Just filed 130 and I have some questions

[JamesBz 7]

     I just filed the i130 online for my wife in the Philippines. I had a lot of supporting evidence such as family pictures, pictures from the wedding, joint bank account documents, screen shots of Facebook chats, pics with the judge who solemnized our marriage, gifts from the wedding made out to both of us, and letters from third parties saying that they were at our wedding and we are in an ongoing and loving relationship.

     Here is the dilemma. In the section where it asks: "How many times have you been married? Include all annulled marriages, marriages to other people, and marriages to the same person." I put that I was married twice because my wife and I had two ceremonies one civil and one in the church. But in legal terms I guess we only got married once and the other was a religious ceremony. The first ceremony was in the Catholic Church but we did not register that wedding with the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority). The second ceremony was a civil ceremony where we got married in the local municipal hall in which the marriage was solemnized by a judge. We registered the civil ceremony with the PSA because we wanted to fast track the documents to be able to file the i130 ASAP. I read somewhere that the first marriage is the legal one however we didn't register the church ceremony we registered the civil ceremony.

     Is there a chance we will run into RFE's because I put we married twice to each other? Is there a possibilty of my petition to be denied because of this? Or did I answer the question correctly? Should I type up a service request for a typo and put that we only got married once and explain that one wedding was a religious ceremony and the civil wedding is the actual legal wedding that was registered with the Philippine Statistics Authority?? Help please and thanks. 

 

     

Edited April 29, 2022 by JamesBz

[.yana 598]

(In the eyes of the USCIS Officer): Presumably if you were married more than once - you got at least one divorce / annulment. I would expect an RFE for a divorce decree.

Hopefully I’m wrong and more knowledgeable VJ users will chime in. 

[PrinceChisom 39]

2 hours ago, JamesBz said:

     I just filed the i130 online for my wife in the Philippines. I had a lot of supporting evidence such as family pictures, pictures from the wedding, joint bank account documents, screen shots of Facebook chats, pics with the judge who solemnized our marriage, gifts from the wedding made out to both of us, and letters from third parties saying that they were at our wedding and we are in an ongoing and loving relationship.

     Here is the dilemma. In the section where it asks: "How many times have you been married? Include all annulled marriages, marriages to other people, and marriages to the same person." I put that I was married twice because my wife and I had two ceremonies one civil and one in the church. But in legal terms I guess we only got married once and the other was a religious ceremony. The first ceremony was in the Catholic Church but we did not register that wedding with the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority). The second ceremony was a civil ceremony where we got married in the local municipal hall in which the marriage was solemnized by a judge. We registered the civil ceremony with the PSA because we wanted to fast track the documents to be able to file the i130 ASAP. I read somewhere that the first marriage is the legal one however we didn't register the church ceremony we registered the civil ceremony.

     Is there a chance we will run into RFE's because I put we married twice to each other? Is there a possibilty of my petition to be denied because of this? Or did I answer the question correctly? Should I type up a service request for a typo and put that we only got married once and explain that one wedding was a religious ceremony and the civil wedding is the actual legal wedding that was registered with the Philippine Statistics Authority?? Help please and thanks. 

 

     

I think service request for the typo is the way to go. 

[arken 4,197]

Very likely you would get an RFE for the termination documents of your marriage no. 1 that never happened. Hopefully, your response with clarification at the time will get accepted by the uscis. You married only once, all ceremonies are not marriage.

[JamesBz 7]

So I probably should just go ahead and do a service Request for a typo online and explain my mistake?

[Crazy Cat 42,683]

21 minutes ago, JamesBz said:

So I probably should just go ahead and do a service Request for a typo online and explain my mistake?

You can try, but be prepared for a big, big mess.  USCIS is very strict when they see multiple marriages.   They will, likely, issue an RFE for prior marriage termination documents.  I would also prepare for an extended processing time if you entered multiple marriages for your spouse.  This will likely trigger a lot of research to see if she indicated other marriages on previous visa applications, etc.  Good luck.  I hope I am wrong. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[JamesBz 7]

Well I did explain in the “other information” section that we had 2 ceremonies one civil and one in the church but the registered wedding is the civil wedding. I guess my ignorance is to blame here on what a “marriage”consists of. I was wondering if anyone else went through this or something similar. The thing that got me paranoid is I put that we were married twice to each other. 😣

Edited April 29, 2022 by JamesBz

[Crazy Cat 42,683]

4 minutes ago, JamesBz said:

Well I did explain in the “other information” section that we had 2 ceremonies one civil and one in the church but the registered wedding is the civil wedding. I guess my ignorance is to blame here on what a “marriage”consists of. I was wondering if anyone else went through this or something similar. The thing that got me paranoid is I put that we were married twice to each other. 😣

Hopefully, they will read that information. There is a difference between a marriage and a ceremony or celebration.  Good luck. 

[arken 4,197]

2 hours ago, JamesBz said:

So I probably should just go ahead and do a service Request for a typo online and explain my mistake?

I don't think they will change the data on your application based on the service request but doesn't hurt to try.

[randy32 165]

Since you were married to the same person, am guessing both events happened about the same time (maybe a few weeks apart), You should use the date of the event on the certificate.

 

This happens a lot in some African countries where they have traditional, court and church weddings.

 

Even though the traditional does not issue a certificate, it is usually the most important. Then the court or church wedding is done and that usually issues a certificate.

[JamesBz 7]

5 hours ago, randy32 said:

Since you were married to the same person, am guessing both events happened about the same time (maybe a few weeks apart), You should use the date of the event on the certificate.

 

This happens a lot in some African countries where they have traditional, court and church weddings.

 

Even though the traditional does not issue a certificate, it is usually the most important. Then the court or church wedding is done and that usually issues a certificate.

Yes both events happened about a week apart. Also for our marriage date I did use the date on the registered certificate. I just have to put it in God’s hands and have faith. Thank you all for your replies. It’s really helping me get some peace of mind.

[JamesBz 7]

9 hours ago, Crazy Cat said:

You can try, but be prepared for a big, big mess.  USCIS is very strict when they see multiple marriages.   They will, likely, issue an RFE for prior marriage termination documents.  I would also prepare for an extended processing time if you entered multiple marriages for your spouse.  This will likely trigger a lot of research to see if she indicated other marriages on previous visa applications, etc.  Good luck.  I hope I am wrong. 

Well worst case scenario im hoping they don’t deny my application. 

[JamesBz 7]

10 hours ago, arken said:

Very likely you would get an RFE for the termination documents of your marriage no. 1 that never happened. Hopefully, your response with clarification at the time will get accepted by the uscis. You married only once, all ceremonies are not marriage.

I did explain in the “other information” section that we we had two ceremonies one in the church and one in the court. But we only registered the wedding in the court. I really hope the USCIS officer will habe some common sense ugh