USCIS approved Ukrainian divorce certificate

[Rayandrina 1]

Hello everyone! Recently we have gotten an RFE from Uscis about my fiancés divorce certificate. She is from Ukraine and the divorce certificates are processed different here than USA. She has been married twice. Once in Ukraine and once in Russia. The certificates look the same, but they need clarification on the Ukrainian divorce. My fiancé says that what we sent to them is the only thing she can get because they do not get divorced in a court unless there are children or property involved. Weird thing is her Russian marriage was after the Ukrainian marriage so it would have been legally terminated to be allowed to marry in Russia later. Has anyone had this issue and how was it resolved? Thanks in advance. 

[Ksenia_O 696]

44 minutes ago, Rayandrina said:

Hello everyone! Recently we have gotten an RFE from Uscis about my fiancés divorce certificate. She is from Ukraine and the divorce certificates are processed different here than USA. She has been married twice. Once in Ukraine and once in Russia. The certificates look the same, but they need clarification on the Ukrainian divorce. My fiancé says that what we sent to them is the only thing she can get because they do not get divorced in a court unless there are children or property involved. Weird thing is her Russian marriage was after the Ukrainian marriage so it would have been legally terminated to be allowed to marry in Russia later. Has anyone had this issue and how was it resolved? Thanks in advance. 

She needs to go to ZAGS  where her "Ukrainian" marriage took place and request a Record of a civilian state of a citizen. It's "official" and verified by Department of Justice of Ukraine. The document will have her name before marriage (last name), date of marriage, last name after marriage, date of marriage was terminated and the last name after marriage. 

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Ksenia_O

[Rayandrina 1]

11 minutes ago, Ksenia_O said:

She needs to go to ZAGS  where her "Ukrainian" marriage took place and request a Record of a civilian state of a citizen. It's "official" and verified by Department of Justice of Ukraine. The document will have her name before marriage (last name), date of marriage, last name after marriage, date of marriage was terminated and the last name after marriage. 

 

Thank you for replying so fast! She never changed her last name in any marriage. Her ex husband took her last name and still goes by the same last name. 

[Ksenia_O 696]

6 minutes ago, Rayandrina said:

Thank you for replying so fast! She never changed her last name in any marriage. Her ex husband took her last name and still goes by the same last name. 

You are very welcome 

The document will  indicate the name before &after anyway.. even if it stayed the same

[Ksenia_O 696]

Here is the picture how the document looks like.  "Витяг з Державного реєстру актів цивільного стану громадян". 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Ksenia_O

[Rayandrina 1]

9 minutes ago, Ksenia_O said:

Here is the picture how the document looks like.  "Витяг з Державного реєстру актів цивільного стану громадян". 

Awesome! Ours looks like this.

[Ksenia_O 696]

yeah... just a regular "not-through-court"  divorce certificate, issued by local ZAGS.

 

So, yes, to addition to the certificate she just needs to request another Document, A Record of a civilian state of a citizen. 

 

In the example I've posted the exact name of the Document she needs, on Ukrainian - it will help her to file a request  properly.

 

Besides, her passport was supposed to be stamped after divorce... You can submit a copy of her passport, including "divorce stamped" page.. 

Edited April 3, 2018 by Ksenia_O

[CM&KV 72]

Now I'm a bit worried, my husband was divorced from Ukraine, an his Ex sent us a copy copy of her certificate, she plans on mailing it to us soon.  

 

This is what ours looks like.... it does have both before divoirce last of her and him names and afterwards. He was divorced in 2007. He thinks in his old passport he hasthe stamp that says he is divorced.

[Rayandrina 1]

8 hours ago, Ksenia_O said:

yeah... just a regular "not-through-court"  divorce certificate, issued by local ZAGS.

 

So, yes, to addition to the certificate she just needs to request another Document, A Record of a civilian state of a citizen. 

 

In the example I've posted the exact name of the Document she needs, on Ukrainian - it will help her to file a request  properly.

 

Besides, her passport was supposed to be stamped after divorce... You can submit a copy of her passport, including "divorce stamped" page.. 

Thank you so much again for this! We are gathering documents today. Did you have this problem?

[Rayandrina 1]

7 hours ago, CM&KV said:

Now I'm a bit worried, my husband was divorced from Ukraine, an his Ex sent us a copy copy of her certificate, she plans on mailing it to us soon.  

 

This is what ours looks like.... it does have both before divoirce last of her and him names and afterwards. He was divorced in 2007. He thinks in his old passport he hasthe stamp that says he is divorced.

I think that the difference in our case was that her ex husband changed his name last name to her last name. He never changed it back after divorce. So everything  still shows their last names to be the same. In your case she changed her last name back to her maiden name? If that's so, it should be ok. Her Russian divorce looks like the same document, but the last names changed back and we had no problems with that one. Hope this points you in the right direction. Please get more advice on this as I am no expert in this matter. 

[Ksenia_O 696]

You are welcome!

 

No, we didn't have any problems or RFEs during our I-129F/K1/K2 process .

But for some reasons I had all that paperwork collected right after my divorce.  And since I've already had it, we just submitted a copy of my passport with a divorce stamped page and a Record of civilian state of a citizen  along with  Divorce Certificate.

 

 

[CM&KV 72]

I think she kept the married name since they had a child.  My translation of the divorce certificate states vital records etc is where this paper came from. The paper was also reprinted 3 years after they had gotten a final divorce. His stamp does match when the court declared them no longer married. 

 

The sad part is, I think this document is no longer available since divorce happened in Crimea, luckily before 2014, and per USA doc site, anything issued in Crimea not by Ukraine goverment is considered invalid for marriages and divorces.

 

I guess I'll make sure my husband let me make photo copies his Ukraine passport that has this stamp and with him translate it into Russian. Hopefully that will over come the pending RFE.

 

Yes I have been trying to do research into this since last night. 

[Ksenia_O 696]

18 minutes ago, CM&KV said:

I think she kept the married name since they had a child.  My translation of the divorce certificate states vital records etc is where this paper came from. The paper was also reprinted 3 years after they had gotten a final divorce. His stamp does match when the court declared them no longer married. 

 

The sad part is, I think this document is no longer available since divorce happened in Crimea, luckily before 2014, and per USA doc site, anything issued in Crimea not by Ukraine goverment is considered invalid for marriages and divorces.

 

I guess I'll make sure my husband let me make photo copies his Ukraine passport that has this stamp and with him translate it into Russian. Hopefully that will over come the pending RFE.

 

Yes I have been trying to do research into this since last night. 

It is normal practice in Ukraine  to  keep the last name after divorce - to much paperwork you have to submit if you want your maiden name back. Interior passport, Travel document, property titles, Driver License and so on... It's a pain. And usually women just keep the last name like it is after divorce -  to not complicate their lives . 

 

To be honest, an RFE like Rayandrina has gotten... It's not something you see very often. Let's wait and see what yours is  about.. 

 

Anyway, if it's the same, when there are a lot of Services now, in Ukraine, to get the record of your Civilian status (i'm sure Crimeans are there as well, the Record comes from archives, so it should be there anyway)

 

Here is the link how to request and get the record. It's on Ukrainian, but I think your husband can read it

 

https://poslugy.gov.ua/info/service/byservicescope-16/1939/details/0/0

 

 

Good luck!!!!!

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by Ksenia_O

[Ksenia_O 696]

14 minutes ago, Ksenia_O said:

It is normal practice in Ukraine  to  keep the last name after divorce - to much paperwork you have to submit if you want your maiden name back. Interior passport, Travel document, property titles, Driver License and so on... It's a pain. And usually women just keep the last name like it is after divorce -  to not complicate their lives . 

 

To be honest, an RFE like Rayandrina has gotten... It's not something you see very often. Let's wait and see what yours is  about.. 

 

Anyway, if it's the same, when there are a lot of Services now, in Ukraine, to get the record of your Civilian status (i'm sure Crimeans are there as well, the Record comes from archives, so it should be there anyway)

 

Here is the link how to request and get the record. It's on Ukrainian, but I think your husband can read it

 

https://poslugy.gov.ua/info/service/byservicescope-16/1939/details/0/0

 

 

Good luck!!!!!

 

 

Seems like you can even get it on-line if you follow the link provided above and click on https://online.minjust.gov.ua/dokumenty/zayava/ it brings you to all kind of records you could request. Pick what you need

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by Ksenia_O

[CM&KV 72]

I'll send him those later today. He's afraid to reenter Ukraine because of him getting a Russian passport and a few other things. He'll have to see if the documents could be sent to me or sent to his 1st ex wife.

 

 

Also I'm about 3 months into i130 processing, so I have awhile before i woukd know if I got a rfe. Just tryibg to be proactive since I don't know how long it will take to get these documents

Edited April 3, 2018 by CM&KV