Denied CRBA and passport unrecognized marriage

[Lemonslice 4,968]

On 6/19/2017 at 2:41 PM, jan22 said:

First, the transmission requirements can differ for a child born in versus out of wedlock, so it is a legal factor when adjudicating a CRBA (although usually only has an effect when the mother is the US citizen).  The adjudication needs to document under what section of the law citizenship was transmitted.   It (marital status) needs to be legally accurate in order to reflect the proper section of US law under which the child received citizenship. 

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If that is the case, i.e., that Malaysia does not recognize you as having legally married in Malaysia, neither does the US government.  A marriage must be legal in the country in which it occurred for US government purposes.  If so, the CRBA application should reflect that your child was born outside wedlock.  

Read these parts again.

[jan22 3,064]

2 hours ago, Stanly said:

Is there a way to register my marriage with the U.S government while abroad or if I return to the U.S by myself? With a U.S marriage certificate, they cannot deny the CRBA and passport.

No.  Marriage is a state, not federal, function.  You also cannot register it at the state level.  They can only document marriages that were performed in that state.

 

And, back to the initial issue.  Okay, your Kenyan marriage certificate was issued in Kenya.  But, neither you nor your were in Kenya and the marriage occurred in Malaysia,  right?  If so, for it to bring a valid marriage for US government orocesses, it needs to be recognized as a legal marriage in the country where the marriage occured.  You need to find out if Malaysia recognizes your Ma look aysian marriage as a legal marriage.  If so, such MIT that documentation for the CRBA process.  If not, the application should reflect that the child was born outside of a legally documented marriage.  

There is no way that doing this would in any way invalidate your Kenyan marriage certificate...Kenya will never know, unless you tell them.  It is already invalid as far as the US government is concerned, if it is not legally recognized in Malaysia, where the marriage occurred.