Silv

2 minutes ago, LandK said:

Thanks so much! I think the Ministries of Justice won’t apply to us since that’s an Abu Dhabi entity and we were married in Dubai. I have an email from the church also stating that all the correct steps were followed and that the Dubai Sharia Court would not be able to issue a marriage certificate.  Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!

Yes! I am sure yours is valid as well. You just need to gather all the info, as much as possible, and send to them! Letters, links, translations, congress  help, embassies! it is a pain, but do not lose hope!! I was in the same situation and we did it. If you need anything msg at any time!

5 minutes ago, LandK said:

Oh I was wondering what you wrote in your letter to NVC explaining your situation. 

This is the letter we wrote

Dear Officer, 

I hereby respectfully ask that the mentioned case to be expedited for interview in Naples for the following reasons:

1. Our Attorney sent the civil documents requested by your office in a packet on 22nd February 2017 along with the list of documents included. The NVC informed my attorney that the documents were keyed into your system on 24th February. (Fedex Receipt attached)
2. On April 29th 2017 we were informed that two documents were missing: Silvia Conti’s Italian Police Clearance Certificates and our Marriage Certificate. These Documents classified as ‘missing’ were exhibits 9 and 12 and they were indeed included in the packet as you can see from the Attorney's letter attached. Nevertheless these documents were sent again on May 1st 2017.
3. In the same date we were informed that our Marriage certificate was considered invalid as it was not issued by the Sharia Court. Our marriage certificate was obtained from the ADJD (Abu Dhabi Judicial Department), as per requirement for non-Muslim marriages; it was signed by Revd Pius Iroka who conducted our marriage and countersigned by Cannon Andrew Thompson, an authorized signatory of the Church in Abu Dhabi.  In addition, our certificate was attested by the Ministries of Justice  (ADJD), Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Consul at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi, as per the requirement of the local law in Abu Dhabi.   (See email from St. Andrew's Church and US Embassy in Abu Dhabi) 
4. Congressional support by Congresswoman Martha McSally’s office was sought on 2nd May 2017. They gathered all the evidence and documents that proved our marriage certificate is valid as per the UAE law. These documents were sent to your office to support our cause.

There is no evident reason for this delay in processing my wife's interview; it has been 5 months since the civil documents were received along with the fees as instructed. 

We validated our marriage certificate following the UAE requirements, laws and its authenticity was attested by the US consul in Abu Dhabi as well. 

I kindly seek immediate action to process my wife's interview as we have met all the prerequisites. 

Thank you indeed for your time and consideration in reviewing this letter, and the attached evidence.

3 minutes ago, LandK said:

Yeah that’s what I’ve been trying to tell them. It’s all so frustrating! However, the link you sent above states if married in a church the certificate must be obtained from Abu Dhabi Jusicial Dept, which is worrying since ours is issued by the church. I guess I’ll start with getting those stamps translated into English and explaining the situation with links to official govt websites, etc. How did word your letter stating your case?

The ADJD (Abu Dhabi Judicial Dep) is a branch of the Sharia Court, it is the ministry of Justice functioning as Sharia Court/Law, but they don't get it! .

The marriage certificate can be issued by the Church, just need to validate it as per the UAE requirements. The Dubai Court stamp should be good together with the ministry of foreign affair stamp. Yes I would then translate those. Have you thought to contact the UAE Embassy in UK?

Sorry i don't understand your question: How did word your letter stating your case?

6 minutes ago, LandK said:

I would consider that if I still lived in the UAE, but unfortunately, we have moved to the UK. The RFE we received from USCIS says that they want a marriage certificate issued by Dubai Sharia Court and that a marriage certificate issued by a church is not accepted.

It is not true that the certificate has be issued by the Sharia Court!!

https://www.abudhabi.ae/portal/public/en/citizens/family/marriage/getting-married-as-an-expatriate;jsessionid=LeZLLRm8V2XIzk4hfS4iH5PkkzvoWNK95uVC-HBth2fPE-Kxm-if!413312254!1038811407!1513089735100

We had the UAE Ministry of foreign affair,  ministry of Justice and US embassy stamp! This was our letter below:

Dear Officer, 

I hereby respectfully ask that the mentioned case to be expedited for interview in Naples for the following reasons:

1. Our Attorney sent the civil documents requested by your office in a packet on 22nd February 2017 along with the list of documents included. The NVC informed my attorney that the documents were keyed into your system on 24th February. (Fedex Receipt attached)
2. On April 29th 2017 we were informed that two documents were missing: Silvia Conti’s Italian Police Clearance Certificates and our Marriage Certificate. These Documents classified as ‘missing’ were exhibits 9 and 12 and they were indeed included in the packet as you can see from the Attorney's letter attached. Nevertheless these documents were sent again on May 1st 2017.
3. In the same date we were informed that our Marriage certificate was considered invalid as it was not issued by the Sharia Court. Our marriage certificate was obtained from the ADJD (Abu Dhabi Judicial Department), as per requirement for non-Muslim marriages; it was signed by Revd Pius Iroka who conducted our marriage and countersigned by Cannon Andrew Thompson, an authorized signatory of the Church in Abu Dhabi.  In addition, our certificate was attested by the Ministries of Justice  (ADJD), Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Consul at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi, as per the requirement of the local law in Abu Dhabi.   (See email from St. Andrew's Church and US Embassy in Abu Dhabi) 
4. Congressional support by Congresswoman Martha McSally’s office was sought on 2nd May 2017. They gathered all the evidence and documents that proved our marriage certificate is valid as per the UAE law. These documents were sent to your office to support our cause.

There is no evident reason for this delay in processing my wife's interview; it has been 5 months since the civil documents were received along with the fees as instructed. 

We validated our marriage certificate following the UAE requirements, laws and its authenticity was attested by the US consul in Abu Dhabi as well. 

I kindly seek immediate action to process my wife's interview as we have met all the prerequisites. 

Thank you indeed for your time and consideration in reviewing this letter, and the attached evidence.

3 minutes ago, LandK said:

Was the congresswoman any help? Yes, we have a lawyer, I just wanted to see what others' experiences were because I think this is a first for them as well! It's the waiting around to see what USCIS's final say is that's so difficult. Thanks for your help!

Not for us, but I have read that for some people was helpful. So I will give a try. We had a lawyer too, but the we solve this issue by ourselves by contacting directly NVC and the Embassy in Naples. You have to keep bugging them telling that your certificate is valid as per the UAE law!!

In my case USCIS approved my marriage certificate, but at the NVC stage, while waiting for my interview date, they told us that it wasn't valid. My stamps were in English and Arabic so I did not need to translate those. We authenticated the certificate with the US embassy but they didn't really look at it.  

I forgot to mention to you we also contacted the Arizona congresswoman for help. 

Have you ever thought to contact an Immigration lawyer?

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!

My case was in Nebraska as well. Filled in June 2016 and I had my interview 3 days ago. my case was expedited due to errors made by NVC. 

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.. 

6th September! Yourself? 

5 minutes ago, jasonjiaqili said:

of course it's a good sign..  Your have your interview scheduled, now bring everything you sent to NVC & originals to the interview.    why so worry??

Because I heard that they expedite only in case of life threatening situation. We just requested it because NVC was dragging our case for nothing adding 11 weeks review for every time we called them. We felt like our case was sitting on a desk, It has been 15 months since we filed!

Everything connected to NVC was crazy, lost, missing documents; also when our case was already at the embassy they kept asking for documents!! but our case was already expedited! so yeah I am worried.. but thanks for telling me thats a good sign. I have no idea whats happening!

Hi All,

We requested our case to be expedited because NVC kept losing our documents, requesting documents that were already sent and adding time for reviews. Every time we called they added 11 weeks for review (we just called them to check on the status)

We contacted our congresswoman as well to support our case. 

We filed on June 2016 and my petition was approved in Dec 2016. In June 2017 NVC kept telling us that were still under review and kept asking for documents that were already sent.

An agent told us to send a request to expedite our case and so we did. After 3 weeks we received the letter saying that our case was sent to the Us Consul. They sent me an interview date.

Is it a good sign that the expedited my case? I have a date for the interview now, I am so nervous because everything went wrong since we sent our documents. I have no idea whats in my packet and the Consul received from NVC.

Having an interview does it mean that they are ok with my documents? Is it a good sign?

On 8/1/2017 at 3:44 AM, Hicknick said:

Hey if u try now there are a lot of appointments for September and October 

Thank you! I got mine scheduled for the 6th! 

Thank you! 

2 hours ago, Hicknick said:

If u try now the 2 august is open

Thank you for letting me know..Thats great!maybe someone canceled it. Thats too soon for me. Hopefully something else mid August will open! 

3 minutes ago, Hicknick said:

I emailed naples and they said to try again tomo and the next couple of days. It's ridiculous.

I have been trying for the past 2 days. Ok will try tomorrow as well. Thank you. 

7 hours ago, Hicknick said:

Hey were u able to book the appointment through there website? I am not able to set up an appointment. All the dates on the calendar are non functional even to 2021 hahaha what do I do?

Hi, I have the same problem. I followed the instruction but when it comes to book a date it doesn't allow me. Did you figure it out yet? I called the call center and they told me he is not sure why this is happening. I tried to call the consulate too but i wasn't able to talk to anyone. 

Let me know!

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!  

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. 

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. 

Can anyone advise?

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