Marriage Certificate Question

[BMWFIRE 3]

Hello, 

 

I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer for when looking online.

 

Me and my husband have been married since 2018. We were married in Egypt and had our marriage certificate notarized while there and it is bilingual and we did everything we could find would be needed while in Egypt. However, next year will be three years that my husband has been living here in the USA with me and he will be able to file for citizenship...

 

I'm wondering if there's anything I need to do here in the United States to have our marriage certificate documented. Do I need to have anything done with the court/county clerk/etc. to have our marriage documented in the US or receive any kind of documentation from my state recognizing the marriage. Or would our foreign marriage certificate suffice as proof of marriage?

 

Very confused about this as someone had mentioned they had to receive some type of certificate from the state instead of just their foreign marriage certificate and I can't find anything about this when searching online. 

 

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

[Dashinka 24,492]

Shouldn't be an issue.  If your marriage certificate was good enough for the I130 visa process, etc., he should be fine with the N400 process.

 

Good Luck!

[BMWFIRE 3]

5 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

Shouldn't be an issue.  If your marriage certificate was good enough for the I130 visa process, etc., he should be fine with the N400 process.

 

Good Luck!

Thank you.

Did you go through a similar process? Someone here in my state mentioned something about having to do that and I had never heard of it before and Im not even sure if I would even be able to obtain something from my local court since the marriage didn't happen in the states.

[Mike E 11,739]

6 minutes ago, BMWFIRE said:

Do I need to have anything done with the court/county clerk/etc. to have our marriage documented in the US or receive any kind of documentation from my state recognizing the marriage.

No. And if you did that and if he submitted that document with N-400, because it would be dated in 2023 and not 2020 or earlier, there is a risk N-400 would be denied. Or worse.

 

6 minutes ago, BMWFIRE said:

 

Or would our foreign marriage certificate suffice as proof of marriage?

With  a certified translation to English, it suffices.  
 

I  advise you to  review the I-130 you filed for your husband and submit the same marriage certificate and certified translation you  submitted with I-130. If it was good enough for I-130, it will be good enough for N-400.

6 minutes ago, BMWFIRE said:

 

Very confused about this as someone had mentioned they had to receive some type of certificate from the state instead of just their foreign marriage certificate and I can't find anything about this when searching online.

Some people have had trouble with state drivers license and ID  agencies using their foreign marriage certificate as a lawful change of name document. One new immigrant was forced to re-marry in Colorado (one of the  states that allows two people married to each other to marry each other again). 
 

 

 

 

[Crazy Cat 41,844]

20 minutes ago, BMWFIRE said:

Did you go through a similar process?

My wife and I married outside the US in 2015.  Our marriage certificate was written in both Chinese and English.  Wife came to the US via a CR-1 visa in 2017.  Wife naturalized in 2023.  We never did anything to register our marriage inside the US.  Non-issue.

[BMWFIRE 3]

11 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

My wife and I married outside the US in 2015.  Our marriage certificate was written in both Chinese and English.  Wife came to the US via a CR-1 visa in 2017.  Wife naturalized in 2023.  We never did anything to register our marriage inside the US.  Non-issue.

Thank you! 

Our marriage certificate is also written in both languages, Arabic and English. I'll use the certificate we used originally during the IR-1 visa process. It's what I had originally planned on but hearing this information from someone threw me for a loop.

29 minutes ago, Mike E said:

No. And if you did that and if he submitted that document with N-400, because it would be dated in 2023 and not 2020 or earlier, there is a risk N-400 would be denied. Or worse.

 

With  a certified translation to English, it suffices.  
 

I  advise you to  review the I-130 you filed for your husband and submit the same marriage certificate and certified translation you  submitted with I-130. If it was good enough for I-130, it will be good enough for N-400.

Some people have had trouble with state drivers license and ID  agencies using their foreign marriage certificate as a lawful change of name document. One new immigrant was forced to re-marry in Colorado (one of the  states that allows two people married to each other to marry each other again). 
 

 

 

 

Thank you for that information, it definitely helps ease my worries. 

[SalishSea 17,824]

There is no central marriage registry in the United States, either on the state or federal level.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,408]

No. Married in Egypt = married worldwide.