REAL problem - NO idea what to do now....

[Melyssa 0]

Quick update for anyone who is interested, or in the same situation.

I called the reporter who wrote the article. He said what happened in that one case is that the woman decided she didn't want to be married anymore, and didn't want to go through a divorce. She got it taken to court and the marriage invalidated. In order words, she used a problem in the system to her advantage. I don't know any more about, and am not judging her.

I called my lawyer, and he doesn't know (yet) what to do. Seems this issue is a big tangled web right now, and legislation is pending to do something about it.

We even drove to the courthouse to talk with people there, including their solicitor. (Not sure exactly what that means, but she seemed to be the right person, and that's what my lawyer recommended) Check this out - Pennsylvania does not allow people who are licensed over the internet (without a regular congregation or place of worship) to legally perform marriages, YET they also do not require the counties to check to verify the legitimacy of the person who performs the ceremonies. The solicitor at Delaware County Courthouse told us that this affects thousands of couples, many of them unaware of the problem. I asked her if we could get 're-married'. Here's the really incredible part. She said they cannot issue us a marriage license since we are on record there as already being married. But she also said our marriage might not be valid. She said the only way to issue us a new marriage license is if we get divorced first! She recommended I call our state representative.

I called the state representative from the car. The lady there said to send email, but it sounds like there's not a whole lot they can do right now. She recommended that I contact a different state representative. So I'll have to do that too.

In the meantime, we are in the process of buying a house, and don't know how this will affect that either............

tearing my hair out.....

That is so weird. Well... you have the marriage certificate so it seems like that makes you married (the state considers you as such)? You have the green card and everything that says you are married. I'm not sure what the answer to this is though. Confusing! It seems like the laws are just a bit messed up, and maybe their fault for not making it clear? But I really don't know makes me relieved that we went with a judge! I would hate to wake up one day and find out that maybe we are not officially married.

[Roy&katy 1]

Well i think you are fine with nothing to worry about. Some people dont even get married by ministers, they use justice of peace, or anyone like that. And also you can get married in another country and they will recognize it.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Well i think you are fine with nothing to worry about. Some people dont even get married by ministers, they use justice of peace, or anyone like that. And also you can get married in another country and they will recognize it.

Indeed. I'd leave it alone. This is just a hunch, but I think you could be creating problems for yourself when it appears that your immigration journey was pretty smooth.

I think that the important thing re: USCIS is that you believed that you were entering into a valid marriage. They have enough to do without combing newspapers to see if someone may have been married by an unofficial officiant. It looks as if all the relevant parties consider you married, so I'd leave it.

[venusfire503 54]

I asked my lawyer about getting married in another state or country in case our original marriage is considered invalid. Here's the reply:

"The only problem with doing the marriage again is it is a tacit admission the first marriage was no good. I truly believe the only persons who could ever really raise the issue would be you and your husband. I don’t think any other person would ever even think to challenge the validity. You certainly could apply for another marriage license in another state. Then again, what would you put for your current status? Again, I could talk to the solicitor for Del Co to see what can be done. I think the legislature is going to have to create a patch to address the situation."

Well, I wonder if we had gone ahead and had a ceremony in my husband's country between the time we got married here, and the time I found out about this article (something we had actually discussed - we just haven't been able to go back there so far). I think it's not unusual for people to do that, especially since it's so difficult to get a visa (from some countries), and expensive for people to travel to the US for a wedding. I did talk to the solicitor in Delaware County courthouse, and she said we can't get a marriage license since we already got and used one. But she also told me that they don't have any system in place to ensure that the people who perform weddings in PA are actually allowed to do so. Now that they are aware of the problem, (I was told that) they are giving people a paper that explains who is legally allowed to perform ceremonies. Too late for us. She didn't have any answers for us - no way to resolve this. She just suggested we get legal counsel. She said the only way we could get another marriage license would be to divorce each other first, and then we could get remarried by someone legitimate.

What it seems to boil down to is: we (and other couples) have fallen into a crack in the system, and so far no one really knows what will be decided about it. It sounds like the best thing I can do is try to stop worrying about it until something is decided, then do whatever needs to be done.

Sigh........