Marriage Registration in India

[waitingforwifey 0]

Hi All,

This is a question for people who know about the marriage registration system in India. I have a friend who is US citizen and he got married in New Delhi India. They had traditional hindu marriage however they could not register the marriage in India as the requirement for this process is that US citizen and his spouse would need to apply for marriage registration 30 days in advance. As the US citizen only had few days vacation and could not stay there for 30 or more days they were not able to register the marriage. After coming to US he filed the I-130 petition for his wife however marriage certificate is one of the requirements. He submitted all the evidence including marriage photos, sworn affidavits etc to prove the marriage. Then USCIS asked him to furnish the marriage certificate. The marriage registrar in India said that for them to register the marriage and issue a marriage certificate the US citizen spouse would have to physically come to India. Does anyone here know circumvent this situation withou having the US citizen to fly all the way to India to register the marriage?? Has anyone been in this situation before?? Please provide any ideas you might have.

Thanks

[jn052707 0]

Hey,

I had to go through that situation myself. My wife and I were married on Feb 21st in a very small ceremony just to get the marriage certificate. We had still planned on getting married with a traditional large wedding in May but we would've already started the visa process with the marriage certificate in hand.

Unfortunately the Indian government felt differently. When you marry an Indian marries a foreigner in India then you have to apply for the certificate and wait no less than 32 days. The window to get the certificate is 32-90 days after applying. I was lucky since I was back for the big celebration in May and under the 90 day mark. It sucks but I think your friend will have to be there in person. I was told that it "might" be possible to get the application process started over the phone as long as you're in person when you come to finalize the marriage certificate. You may want to look into that although I didn't do that and it may not work.

[indianheart 2]

i dont know that i can offer anything to help, but maybe this information will be of help to some one else. i was just married in india in june 2007. i did a lot of research before going to india and found that to circumvent the 30 days i had to convert to hinduism before marriage and have a certificate of conversion. arya samaj does conversion and hindu marriages and supply certificates needed for registration. with the help of many strangers in delhi and a few extra dollars to grease a few palms(is there such a thing as a stranger in india?), we were able to get our marriage officially registered and all legal paper work in hand all in about a weeks time.

good luck to you, i hope you are able to find what you need to get the process moving for you as it is far too long even when everything is right.

[Imua 0]

Interesting that India requires Hindu conversion to speed up the process. Are you submitting your conversion certificate along with your application? I went through an Arya Samaj conversion as well and was married legally in Nepal this last June - my FIL 'knew people' and like you say some palms were greased - our court marriage was handled very quickly and I had the marriage certificate in 3 weeks. The religious issue never came up but maybe my FIL already told them I was Hindu - I converted before I even met Govi. I am including the certificate to show that we are both the same religion and hoping it stengthens our case.

An aside - I find it interesting that the Indian government recognizes that non-Indians can convert to Hinduism yet there are still many temples which will not admit 'non-Hindus' which generally means anyone who does not look South Asian, even with an Arya Samaj certificate.

Edited December 6, 2007 by Pattu Rani

[indianheart 2]

Interesting that India requires Hindu conversion to speed up the process. Are you submitting your conversion certificate along with your application? I went through an Arya Samaj conversion as well and was married legally in Nepal this last June - my FIL 'knew people' and like you say some palms were greased - our court marriage was handled very quickly and I had the marriage certificate in 3 weeks. The religious issue never came up but maybe my FIL already told them I was Hindu - I converted before I even met Govi. I am including the certificate to show that we are both the same religion and hoping it stengthens our case.

An aside - I find it interesting that the Indian government recognizes that non-Indians can convert to Hinduism yet there are still many temples which will not admit 'non-Hindus' which generally means anyone who does not look South Asian, even with an Arya Samaj certificate.

I cant remember where but I had read that the conversion certificate needed to be sent with other evidence so yes I did submit it. I asked at a hindu temple here state side about conversion before going to india and they said they didnt do conversions, and I wanted a traditional hindu marriage, that is the reason for the arya samaj. In the last 2 years I have looked at so many sources preparing for my marriage and wanting to make sure that everything would go smoothly when the time came for our marriage and filing to bring my husband home, I am not able to remember everywhere I found information. I know that the hindu marriage act allows for a quicker marriage between indian and non-indian (or else 30 days waiting for civil marriage) and we all know how important saving time is at this point.

[laurarajesh 0]

Hi All,

This is a question for people who know about the marriage registration system in India. I have a friend who is US citizen and he got married in New Delhi India. They had traditional hindu marriage however they could not register the marriage in India as the requirement for this process is that US citizen and his spouse would need to apply for marriage registration 30 days in advance. As the US citizen only had few days vacation and could not stay there for 30 or more days they were not able to register the marriage. After coming to US he filed the I-130 petition for his wife however marriage certificate is one of the requirements. He submitted all the evidence including marriage photos, sworn affidavits etc to prove the marriage. Then USCIS asked him to furnish the marriage certificate. The marriage registrar in India said that for them to register the marriage and issue a marriage certificate the US citizen spouse would have to physically come to India. Does anyone here know circumvent this situation withou having the US citizen to fly all the way to India to register the marriage?? Has anyone been in this situation before?? Please provide any ideas you might have.

Thanks

hello friend

there is no shortcut for this

i also faced same situation

but we all ready married in usa ( absence marry) and we filed our papers on according to usa marry date

we also called consulate

and they said usa marry ( absence marry) is valied and we no need to regester our marry in india.

but i request call u wife in india and regester your marry.

[Jigi 0]

hi,

If i were in your place..... I would have given the Clerk of registrar's office and the signing officer some money and got my work done.... And INDIA... they would have done it happy for a few 100 $ ... which...... is far better than wasting 30 days and flight ticket money.... simple... pay the money.... get an immediate number by paying money... and you are out with the certificate.... cant help it... INDIA is in top 5 in corruption list.... We wont like this way... but have to do it... to save time, money , and energy.... and we are not going to get FAKE documents.... they would be all issued from the Authorised agecny....... So i think.... its fair...

WHat do you guys Say??????

Jigi

[immillpind 0]

Anything is possible in india as long as you know the right people. That can be a good thing or a bad thing.

but as people have replied, the US citizen has to be there. sig is required etc.

good luck

[adam75 0]

hi , i want to write about my marriage regestration in indonesia wich is similar to india i think... although i have the same religion of my wife. the religious affairs overthere required a certificate showing my religion, i got the certificate here in the usa,translate it into indonesian and legalize it at the indnesian embassy in washingon,i also translated and legalized my birth certificat..i scan them along with my passport, and send everything by E-MAIL, she print them and took them to the religious affair, so when i moved from usa to indonesia ,i only need to go to the usa consulate to obtain a sworn affaidavit of no impedement to marry, we took that last form with us to the religious office and they schedule our marrige a week later..then got our marriage certificate at the same date... now after i came back to the usa, i filed a petition for k-3, but i dont know if i need to register my marriage at the usa, and if so where do i have to go..any idea please.

[bombay 0]

Wow i am surprised ur having a problem in getting things done in india im sure if you show them a helping hand with a couple of thousand rupees ur job will be taken care of in india.

Im sure its better giving those people some money rather then paying for a ticket to go to india and waste time.

best of luck.

[crazysamurai 0]

Hi All,

This is a question for people who know about the marriage registration system in India. I have a friend who is US citizen and he got married in New Delhi India. They had traditional hindu marriage however they could not register the marriage in India as the requirement for this process is that US citizen and his spouse would need to apply for marriage registration 30 days in advance. As the US citizen only had few days vacation and could not stay there for 30 or more days they were not able to register the marriage. After coming to US he filed the I-130 petition for his wife however marriage certificate is one of the requirements. He submitted all the evidence including marriage photos, sworn affidavits etc to prove the marriage. Then USCIS asked him to furnish the marriage certificate. The marriage registrar in India said that for them to register the marriage and issue a marriage certificate the US citizen spouse would have to physically come to India. Does anyone here know circumvent this situation withou having the US citizen to fly all the way to India to register the marriage?? Has anyone been in this situation before?? Please provide any ideas you might have.

Thanks

This is a bit surprising. I am Hindu and US citizen and I married a Hindu in India in a Hindu traditional ceremony. I didn't have to wait 30 days to get certificate of registration of marriage. The registrar didn't even bring up this 30 day time limit issue. Registerting for a traditional marriage to get the Certificate of Marriage and to marry in court infront of a witness or witnesses are two seperate procedures. Once the traditional ceremony is complete, you can provide priest's photo id and signature along with bride and groom's signatures on application to get certificate of marriage. that's how I did it and I didn't have to wait for 30 days. However, if you want to marry someone in court infront of a judge and in presence of witnesses, there is a seperate procedure which I am not aware of and I don't know how much you have to wait. Both paths (traditional marriage vs. marrying in court) lead you to getting Certificate of Marriage.

But, in your case, since your friend had traditional hindu marriage, I have no idea why he can't obtain marriage certificate right away? Maybe this is the law only for Delhi. I didn't have to wait for 30 days. I suspect if he goes to some other place that registers marriage, maybe he will get different answer. Or maybe he should have just spent some rupees to grease few palms and they would have issued a marriage certificate.