it was registered at the county clerk. I don't see that on my certified copy, but it does have the stamp and clerk's signature. That should be what is required right?