RFE: divorce certificate

[Barbara J 115]

My fiance and I just received an RFE. It says "Marriage Termination: Please submit a legible copy of the final divorce decree signed by a judge or magistrate that shows proof of filing, or the death certificate issued by the civil authorities, that terminated the prior marriage between [him] and [her]."

What do they want? The copy we sent was crystal clear. It doesn't have a judge's signature, just a red stamp of the court. But that is how his mom's looks too- no signature, just a red stamp. Is there something wrong with the certificate, or is it possible they just lost the one we sent and need another copy of the exact same thing? We don't want to send the same thing only to have it refused again, but that is his official divorce decree. Has anyone else had this problem?

In Australia it is stamped and signed by registrar.I tried to add a copy of mine here but says file too large.

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

My fiance and I just received an RFE. It says "Marriage Termination: Please submit a legible copy of the final divorce decree signed by a judge or magistrate that shows proof of filing, or the death certificate issued by the civil authorities, that terminated the prior marriage between [him] and [her]."

What do they want? The copy we sent was crystal clear. It doesn't have a judge's signature, just a red stamp of the court. But that is how his mom's looks too- no signature, just a red stamp. Is there something wrong with the certificate, or is it possible they just lost the one we sent and need another copy of the exact same thing? We don't want to send the same thing only to have it refused again, but that is his official divorce decree. Has anyone else had this problem?

We had one exactly like the example you provided. I had read that people were getting RFEs because they were not recognizing it as official. Here's what I sent and it was accepted with no RFE

• A color copy so the red seal shows up.
  
• Yellow highlighter over the sentence from "it is hereby certified that said decree...." and continuing to "...marriage was thereby dissolved."
  
• Highlight DATED:xxxxxxxx
  
• Yellow highlighter on the teeny, tiny print in the footer that says "Decree of Absolute (divorce)"
  

To the others who were not divorced in the UK. That example is the official divorce decree.

Edited January 26, 2011 by Nich-Nick

[pushbrk 12,103]

[*]Yellow highlighter on the teeny, tiny print in the footer that says "Decree of Absolute (divorce)"

To the others who were not divorced in the UK. That example is the official divorce decree.

I missed that teeny, tiny print. That and the visible red stamp are the keys to success.

[Nigel&Meggie 40]

We had one exactly like the example you provided. I had read that people were getting RFEs because they were not recognizing it as official. Here's what I sent and it was accepted with no RFE

• A color copy so the red seal shows up.
• Yellow highlighter over the sentence from "it is hereby certified that said decree...." and continuing to "...marriage was thereby dissolved."
• Highlight DATED:xxxxxxxx
• Yellow highlighter on the teeny, tiny print in the footer that says "Decree of Absolute (divorce)"

To the others who were not divorced in the UK. That example is the official divorce decree.

Thanks for this post, very helpful Today I got a colour copy done and got it signed by a solicitor to state it is a true copy of the original and we are going to highlight those exact parts that you did. It just seems crazy that USCIS do not realise that it is a genuine decree. Surely they must have seen plenty of them over the years.

[GDHB 3]

SunDrop is correct.

Yes it is. The red seal stamped at the top is the certification. Please don't spread misinformation, sending people on a wild goose chase for documentation that they don't necessarily need.

My Decree Absolute looked exactly like this, had no signature and we did not get an RFE for it at either I-129F or I-485 stage. We colour photocopied it and it looked exactly the same as the original.

I understand that everyone wants to get their petition approved without an RFE, naturally. However, this document, unsigned, is what a Divorce Absolute looks like through a County Court in England and Wales. No signature, plain printer paper, flat red ink stamp. How is this adjudicator going to learn that they're asking for something above and beyond the norm, if everyone starts going to extraordinary measures to obtain something.

So get a good quality copy of your Decree Absolute, or if the original is poorly stamped, go into the court and ask for a new, better stamped one (it'll probably be free if the error is theirs). But please don't go assuming they'll want/ need a signed copy or adjudicators will start thinking this is the norm and it'll set a precedence where they'll go "Oh well, I've seen plenty that ARE signed, so this unsigned one must be the exception. RFE issued..."

I personally would send a new, quality copy of the Decree Absolute, maybe type up an explanation letter that includes a statement that it is a true copy and fork out the £5-ish it costs to get a Solicitor to witness your signature and submit that.

If I remember correctly (I'll do a little background research later when I have a sec) Adjudicators have to get approval for denials. Their Director needs to validate the reason for the denial. And if they deny you on the grounds that you didn't supply paperwork that you did supply, they're going to be in a cussload of grief. So educate an adjudicator today, please.

We just got NOA2, without RFE, with a copy of the UK divorce certificate (decree absolute) exactly as provided by the court, i.e. flat (no raised stamp), no judge signature.

SunDrop is correct that an adjudicator responding to a standard UK Decree Absolute with RFE should be made aware of the precedent.