Registration of marriage certificate

[Mekremariam 0]

We had already married in the church and got a certificate from there. As we understood it is a must to register this certificate with a government institution that has the authority to do that. But we didn't do that due to some inconveniences and decided to do this later on but soon. Now we would like to start filling out the I-130 and start the application for a spouse visa to save time in the meantime while we are going to upload the registration certificate later on being the application is in process. Does this will affect our application process? Will it prolong the decision time? We would like to get your suggestion or feedback regarding this issue, thank you in advance for your good response.

[Lil bear 4,201]

55 minutes ago, Mekremariam said:

We had already married in the church and got a certificate from there. As we understood it is a must to register this certificate with a government institution that has the authority to do that. But we didn't do that due to some inconveniences and decided to do this later on but soon. Now we would like to start filling out the I-130 and start the application for a spouse visa to save time in the meantime while we are going to upload the registration certificate later on being the application is in process. Does this will affect our application process? Will it prolong the decision time? We would like to get your suggestion or feedback regarding this issue, thank you in advance for your good response.

You need to give more information .. especially about the country of marriage, the home country of the person you married.. as the requirements for legal marriage  vary from country to country . If you do not have legal documents of your birth and marriage etc, do not file until you do .. that is simply wasting time and money.  There is no way to “ save time” except to do the process fully and  properly every step of the way. 

[Mekremariam 0]

Thank you for the replay. Yes, that is right my information was not complete. The marriage was made in Ethiopia in the church as already mentioned, I am Swedish and my my wife is a US citizen. She is going to start the application for a spouse visa now and submit the registration of the marriage certificate when it is ready.  I got this advice from one lawyer but I don't have full trust in this procedure. Does this work?

[JeanneAdil 6,505]

Ethiopian law requires that all marriages, civil, religious or customary, be registered by a competent officer of civil status who, upon registering the marriage, shall issue the spouses a “certificate of marriage.”

 

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llglrd/2019669509/2019669509.pdf

 

I think the important part here is what country will u have the interview and making sure your document is the true certificate

If possible ,  for either of u foreginers to  that country can,  i would contact the embassy to validate it.

Edited November 11, 2023 by JeanneAdil

[Pinkrlion 2,719]

You cannot file without the certificate of marriage. Starting to complete the paperwork and gathering all of your evidence while waiting for certificate is fine. 

[JeanneAdil 6,505]

They don't get the certificate until the church official has registered it 

 

competent officer of civil status who, upon registering the marriage, shall issue the spouses a “certificate of marriage.”

[pushbrk 12,883]

8 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

Ethiopian law requires that all marriages, civil, religious or customary, be registered by a competent officer of civil status who, upon registering the marriage, shall issue the spouses a “certificate of marriage.”

 

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llglrd/2019669509/2019669509.pdf

 

I think the important part here is what country will u have the interview and making sure your document is the true certificate

If possible ,  for either of u foreginers to  that country can,  i would contact the embassy to validate it.

You have correctly provided the procedure but there is not need to contact an embassy to validate.

 

I advise the petitioner not file until you have all the required documents.  Your foreign spouse does not start the visa process.  The US Citizen does that.

[TiffAndMike 54]

You have to submit every single document at the same time to USCIS.  The marriage document has to be included with the petition. And the marriage has to be legally recognized in the country in which it occurred in.  

 

Also, if your marriage certificate is in any language other than English, you have to submit a translation of it. And you are not allowed to do your own translation.  I had to have my husband's birth certificate translated. 

 

For example my husband and I were married in the US so our marriage certificate is valid here in the US.  However it would not be valid in Germany because of the Haute Convention unless we had an apostle (the secretary of state in whatever state you marry in) sign off on an additional  form. Our marriage is 100% legit and recognized in the country in which we were married so it doesn't really matter that it isn't recognized in his country. 

 

I just submitted my I-130 petition to USCIS last week. I hired an attorney to handle my case for me as there is going to be a red flag on my case due to the age gap between my husband and myself.  Anyways, if your wife would want the help, I would be more than happy to help her with all the documents she needs to gather to submit to USCIS. 

 

I'm offering help because it would be nice to have someone else to go through the process with.

Edited November 12, 2023 by TiffAndMike
Missing info

[powerpuff 6,697]

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