2 marraige certificates, Need advice

[matt.aljubori 1]

I hope someone can help me out .

My husband lives in Iraq. My mother and father are both Iraqis, but my parents never did the Iraqi citizen for me. I moved to the United States in 1999 at age 5 from Damascus, Syria as a refugee.

I orignally got married by a releigous person here in Iraq In february of 2012. When I wanted to apply for the I-130 an immigration agency told me that a rellegious marriage certificate was not enough for the USCIS and that I needed to get a court marraige certificate.

We had out wedding reception in February of 2012.

After applying for Iraqi citizen papers, I was finally granted them in June of 2012. Then I went to the court in Iraq to get a marraige certificate that reads June 2012.

On my I-130 papers I had put my marriage date from the court marraige paper. But my wedding pictures are all in winter clothes, so at the interview the consuler will likely to notice I really did not have a ceremony in June.

What should I do?

Should I just provide the translated releigous certificate? A letter of explanation?

[Ryan H 3,856]

Sometimes "immigration agencies" are the last people you should be listening to.

Does the religious ceremony constitute a legal marriage under Iraqi law? If so, you were legally married then and the court certificate you subsequently obtained was moot and not worth the paper it is written on.

If the religious ceremony did not constitute a legal marriage under Iraqi law, then the court marriage is when you were legally married. A simple explanation will suffice as to why you are wearing winter clothes in your wedding pictures. It's common to get legally married on one date and have a grand ceremony on a different date.