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Must I wait to file until after receiving marriage certificate?

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I found out once I marry my Filipina fiance in the Philippines, it will then take 3 months (according to the private officiant performing civil wedding) to receive the official certificate from the NSO. I was advised for immigration purposes, the faster municipal certificate is not enough and must have the national one. So, when I marry her, and then come home my intent would be to immediately file for the CR1 but would I have to wait the 3 months until I have the certificate first? I really hope not! Also she plans on taking my last name. For practicality, legal, and time considerations would it be better for her to change her name to mine in the Philippines before I file in which case she would have to get all new documents and passport first with her new name before I can file? Or should we just wait until she is here in the states to do that? Thanks!

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If the national certificate is necessary, then perhaps you could wait for it. In the meantime, she can get her name changed in the Philippines along with applying for new documents with her new name. I'd think that way is easier :) Good luck with the CR-1. Don't forget about other bona fide marriage evidence.

For my I-129F, K-1, AOS, EAD, AP and ROC detailed timelines, please refer to my timeline page :)

ROC filed on December 1, 2020, assigned to SRC, approved within 106 days on February 18, 2021.

My sincerest gratitude to all VJers, especially the late geowrian.

 

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5 hours ago, KULtoATL said:

If the national certificate is necessary, then perhaps you could wait for it. In the meantime, she can get her name changed in the Philippines along with applying for new documents with her new name. I'd think that way is easier :) Good luck with the CR-1. Don't forget about other bona fide marriage evidence.

Thanks. So essentially what you are saying is I won't need to actually possess the marriage certificate until the interview and no need to submit it at anytime before? As far as the evidence I will have numerous chat transcripts, screenshots, photos of us together, photos of getting married.... And even though I don't meet the income requirements my best friend is a very qualified co-sponsor who is going to do that so I hope for the best.

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@Cott789 If you are married and submitting a I-130 petition, for sure you'll have to include a copy of the marriage certificate. It is probably one of the primary evidences. Hence I was saying it's best to just wait for the national one and she also has time to get everything else changed in the meantime :) 

For my I-129F, K-1, AOS, EAD, AP and ROC detailed timelines, please refer to my timeline page :)

ROC filed on December 1, 2020, assigned to SRC, approved within 106 days on February 18, 2021.

My sincerest gratitude to all VJers, especially the late geowrian.

 

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1 minute ago, KULtoATL said:

@Cott789 If you are married and submitting a I-130 petition, for sure you'll have to include a copy of the marriage certificate. It is probably one of the primary evidences. Hence I was saying it's best to just wait for the national one and she also has time to get everything else changed in the meantime :) 

Ahh. I see. Thanks for clarifying that for me. As far as name change, you don't think that will cause mix-ups and confusions for the US govt seeing her new documents have a different name than her birth certificate? I know it sounds silly, but it is the Philippines...

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10 minutes ago, Cott789 said:

Ahh. I see. Thanks for clarifying that for me. As far as name change, you don't think that will cause mix-ups and confusions for the US govt seeing her new documents have a different name than her birth certificate? I know it sounds silly, but it is the Philippines...

I think that can be easily explained with a name change document from the government agency where she's got her name changed if there is such a documentation available. I'd suggest that she checks this with her local authority. 

For my I-129F, K-1, AOS, EAD, AP and ROC detailed timelines, please refer to my timeline page :)

ROC filed on December 1, 2020, assigned to SRC, approved within 106 days on February 18, 2021.

My sincerest gratitude to all VJers, especially the late geowrian.

 

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My advice for her to check with her local authority still stands. But I'd like to share a link I found on documents that are needed to change her name in various things in the future https://brideandbreakfast.ph/2017/01/26/here-are-the-requirements-you-need-to-change-your-last-name/  Thought that would be quite useful eventually :)

 

Another informative link http://www.mamatheexplorer.com/index.php/2017/01/19/how-to-change-your-philippine-passport-to-your-married-name/

Edited by KULtoATL

For my I-129F, K-1, AOS, EAD, AP and ROC detailed timelines, please refer to my timeline page :)

ROC filed on December 1, 2020, assigned to SRC, approved within 106 days on February 18, 2021.

My sincerest gratitude to all VJers, especially the late geowrian.

 

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Three months seems awful long. My fiance has a friend helping us that has good connections. He told me we should have it in a week. I plan to go there for 3 weeks in August, get married and make sure I put my whole package together including marriage certificate and come back home and file.

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Just now, RO_AH said:

Three months seems awful long. My fiance has a friend helping us that has good connections. He told me we should have it in a week. I plan to go there for 3 weeks in August, get married and make sure I put my whole package together including marriage certificate and come back home and file.

Well what they are saying is that you can get the municipal copy of the certificate a week or so after the wedding, but the embassy won't recognize that version. They want the one that comes from the NSO the national governments copy and that takes 3 months.

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If you post in the Philippines regional section you should get very good responses from people that have gone through the process there. In the Philippines it also has a lot to do with who you know.

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This is a very helpful click here. From what I understand it's up to the LCR to get it to the NCO. Once the info is at the NSO she can request the official certificate. Of course if your fiance is from a small rural province they may be slow to process it. In my case we are only about 1 hour from Manila and the LCR is a close friend of the family. Another friend has very close family in the NSO in Manila. I don't know if this helps any but bust of luck to you.

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24 minutes ago, RO_AH said:

This is a very helpful click here. From what I understand it's up to the LCR to get it to the NCO. Once the info is at the NSO she can request the official certificate. Of course if your fiance is from a small rural province they may be slow to process it. In my case we are only about 1 hour from Manila and the LCR is a close friend of the family. Another friend has very close family in the NSO in Manila. I don't know if this helps any but bust of luck to you.

Well that's the thing. Everyone here is talking about how it's fast if you know someone but that doesn't help me because I don't know "someone". She lives in Quezon City, but possibly get married by a private minister in Makati

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hi - i'm from the Philippines. i do not know exactly what documents you need to submit as supporting documents for a CR1 petition but very likely you will require your marriage contract for that. and you are right, the municipal copy will not suffice, especially for US Embassy use! What you will need is the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) issued marriage certificate. By the way, they were earlier called NSO (National Statistics Office) but has in recent years changed their name to PSA.

 

Now - that advise of waiting 3 months for a PSA issued marriage certificate sounds about right. If anybody tells you that they can get it for you very quickly - they are most likely giving you false hopes or scamming you. Why does it take so long you ask? Because after you get married, the marriage contract gets listed at the municipal level first and that can be fast but from there it needs to be submitted by the municipal authorities to the PSA, then the PSA processes it (registers the marriage in their database - god knows how long that takes) before they can issue the actual certificate. It takes longer if you marry in church, because the marriage contract will then originate from the church to municipal register to the PSA. To give you an example, a friend of mine got married in Dec and she was only able to get her PSA marriage certificate in March! And this friend actually personally took her contract from the church to the municipal registry herself. If you leave it to the church to do this submission for you, you will be waiting way longer than 3 months. Since your fiance you said is from Quezon City which is nearer to the capital, then you may be able to get your marriage certificate a little bit faster, but it won't be as fast as one week that's for sure!

 

 

Passport 17-Feb-22 Drop-off at USPS (expedited processing and shipping) ~ 22-Feb-22 Status: In Process ~ 08-Mar-22 Passport book shipped ~ 09-Mar-22 Status: Approved. Passport book in hand.

N-400     28-Jun-21 Filed online ~ 28-Jun-21 Received NOA + "Biometrics will be re-used" notice ~ 14-Dec-21 Interview scheduled ~ 25-Jan-22 Interview. Approved. Case status: Oath will be scheduled.  ~ 01-Feb-22 Oath scheduled. ~ 14-Feb-22 Oath ceremony.   

ROC        11-Jun-20 Application sent via FedEx ~ 16-Jun-20 Case received ~ 29-Jun-20 (Old) biometrics applied to case ~ 01-Jul-20 NOA ~ 23-Dec-21 Case transferred to new office ~ 25-Jan-22 Combo interview with N400. Case approved. 

AOS        13-Oct -17 Application sent via FedEx ~ 17-Oct-17 Case received ~ 24-Oct-17 Fingerprint fee received ~ 25-Oct-17 NOA1 ~ 17-Nov-17 Biometrics ~ 23-Nov-17 Status "We are scheduling
                 your 
interview" ~ 24-Jul-18 Status "We have scheduled your interview" ~ 28-Jul-18 Interview notice received in the mail  ~ 29-Aug-18 Interview 30-Aug-18 Status "Case was approved" 
                 
04-Sep-18 Received approval / welcome letter in the mail ~04-Sep-18 Status: "Card was mailed to me" ~07-Sep-18 Green card received

EAD/AP  13-Oct Application sent via FedEx ~ 17-Oct Case received ~ 25-Oct NOA1 ~ 17-Nov Biometrics ~ 09-Jan Approved ~ 13-Jan Notice received ~ 18-Jan Combo card received

K1 Visa   28-Jun-17 Case ready (No packet 3 received) ~ 22-Jul Medical ~ 02-Aug Interview (APPROVED!) ~ 03-Aug Visa issued ~ 08-Aug VOH ~ 14-Sep POE (Abu Dhabi) ~ 01-Oct-17 Got married! 

I-129F     17-Feb-17 Petition sent via FedEx ~ 21-Feb-17 Case received ~ 24-Feb-17 NOA1 ~ 30-May-17 NOA2 12-Jun-17 NVC received / Case and Invoice numbers assigned ~ 20-Jun-17 NVC left

 

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