I got a call from my lawyer today informing me that the consulate here in Toronto is "unhappy" with our marriage license. I'm not entirely clear on what the problem is, but apparently they want one with more information on it. Our marriage license/certificate is a government document issued by the state of Texas and it is the ONLY type of marriage document they issue. I called the county clerk's office where it's filed to double check. There is no more information to give them. The license has a raised seal and is signed by the judge who married us. I really don't know what the problem is. Perhaps they think it's a fake or don't think they can verify that it really belongs to us?

Has anyone ever had issue come up? How did you handle it? It seems odd to me that the US consulate would have problems with a genuine marriage certificate from the state of Texas. Have they never seen one before?

Thanks,
Robin

I think I would contact my lawyer and find out exactly what they are unhappy about. You cannot fix something if you don't know what the problem is.

He hasn't mentioned specifics, just that they want more information and an official government document. I've explained many times that this is an official government document, and given that it includes my full name, my husband's full name, the date we were married, the place we were married, who married us, and the date the certificate was filed with the county, I can't imagine what other information they could possibly need. His suggestion was to get the county clerk's office to write a letter stating that this is the only marriage certificate they have. The county clerk's office is obviously not really inclined to want to do that, although the person I talked to was very nice and didn't refuse. They're just as confused as I am, honestly. I can fix a mistake I made, but I don't really know how to fix someone else being uninformed.

Thanks for the response, though. I was just wondering if anyone else had run into this kind of issue before. I know it's a little bit like comparing apples to oranges, but the CIC didn't question the certificate when we got my PR card, so I'm a bit baffled by the consulate questioning it.

I would take a big box of chocolates into the judges office and let the woman at the desk know you reallly appreicate her taking some time to help you. Get her to write a letter, get teh judge to write a letter, get the witnesses to write you a letter. Even though what people want sometimes is crazy, its generally better if you just do it. It's like santa claus, we really dont know, so lets just believe.
Bobbie

It sounds like the county you were in does things differently from a lot of other counties. It seems like all you've been given is your marriage license rather than what they're normally expecting to see - a marriage certificate. Is it the one you signed yourself on the day of the wedding? That's the license in most counties. Once we filed ours, the county clerk issued us a marriage certificate - which is the license copied onto a fancy schmancy piece of paper that can only be produced by the state.

I was also thinking liscense vs. certificate, and I bet it isn't certified with an official seal, hence the confusion with the consulate.

It sounds like Texas does do things differently, then. The piece of paper I have is both my license and my certificate (I called the county clerk to verify this - this is the only thing I get). When my husband and I were married, the judge filled it out and filed it. Our signatures are nowhere on it (and nowhere on it does it call for our signatures). We didn't sign anything when we got married. What we have now is what the county clerk sent to us after we were married. It does have an official seal on it. I could understand the consulate having a problem with something without a seal, or with a license instead of a certificate (because obviously having a license doesn't mean you actually did get married), but this is our certificate. This is what I always thought, and I've double checked with the county clerk, my parents, a lawyer, and a judge...if we're all mistaken, I'm really going to feel like an idiot, but I don't think we are!

I spoke to the judge who married us and he's going to write a notarized letter stating that he did marry us and that this is what a marriage certificate in Texas looks like, and attach it to another copy of our certificate. Hopefully that will clear all this up. Like I said before, I'm just shocked that the US consulate doesn't realize that this is what a Texas marriage certificate looks like.

While it isn't the same, when I went for my K-1 interview in Montreal I brought with me my husband's divorce documents issued from Texas for his first marriage. It was the official document, like yours, with the raised seal, but the interviewer looked at it kind of strange and said it didn't look right. My heart was in my mouth as he said he needed to consult with his colleages about it. Considering my husband had re-married after that and I had also provided his subsequent divorce document - which they had no problems with - I was perplexed why they would have problems with the first document. About 20 minutes later he came back and said one of his colleagues had seen one of these before and said it was legitimate so they would accept it. There must be something about Texas documents that are not familiar to Consulate personnel in Canada. Good luck in getting your situation resolved - I think the letter from your judge will definitely help.

Hi Starr

My wife and I were married in Harris County, Texas (Houston) and had a marriage certificate that was certified from the county clerk office. We left the original certificate in Texas and presented our certified copy to the consulate in Vancouver without any problems. Our marriage certificate has 2 sides, a front and back, and we made sure we provided copies of both sides of our certificate. We were married in a church, so we had the signature of the minister who married us. Like you, I don't remember signing the actual marriage certificate. We had to sign the marriage license, but it just has our names on the marriage certificate. Not sure why Toronto consulate doesn't like your document......

cheers,
matt

Just to update, we got a letter from the Travis County Clerk's office indicating that this was the only document they had to release and that the only personal identifiers on it were the names of the bride and groom. We gave that to our lawyer on Friday and he just called this morning saying that the consulate was satisfied and our interview (this is for the I-130) is tomorrow morning!

wow good you fix it so fast....good luck at the interview

Great news! Good luck at your interview!

Nice save...Good lick on the interview!