As a muslim Indian, do you need to submit a registered marriage certificate from court or Nikahnaama is enough?

[Shaista & Aaftab 9]

Hello All,

 

I am writing this from my recent experience with CR1 visa. Me and my husband are Muslims - I am an Indian citizen and my husband is a US citizen. We only had a Nikahnaama from Qaazi at the time of submitting documents to USCIS for i130, and were afraid if it will be accepted. So we submitted some photographs from our marriage and sworn affidavits from people from India and USA who attended our wedding that happened in India. By God's grace, we never received any RFE. 

 

So, I would say that if husband and wife are both muslims and the wedding happened in India, and one of the spouses is an Indian citizen, you don't have to get your marriage registered, and can submit Nikahnaama from your Qaazi along with some sworn affidavits from wedding attendees both from USA and India. The Nikahnaama has a number on its top which the nikah committee submits to the government. You can also confirm this with your Qaazi who issue it to confirm if it gets registered with the government. Also, you don't have to worry about it at the NVC too. And also at the time of interview at US embassy in India. Our Nikahnaama was well accepted at all of these places and we did get my green card at the end of this process. Just wanted to share this information as I could find nothing when I was eagerly looking for it.

 

Also you can look at this image and this source link to confirm what I said - https://in.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/marriage/

 

Thank You!

 

P.S - This is what I am sharing from my experience and you may want to confirm from other places too as every case is different in its own.