Error on Marriage Certificate

[WillyandMal 0]

I'm getting all of the documents together to submit the I-30 for my husband here in Quito, Ecuador. Here they request the hand-written copy of our marriage certificate from the official book at the civil registry. While translating it, I noticed that they made a mistake and copied one number wrong in my passport #. However, on the typed copies of the certificate that we have from the civil registry, my passport number is correct.

Some people I've talked to think that fixing this may involve lawyers and several months. Should I go forward and try to get it fixed, or might presenting copies of the other certificates we have with the I-30 be enough to prove who I am?

One other (probably stupid) question. The marriage certificates list my mother's first and maiden name, but not her current legal last name, which is the same as mine and my father's. My parents are now divorced, but my mother kept her married last name. She will be filing an I-864 as a joint sponsor for my husband. Is it going to be a problem that our marriage certificate lists her maiden name and not her legal name? My birth certificate also lists her maiden name, would this be proof enough as to who she is?

THANK YOU in advance for your help!

[VivaBaños 2]

I'm getting all of the documents together to submit the I-30 for my husband here in Quito, Ecuador. Here they request the hand-written copy of our marriage certificate from the official book at the civil registry. While translating it, I noticed that they made a mistake and copied one number wrong in my passport #. However, on the typed copies of the certificate that we have from the civil registry, my passport number is correct.

Some people I've talked to think that fixing this may involve lawyers and several months. Should I go forward and try to get it fixed, or might presenting copies of the other certificates we have with the I-30 be enough to prove who I am?

One other (probably stupid) question. The marriage certificates list my mother's first and maiden name, but not her current legal last name, which is the same as mine and my father's. My parents are now divorced, but my mother kept her married last name. She will be filing an I-864 as a joint sponsor for my husband. Is it going to be a problem that our marriage certificate lists her maiden name and not her legal name? My birth certificate also lists her maiden name, would this be proof enough as to who she is?

THANK YOU in advance for your help!

The I-864 issue and your mother's maiden name should not be a problem. It wasn't for our case and we had the same situation.

Also, I think your first question would have a LOT to do with where you were married. If you married in a small town I think you could get it changed in the handwritten book very quickly by talking to the folks guarding the books, showing the computer copy and your passport, a big smile, and going with your husband and maybe a relative of his if he/she lives in that small town. This didn't happen to us, but with all of our planning for our wedding and the time spent in small towns dealing with paperwork I got to know the folks at our registro civil *really* well. If this occurred in a larger city then I think it'd probably be a serious relajo to get changed because of politics and bureaucracy. If you don't end up changing the handwritten copy--make sure this detail of different #s is mentioned in your cover letter.

Suerte!

[WillyandMal 0]

The I-864 issue and your mother's maiden name should not be a problem. It wasn't for our case and we had the same situation.

Also, I think your first question would have a LOT to do with where you were married. If you married in a small town I think you could get it changed in the handwritten book very quickly by talking to the folks guarding the books, showing the computer copy and your passport, a big smile, and going with your husband and maybe a relative of his if he/she lives in that small town. This didn't happen to us, but with all of our planning for our wedding and the time spent in small towns dealing with paperwork I got to know the folks at our registro civil *really* well. If this occurred in a larger city then I think it'd probably be a serious relajo to get changed because of politics and bureaucracy. If you don't end up changing the handwritten copy--make sure this detail of different #s is mentioned in your cover letter.

Suerte!

Thank you so much for your reply!

I just wanted to update in case anyone else has a similar situation. We got married in Quito, so it was a bit of a relajo to get the passport number fixed. Here are the steps we had to go through:

1. Take the following documents to the juridico department at the registro civil in Turubamba: copy of passport, marriage certificate with mistake, copia integra of the typed marriage certificate with the correct passport number, $2.50. They will ask you to fill out a form explaining the correction you are requesting. They will then give you a case number and a date and time to return for a response. (In our case this was 3 working days later)

2. Return to juridico with your case number and copies of the documents on the date they give you. If the correction is accepted, they will give you the order to correct the manuscript. You need to take this to the marginaciones department, along with $1.00. They then told us to come back the following afternoon for the corrected certificate.

3. Return to marginaciones on the day and time they give you with copies of all documents. Take the corrected manuscrito to legalizaciones and pay $1.00 for it to be certified.

That's it! lol

Hopefully no one else has this problem, because it was a bit of a headache and a lot of waiting in lines, but if you do, hopefully our experience will help make it a bit less confusing for you.

Cheers!

P.S.: I-30 accepted Feb 3rd! Now on to collect more paperwork......