RFE - Marriage Certificate - Confused and Worried

[magicalunicornpee 1]

Hey everyone,

So in our RFE is requesting that we...

"Submit the marriage certificate for the marriage of Lyndsie and Steve. The marriage certificate must be issued by the government agency authorized to issue the document. For immigration purposes, the marriage must have been registered with the government agency authorized to register marriages from the location where the marriage took place. The marriage certificate must have the seal of the issuing office, date of registration, and signature of registrar."

We did a self uniting marriage in Philadelphia. We submitted a certified copy of our marriage certificate with our I-485 that was sent from where we registered our wedding. The first page shows a copy of our signed marriage license and then is certified by an assistant clerk that the copy is true and accurate. The second page then includes our marriage record (on the marriage record it has the signature of the assistant clerk who recorded our information and also the date we applied for the marriage license). The raised seal of Philadelphia Count Orphan's Court (where our marriage is registered) is on both pages.

Is this not good enough for them and I need to send in an exemplified copy? Are they confused that we married ourselves (which is legal in PA because of William Penn and the Quakers)? I just don't know what they want from us, we already sent in a certified copy.

Thanks in advance.

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Sounds like they may be confused about the "marrying yourselves" part. Send the certificates again with documents that explain your type of ceremony.

[magicalunicornpee 1]

Sounds like they may be confused about the "marrying yourselves" part. Send the certificates again with documents that explain your type of ceremony.

What sort of documents that explain? Does it need to be something stated and signed from the court? Or is it as easy as printing something off the internet and attaching an explaination?

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

It is registered with the court, yes? Can you not get a certified marriage certificate from your court's record office? Send that.

[magicalunicornpee 1]

It is registered with the court, yes? Can you not get a certified marriage certificate from your court's record office? Send that.

It is registered with the people it needs to be in Philadelphia (register of wills and orphans court). I even looked up the marriage record in the marriage record locator and it's there. On the order form for marriage certificates copy it says either certified or exemplified. I have sent in a certified copy already so the only other option is an exemplified copy.

Edited October 3, 2016 by magicalunicornpee

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

It is definitely on record, so then I would order the exemplified one and send it this time.

[magicalunicornpee 1]

It is definitely on record, so then I would order the exemplified one and send it this time.

That's what I was thinking. I tried to see if Philadelphia had a note or anything stating it was a legally binding marriage but the guy said to have them call and "he'd sort them out." I was thinking about just adding a note to the RFE cover letter stating that self-uniting marriages are legally recognized the same as officiated marriages in Pennsylvania and if they had any questions to call Philadelphia Marriage Records ###. Does that sound ok? Or do you think I should include any more information?