After 12 months - NVC told our marriage certificate is not valid. Anyone married in UAE?

[Silv 0]

I am European and my husband American we lived for work in UAE for 5 years. We married there and filed up for the green card last year June.

We married at the Church and validated our marriage as per the law. Our petition was approved in December, NVC requested additional documents in Feb and we sent them. Now they are saying that our marriage certificate is not valid after 12 months. The came back saying it is not valid because our cert was not issued by the Sharia court. Pls note marriage certificates are issued by the Sharia court only if the couple or one is Muslim and we are not. Anyone married in UAE before? anyone can advise? I am feeling so lost.

Thank you

[Silv 0]

Can anyone advise?

[millefleur 5,039]

**Moved from IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures to the MENA regional forum; OP might get answers from others who know about the UAE there**

[Auds 223]

Strange!  Is your Church certificate attested by MoFA, if not that's what you need to do.  PM me for any help.

[Silv 0]

1 hour ago, Auds said:

Strange!  Is your Church certificate attested by MoFA, if not that's what you need to do.  PM me for any help.

It's St Andrews church and its approved. Our certificate was validated by ministry of foreign affair ministry of justice and the US consulate. We are stuck on this. My I-130 was approved in Dec. and they came back in May saying this. My marriage certificate was approved already, but NVC is saying is not valid. 

 

[Auds 223]

Did you send copy of the stamp of Mofa stamp and US consulate stamp?

 

We got married in the US, but let me try check with others.

 

i would write a letter for starters with proof such as relevant snippets from the Church website, Dubai court etc.

 

 

[Silv 0]

5 minutes ago, Auds said:

Did you send copy of the stamp of Mofa stamp and US consulate stamp?

 

We got married in the US, but let me try check with others.

 

i would write a letter for starters with proof such as relevant snippets from the Church website, Dubai court etc.

 

 

Yes we sent them the copy and a letter from the church stating that it is valid as per the UAE law. We sent them links as well to proof. 

[Auds 223]

16 minutes ago, Silv said:

Yes we sent them the copy and a letter from the church stating that it is valid as per the UAE law. We sent them links as well to proof. 

And they didnt accept!  Very frustrating.  Let me ask someone who may have got married here and just finished her Visa journey.

[Silv 0]

7 minutes ago, Auds said:

And they didnt accept!  Very frustrating.  Let me ask someone who may have got married here and just finished her Visa journey.

Thank you!  

[Auds 223]

@Diana Tarutina

 

did you marry in Dubai? 

[jayjayj 571]

We were married at St. Andrew's as well.  Our wedding certificate was attested by the MoFA and also the U.S. Consulate, similar to yours.  The foil stamps are on the back of the certificate.  Your marriage certificate is valid for your entire life, not just one year.  If the NVC is telling you otherwise, they are wrong.  

 

You should call them and ask for a Tier-2 representative.  Explain the issue to them, advise them that an error has been made, then ask for your petition to be expedited due to the error they made.

[Silv 0]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:19 PM, Hicknick said:

Of October?

Thank you 

 

4 hours ago, jayjayj said:

We were married at St. Andrew's as well.  Our wedding certificate was attested by the MoFA and also the U.S. Consulate, similar to yours.  The foil stamps are on the back of the certificate.  Your marriage certificate is valid for your entire life, not just one year.  If the NVC is telling you otherwise, they are wrong.  

 

You should call them and ask for a Tier-2 representative.  Explain the issue to them, advise them that an error has been made, then ask for your petition to be expedited due to the error they made.

Thank you for your reply! Yes we did expedite and my interview is in 5 days. It has been 15 months in the process.. because of their mistakes (they also lost some papers) 

i hope is all over.. soon.. 

[LandK 8]

On September 1, 2017 at 9:27 AM, jayjayj said:

We were married at St. Andrew's as well.  Our wedding certificate was attested by the MoFA and also the U.S. Consulate, similar to yours.  The foil stamps are on the back of the certificate.  Your marriage certificate is valid for your entire life, not just one year.  If the NVC is telling you otherwise, they are wrong.  

 

You should call them and ask for a Tier-2 representative.  Explain the issue to them, advise them that an error has been made, then ask for your petition to be expedited due to the error they made.

We are in the exact same situation, except at the USCIS I-130 Petition stage. We received an RFE for a marriage certificate from Sharia court (we married at Christ Church, Jebel Ali, Dubai) and have the MoFA and Dubai courts stamps on the back of our certificate. Do you think they are not accepting it because the court stamps/seals aren't in English? We are no longer living in the UAE so it will be difficult to get anything other than a translation done. Advice?

[Silv 0]

I am sorry you are in this. It was a nightmare for us, but at the end we made it. I tell you what we did:

We contacted the Church which they were so nice, they wrote a letter to NVC mentioning that our marriage was valid as per the UAE law and we did not need any Sharia Court approval or stamp. NVC did not consider this letter. 

We contact several judges at the Sharia court, but no one wanted to write us a statement saying that our marriage was valid. We spoke to them over the phone and they were telling us that our certificate was valid as per the UAE law, but they did not want to write to NVC. The judges were telling us that they could issue a letter for the NVC if we were going to the Court! We were both overseas, so of course we couldnt! 

 We contacted the US embassy in Abu Dhabi (we had a stamp from the US embassy on our certificate as well) They wrote back to us that our marriage was valid, but they did not have the authority to write a letter to NVC.

 

No one wanted or could help. 

 

I wrote a letter to the expedite address mentioning the ordeal we were going through for months. Our marriage was valid since the day 1!

 My case was expedited and Naples Embassy contacted me for the interview. It took us 15 months to be together again because of NVC fault. 

They think that since you married in an Arabic country you need your certificate to be issued by the Sharia court, BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. You have to call them and explain this. 

 

Let me know how i can help!

2 hours ago, LandK said:

We are in the exact same situation, except at the USCIS I-130 Petition stage. We received an RFE for a marriage certificate from Sharia court (we married at Christ Church, Jebel Ali, Dubai) and have the MoFA and Dubai courts stamps on the back of our certificate. Do you think they are not accepting it because the court stamps/seals aren't in English? We are no longer living in the UAE so it will be difficult to get anything other than a translation done. Advice?

I am sorry you are in this. It was a nightmare for us, but at the end we made it. I tell you what we did:

We contacted the Church which they were so nice, they wrote a letter to NVC mentioning that our marriage was valid as per the UAE law and we did not need any Sharia Court approval or stamp. NVC did not consider this letter. 

We contact several judges at the Sharia court, but no one wanted to write us a statement saying that our marriage was valid. We spoke to them over the phone and they were telling us that our certificate was valid as per the UAE law, but they did not want to write to NVC. The judges were telling us that they could issue a letter for the NVC if we were going to the Court! We were both overseas, so of course we couldnt! 

 We contacted the US embassy in Abu Dhabi (we had a stamp from the US embassy on our certificate as well) They wrote back to us that our marriage was valid, but they did not have the authority to write a letter to NVC.

 

No one wanted or could help. 

 

I wrote a letter to the expedite address mentioning the ordeal we were going through for months. Our marriage was valid since the day 1!

 My case was expedited and Naples Embassy contacted me for the interview. It took us 15 months to be together again because of NVC fault. 

They think that since you married in an Arabic country you need your certificate to be issued by the Sharia court, BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. You have to call them and explain this. 

 

Let me know how i can help!

[LandK 8]

5 minutes ago, Silv said:

I am sorry you are in this. It was a nightmare for us, but at the end we made it. I tell you what we did:

We contacted the Church which they were so nice, they wrote a letter to NVC mentioning that our marriage was valid as per the UAE law and we did not need any Sharia Court approval or stamp. NVC did not consider this letter. 

We contact several judges at the Sharia court, but no one wanted to write us a statement saying that our marriage was valid. We spoke to them over the phone and they were telling us that our certificate was valid as per the UAE law, but they did not want to write to NVC. The judges were telling us that they could issue a letter for the NVC if we were going to the Court! We were both overseas, so of course we couldnt! 

 We contacted the US embassy in Abu Dhabi (we had a stamp from the US embassy on our certificate as well) They wrote back to us that our marriage was valid, but they did not have the authority to write a letter to NVC.

 

No one wanted or could help. 

 

I wrote a letter to the expedite address mentioning the ordeal we were going through for months. Our marriage was valid since the day 1!

 My case was expedited and Naples Embassy contacted me for the interview. It took us 15 months to be together again because of NVC fault. 

They think that since you married in an Arabic country you need your certificate to be issued by the Sharia court, BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. You have to call them and explain this. 

 

Let me know how i can help!

I am sorry you are in this. It was a nightmare for us, but at the end we made it. I tell you what we did:

We contacted the Church which they were so nice, they wrote a letter to NVC mentioning that our marriage was valid as per the UAE law and we did not need any Sharia Court approval or stamp. NVC did not consider this letter. 

We contact several judges at the Sharia court, but no one wanted to write us a statement saying that our marriage was valid. We spoke to them over the phone and they were telling us that our certificate was valid as per the UAE law, but they did not want to write to NVC. The judges were telling us that they could issue a letter for the NVC if we were going to the Court! We were both overseas, so of course we couldnt! 

 We contacted the US embassy in Abu Dhabi (we had a stamp from the US embassy on our certificate as well) They wrote back to us that our marriage was valid, but they did not have the authority to write a letter to NVC.

 

No one wanted or could help. 

 

I wrote a letter to the expedite address mentioning the ordeal we were going through for months. Our marriage was valid since the day 1!

 My case was expedited and Naples Embassy contacted me for the interview. It took us 15 months to be together again because of NVC fault. 

They think that since you married in an Arabic country you need your certificate to be issued by the Sharia court, BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. You have to call them and explain this. 

 

Let me know how i can help!

Thanks for the response! I just spoke to a Tier 2 USCIS officer and he suggested that I get the stamped seals on the back of our certificate translated into English and write a detailed letter explaining our case. I've found on both the US Embassy in UAE and the Government of Dubai's websites the difference between a Sharia/Islamic marriage and a Christian marriage. I guess I'll include this as proof in the letter. I don't have a US Embassy stamp on the back our certificate, however, which is a bit worrying. It's all incredibly frustrating and I fear that we are going to have to do it all over again at the NVC stage as you had to. So it looks like there's no point in even trying to contact Dubai Courts...