Dv 2023

[Abdl_My 0]

Quick question about the dv lottery. A friend of mine just got selected. He is in Africa and when he applied initially, he was just married traditionally and has a kid with his wife. They live together and everything but they are just traditionally married. I’m not sure if our traditional and religious marriages are recognize by US law but now that he is selected, he will get legally married but the date that will show on the certificate of marriage will be way after his initial application where he did say he was married. 
Need advice please…

[arken 4,197]

If DV was filled out as married but the marriage certificate shows marriage date much later than the DV submission date, it will be a problem for sure. Can't they get the marriage certificate based on the traditional marriage?
 

Not sure how it works in Africa. In my birth country, traditional marriages are common. One can register the marriage bunch of years or decades later but the date of marriage in the marriage certificate will still be the day they married traditionally regardless of when the certificate is issued.

[JeanneAdil 6,491]

did the person put  name of wife and the child on the dv lottery application?

 

When a marriage in accordance with the traditional practices of a religion or the customs of an ethnic tradition may be valid for U.S. immigration purposes even without having been officially registered with civil authorities.

[Abdl_My 0]

1 minute ago, JeanneAdil said:

did the person put  name of wife and the child on the dv lottery application?

 

When a marriage in accordance with the traditional practices of a religion or the customs of an ethnic tradition may be valid for U.S. immigration purposes even without having been officially registered with civil authorities.

Yes he did 

[Abdl_My 0]

29 minutes ago, arken said:

If DV was filled out as married but the marriage certificate shows marriage date much later than the DV submission date, it will be a problem for sure. Can't they get the marriage certificate based on the traditional marriage?
 

Not sure how it works in Africa. In my birth country, traditional marriages are common. One can register the marriage bunch of years or decades later but the date of marriage in the marriage certificate will still be the day they married traditionally regardless of when the certificate is issued.

That’s something that can probably be done. Thanks 

[JeanneAdil 6,491]

8 minutes ago, Abdl_My said:

Yes he did 

then he needs to make sure the marriage is registered in his country and get at least 2 originals of the document

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

5 hours ago, Abdl_My said:

Quick question about the dv lottery. A friend of mine just got selected. He is in Africa and when he applied initially, he was just married traditionally and has a kid with his wife. They live together and everything but they are just traditionally married. I’m not sure if our traditional and religious marriages are recognize by US law but now that he is selected, he will get legally married but the date that will show on the certificate of marriage will be way after his initial application where he did say he was married. 
Need advice please…

If they have some sort of proof of date of the traditional marriage they should use that. They will also need to get legally married as recognized per US law for immigration purposes.