Marriage Certificate Copy or Original (Specific Case)

[mc962 55]

We are just about ready to send out the Adjustment of Status (from K1 Visa) packet, but there was one thing I was not sure of regarding the marriage certificate.

The certificate of the town we got married in has a notice at the bottom with something like:

"Warning: It is illegal to duplicate this copy by photograph. Not valid without city seal"
^^The city seal also does not appear on the photocopy.

While I know that USCIS requests photocopies of original documents unless said otherwise, in this case I am worried about an RFE for the real marriage certificate due to this message at the bottom.
It's not a huge deal to send in the original marriage certificate, as it is really easy to request additional certificate copies from the town, but I would prefer to just send in a photocopy if possible.

Has anyone else had this issue?

[K1visaHopeful 2,662]

16 minutes ago, mc962 said:

We are just about ready to send out the Adjustment of Status (from K1 Visa) packet, but there was one thing I was not sure of regarding the marriage certificate.

The certificate of the town we got married in has a notice at the bottom with something like:

"Warning: It is illegal to duplicate this copy by photograph. Not valid without city seal"
^^The city seal also does not appear on the photocopy.

While I know that USCIS requests photocopies of original documents unless said otherwise, in this case I am worried about an RFE for the real marriage certificate due to this message at the bottom.
It's not a huge deal to send in the original marriage certificate, as it is really easy to request additional certificate copies from the town, but I would prefer to just send in a photocopy if possible.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Surely what it means is "it is illegal to duplicate this copy by photograph" and to claim it is an original. That's why it has a raised seal to prove that photocopies of it are not originals.

Send photocopies.

Edited February 28, 2019 by K1visaHopeful

[mc962 55]

Just now, K1visaHopeful said:

Send photocopies.

Works for me 

Just wanted a second opinion, it would be sad thing to get an RFE for if it was because of that.

[K1visaHopeful 2,662]

1 minute ago, mc962 said:

Works for me 

Just wanted a second opinion, it would be sad thing to get an RFE for if it was because of that.

Nah, dont stress. The illegal part is passing a photocopy off as an original. You'd declare it a photocopy in your cover letter table of contents and make the statement:

 

"Copies of all documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an Immigration officer at a later date." at the end of your cover letter.

 

Criminal record diverted.

[mc962 55]

Oh well, it just says marriage certificate there. 👮‍♂️

Probably not worth changing that at this point (there is the bit about the marriage certificate in there at least, hopefully they don't ignore that 🤷‍♂️).

.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

Just send the copy. It says the same on my marriage certificate and my children birth certificates. Never had any problem.