Marriage certificate retrospective date (Nepal)

[SanjivJivan 1]

Hey everyone.

I have a question about creating a marriage certificate here in Nepal. I applied for my husband to come on a k1 visa before but he was denied because we had a traditional marriage. ( I did not know it was an issue for k1- was given bad advice...) We still didn't have a marriage certificate but now are registering it so I can petition a cr1 for him.

 

My question is about what kind of marriage certificate we need to make and whether we should put the retrospective date we had our small wedding almost 3 years ago. There are two levels of government offices known as the vdc and cdo here. I need to go to the cdo of my husband's district now. The certificate is written such that the date of marriage is written separate from the registry date. My instinct is to put the date of our wedding 3 years ago while the registry date would be sometime this month.  I am guessing that is the correct method but thought I would check here.

 

I don't know if it is even possible to make a retrospective marriage certificate like that in other countries, but I assume it is understood by the US since many can and do immigrate from Nepal.

 

And if so, does that make ours a cr1 or ir1 application? Does the marriage "count from our wedding date or the registered date?

 

It seems quite important for the application since the K1 denial earlier this year was due to having had our small wedding, which I fully disclosed even in the USCIS stage. And of course the interview will be conducted at the same embassy in Kathmandu, where they are obviously aware of our K1 situation.

[Crazy Cat 42,547]

I would obtain a marriage certificate with the original date (3 years ago) if possible.  This would have huge benefits regarding the spousal visa since your husband would immediately qualify for a 10 year Green Card instead of a 2 year conditional one.  However, I don't know if that is possible in Nepal. 

When my wife and I were married in Taiwan in 2015, we had the ceremony on July 27th.  However, due to a law, our marriage was considered official on the date we registered it 3 days later.

Good Luck.

Edited July 6, 2018 by missileman

[Mmagic 127]

Nepal has some strict laws when it comes to marriage. You are corrects, you should go to the CDO who is the chief district officer your husband's district. They are to ones to guide you through the process of getting the correct dates and the certificate. 

[Ryan H 3,834]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[pushbrk 13,174]

I don't think it is going to be as simple as you think.  Considering you filed a petition as unmarried and free to marry, to NOW send documentation indicating you actually WERE married when you said you were not, can bite you.  Also, there is a proper procedure for registering a marriage in Nepal.  If you do not follow it (might require another trip and an actual marriage under the law instead of registering a prior marriage) you will simply fail again.  Take a close look at all including the last actual bullet point that has a paragraph of information.

 

Marriage Certificates        

• Available/Unavailable: Available
• Fees: The VDC, municipality, sub-metropolitan office or metropolitan office charge fees at their discretion.
• Document Name: Marriage Registration Certificate
• Issuing Authority:  Marriage Certificates (in case of social marriage) should be obtained from the concerned VDC or municipality. A marriage certificate in the case of civil marriage can be obtained only at the Chief District Office (CDO).
• Special Seal(s) / Color / Format: There are several valid formats of typewritten, handwritten, or hybrid (typewritten and handwritten) marriage certificates, generally marked with the black-and-white rubber seal or color self–ink stamp of the issuing authority.  The different formats are widely divergent because marriage certificates are issued by four different types of offices in each of Nepal’s 75 districts.  Some marriage certificates are in English, some are in Nepali, and some are in both languages.  There is no single special seal, color, or format that is uniform across all Nepali marriage certificates.  Even the orientation of Nepali marriage certificates (landscape versus portrait) varies.
• Issuing Authority Personnel Title: VDC secretary, local registrar, administrator, or chief administrator.
• Registration Criteria: A man and woman seeking to marry must submit an application in the prescribed format at least fifteen days prior to their marriage. At least one member of the couple must have resided in the registration area for at least fifteen days prior to submitting the application.
• Procedure for Obtaining: Registrants must print the required form using the link below and submit it to the appropriate municipality or VDC registrar’s office for processing.  The forms are available online at kathmandu.gov.np.
• In order for a Nepali citizen to enter into a legal marriage in Nepal with a U.S. citizen, U.S. Local Permanent Resident, Refugee, or Asylee, the Nepali citizen must first obtain an Affidavit of Eligibility to Marry (also known as a “no objection letter”), which the applicant must submit with the Marriage Certificate Application Form to the CDO in his/her home district, or in the district where the marriage will occur.  An Affidavit of Eligibility is available at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu at the cost of 50 United States dollars or the equivalent in Nepali rupees.  Please see the following site for additional details: https://np.usembassy.gov/.  The CDO will also require witnesses to execute affidavits confirming that the parties are free to marry.  It takes a minimum of 15 working days for the CDO to process the application and issue a marriage certificate.
• Certified Copies Available: No
• Alternate Documents: N/A
• Exceptions: N/A
• Comments: N/A

[Jojo92122 1,924]

You filed a K1 claiming you were single.  Meanwhile, you had a traditional marriage.  From that marriage, you had a marriage certificate that you never filed?   Is that correct? 

[SanjivJivan 1]

I filed a k1 application. We had a sindur ceremony but never any marriage certificate. I felt more comfortable filing a fiance visa, and actually did not wish to legally marry in Nepal. I wanted to do so in the US. But now that the k1 was rejected on those grounds, I am ready to register our marriage. 

 

I have lived in Nepal for a long time (~6 years) so I am pretty familiar with the government offices, but get confused about the details.

 

I am willing to register our marriage from July 2018, but I don't know if the CDO office will be willing to do that. I am guessing they will recomend registering the other date. Workers in the govt. offices can be pushy and downright rude here (e.g. refusing to write the name I chose for our son on his birth certificate).

 

I am thinking it might be wise to contact the embassy and hopefully get something in writing to verify that they were truthfully informed of our traditional ceremony, and it is being registered from this month for the purpose of the spousal visa application.

 

Trust me, I realize it is a delicate matter, and I don't want to do the wrong thing!

 

Honestly I wasn't considering myself truly, legally married, but the embassy in Kathmandu considered us so, hence the denial. Perhaps it would be better to insist our marriage be registered only from the date we visit the CDO now...?

[pushbrk 13,174]

7 hours ago, SanjivJivan said:

I filed a k1 application. We had a sindur ceremony but never any marriage certificate. I felt more comfortable filing a fiance visa, and actually did not wish to legally marry in Nepal. I wanted to do so in the US. But now that the k1 was rejected on those grounds, I am ready to register our marriage. 

 

I have lived in Nepal for a long time (~6 years) so I am pretty familiar with the government offices, but get confused about the details.

 

I am willing to register our marriage from July 2018, but I don't know if the CDO office will be willing to do that. I am guessing they will recomend registering the other date. Workers in the govt. offices can be pushy and downright rude here (e.g. refusing to write the name I chose for our son on his birth certificate).

 

I am thinking it might be wise to contact the embassy and hopefully get something in writing to verify that they were truthfully informed of our traditional ceremony, and it is being registered from this month for the purpose of the spousal visa application.

 

Trust me, I realize it is a delicate matter, and I don't want to do the wrong thing!

 

Honestly I wasn't considering myself truly, legally married, but the embassy in Kathmandu considered us so, hence the denial. Perhaps it would be better to insist our marriage be registered only from the date we visit the CDO now...?

By my read, you cannot register your marriage as taking place on a date prior to having undertaken the first step in the legal marriage process.

 

Strange as it may seem, the Consulate may well not have considered you "legally married", at least not legally married enough for a spouse visa.  But, the considered you "too married" for a fiancee visa.  This happens quite frequently.  Sounds like you are (as of this date) too married for one visa and not married enough for the other.

[Jojo92122 1,924]

Go back and get marry legally.  That's the simple solution.

 

A late registration would make you a liar for the K1.

 

By going back and getting marry now , you satisfy the embassy wanting you to file for a spousal visa and you not giving them a backdated marriage certificate that shows you lied on the K1.

 

[SanjivJivan 1]

Just an update. We have been issued a marriage certificate registered on yesterday's date from the gavisa office. It states we were married "sanskritik parampar anusar" which is to say according to cultural tradition 3 years ago. Hopefully this is no problem, because it shows we had our sindur ceremony before and registered our marriage this year. All of which is truthful. I don't foresee this being a problem, but I can only hope for the best. This is how the marriage certificate are written in his district. We were also told to get a verified English translation in addition to the English on the original certificate.