I-130 Marriage Certificate Woes NZ

[mriggs 40]

Hi there,

My wife received a request for additional evidence pertaining to our marriage certificate. We sent through what we thought was an official marriage certificate in the initial I-130, but it turns out we submitted the wrong thing.

We got a copy of our marriage certificate, however the request for additional evidence states it must be signed by the issuing registrar. This (as far as we can tell) doesn't happen in New Zealand. In calling up the Births, Deaths and Marriages office in New Zealand, they told us that marriage certificates issued by them do not get signed by anyone, and there is no facility to do so.

Calling USCIS for advice was no help, they told us they are unable to provide advice for documents.

We're happy to send in the certificate we have, but as the due date for the additional evidence is rapidly approaching, we don't want to send in a document that doesn't precisely meet the requirements for fear of it being rejected.

Does anyone have any experience with 'unsigned' marriage certificates?

[Merrytooth 5,748]

Assuming you got married in New Zealand,

https://www.govt.nz/browse/family-and-whanau/getting-married/get-a-marriage-certificate/

If you’ll use your marriage certificate overseas

You may need to get an apostille or authentication certificate for your birth certificate, or have it translated into another language.

https://www.govt.nz/browse/nz-passports-and-citizenship/proving-and-protecting-your-identity/authenticating-official-documents-for-use-overseas/

If you need to use a New Zealand-issued document (like your birth certificate) overseas, foreign officials may ask you to get an 'apostille', 'authentication' or 'legalisation' certificate. These are standard certificates issued by the government that prove your document is authentic.

Do you think the above will help to prove your marriage certificate is authentic?

[JFH 12,189]

*~*~*moved from "bringing Family Members of USCs" to Australia and New Zealand regional discussion as question pertains to the format of New Zealand marriage certificates*~*~*

[mriggs 40]

Assuming you got married in New Zealand,

https://www.govt.nz/browse/family-and-whanau/getting-married/get-a-marriage-certificate/

If you’ll use your marriage certificate overseas

You may need to get an apostille or authentication certificate for your birth certificate, or have it translated into another language.

https://www.govt.nz/browse/nz-passports-and-citizenship/proving-and-protecting-your-identity/authenticating-official-documents-for-use-overseas/

If you need to use a New Zealand-issued document (like your birth certificate) overseas, foreign officials may ask you to get an 'apostille', 'authentication' or 'legalisation' certificate. These are standard certificates issued by the government that prove your document is authentic.

Do you think the above will help to prove your marriage certificate is authentic?

Thanks for that. I'm not entirely sure if it will help or not, as far as I can tell it still won't precisely meet the requirements of a signed marriage certificate. I will try our US Consulate to see if they can shine some light on the issue.

[TarKenkari 22]

Hi @mriggs

 

Did you get an answer on this? Did you have to get a signed/apostilled marriage certificate?

 

I'm a fellow Kiwi going through the I-130 process now myself.

[mriggs 40]

4 hours ago, TarKenkari said:

Hi @mriggs

 

Did you get an answer on this? Did you have to get a signed/apostilled marriage certificate?

 

I'm a fellow Kiwi going through the I-130 process now myself.

Hey there.

So what we ended up doing is ordering a copy of our marriage certificate from Births Deaths and Marriages, made copies, and took it to our district court where the court registrar signed and certified them as copies. No further request for evidence after that, so it must of been enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[TarKenkari 22]

hmm, good to know, did you apply for the I-130 from NZ and goto a NZ court to get the certification?

 

We submitted our I-130 with a photocopy of the official certificate from Birth Death and Marriages. We had planned to submit the original at the consulate interview in Auckland.

 

Will be interesting to see if USCIS request the same.

 

Thanks

[mriggs 40]

18 minutes ago, TarKenkari said:

hmm, good to know, did you apply for the I-130 from NZ and goto a NZ court to get the certification?

 

We submitted our I-130 with a photocopy of the official certificate from Birth Death and Marriages. We had planned to submit the original at the consulate interview in Auckland.

 

Will be interesting to see if USCIS request the same.

 

Thanks

Yeah, we applied from NZ and went to a NZ court. I think you'll probably be fine, the majority of the confusion came from us originally submitting our 'Copy of Particulars of Marriage' in place of an actual marriage certificate. We didn't actually know they were seperate things, we'd always used the copy of particulars for everything that required a 'marriage certificate' and never had a problem!

Edited June 21, 2017 by mriggs