T&JL

On 9/1/2022 at 12:31 AM, Family said:

Thank you for posting. How absolutely odd , I wonder what date of marriage will be recognized for any unfortunate souls that end up in divorce…in another state? 
 

Apparently in Colorado you can even marry yourself…according to this: 

 

https://vowsandpeaks.com/self-solemnizing-elopement-guide/

 

YOUR DOG CAN SIGN YOUR MARRIAGE LICENSE

If you’re anything like me, then you love your dog. Your marriage license will still have space for an officiant to sign – but since you don’t need one, you can have your dog sign instead! Fur real!

Haha great question.   I wonder if you would have to divorce twice?? Colorado is a strange one for sure.  I'm just happy the "vow renewal " satisfied the problem.   

8 minutes ago, IsItLekker said:

If you were married abroad (in this case Canada), you will have to either apply for a court ordered name change (costly, and time consuming) or go to a local county clerk and recorder and get "married" again in the state of Colorado. Getting married again is a lot less painful. Arapaho County totally knew what was up and it was relatively painless once we realized this was the best course of action. I think Denver and El Paso Counties also had the ability to do this, but Arapahoe had the shortest wait times. I would call their office first to confirm they are still doing it this way, and then schedule the appointment for a marriage license online. Make sure you take your original marriage certificate with you and the process should take around thirty minutes. After you get it and the certified copies, you should be able to get your name changed at the DMV.

I actually went to Custer county today.  They called the process renewing our vows since we were already married.  We got our certified copies.  It just happens to be that the county I live in was hacked and the whole recording department was down.  I was seriously stressed over this, but $32 later we have a colorado marriage certificate.   Thank you for the update

On 4/19/2021 at 3:38 PM, IsItLekker said:

Thank you so much for all of the replies you guys! I really appreciate everyone taking the time to answer. I honestly thought it was just going to fall through the cracks. 😅

So I have continued to reach out, per some of the advice on this thread. Unfortunately, I did not send off to get my passport yet as it required my original marriage certificate and I thought I needed it for the DMV (bummer). If it was a matter of just changing it whenever, I'd go ahead and apply for the passport and deal with the license later, but since my name is already changed federally, I am on a deadline in the state of Colorado to inform them of my name change (within 30 days). That is why I have been in a bit of a panic... that deadline is in less than a week. 

So far, I have sought 2 avenues proposed here. Remarrying in state and court ordered name change.

Remarrying appears to be the fastest method, but I still question the legality of it all. It will officially solemnize our marriage in the state from the date we sign the license, but it supposedly will acknowledge we were previously married.

Court ordered name change seems to also be an option, however since it must be performed in the county where I live, I am less than thrilled with this option as they had no idea what to do when I called them. I was told to consult an attorney. Also, I must submit to finger printing and background checks which could taken a few weeks before I can even apply. 

I contacted the Colorado Attorney General's office and they gave me a canned response about calling my county and asking them for the process to record the marriage (...I have already done this and the result was still rejected by the DMV, probably due to the fact my county has no idea what is going on). However, he did provide me with an email for Vital Records for the state, so I have contacted them to see if they can explain it to me, so that I may in turn explain it to my county clerk and recorder. 

I've determined the word register, record, and certify mean different things to different people. None of the offices are on the same page here. I'll keep you guys updated if I hear anything else, if for no other reason than that there will be an answer to this clusterf**k for anyone else going through this insane process in the future. 

I am very curious how this turned out for you.   I married my husband in canada but i live in Colorado. He just immigrated here a month ago.  I am trying to change my name and running into the same walls.  You have done a lot of leg work here.  Any help is much appreciated.   

12 minutes ago, mam521 said:

Yes, same interview.  If you call USCIS now, they can link the cases together if they aren't already.  Then, when they get to NVC, they schedule them together.  Also, don't panic if one person's interview comes first and the other 2 don't - they'll probably come the next day.  Kid2 got the appointment first.  I was in a panic but the next day, Kid1 and I got our interview letters.  

 

Things do go fast once you do get the interviews.  Booking 3 medicals is fun times.  As soon as you get the letters, call and book.  We did all 3 at Medysis because I was in Alberta and there was no way we were paying airfare to fly to BC for the medicals then to QC for the interview.  It was cheaper to just stay in Montreal for the week, have the medical, stay the days and have the interview.  We also had less than 3 weeks to sort it all out.  Again, fun times!

 

Kid2 is a total electronics kid, too.  Did well though - I'd found an interesting book series, so crisis was averted.  Hopefully you guys can work on expectations and prepare the Littles!  

All 3 of my petitions went to NVC at the same time so I am assuming they are all together.  I am going to finalize and submit them all together.  

My husband is in Manitoba,  so the plan is to spend a week there and schedule medical as close to the interviews as possible.   It's crazy to me that there isn't a dr in at least every province.    The hardest part is not being able to help and be there.  Thank you so much.  This is very helpful.   Unless you have kids you don't understand why this is vital information.  

1 minute ago, mam521 said:

As long as the lawyer can provide a letter or document stating he has sole custody and the mother is considered to have abandoned the children, it should be fine.  DoS doesn't take lightly to parental kidnapping so they definitely look in more detail at parents immigrating, especially with small children.  

 

I know this is a long way off still, but the kiddos will have to attend the interview and no one is allowed any electronics, so hopefully he can bring some books and other small toys to entertain them.  One poor mom was quite pregnant and had a VERY busy toddler with her.  She turned to her husband and said "there is NO WAY stickers are going to entertain her for 2 hours!".  At least your stepkids are kindy age, so that should help!  

We definitely have custody papers.  The courts told us to write a letter 30 days before we are leaving and she has 30 days to fight it if she is going to.  If not we are free to go.  So this makes me hope the custody papers and protection order will be enough.   

And thank you!!! This is what I am looking for.  I will make them a bag of stuff to do.  They are on phones all the time so it will be interesting.   Do they all go into the same interview? 

5 minutes ago, mam521 said:

Have you been documentarily qualified from NVC yet?  If not, it's probably going to be longer than 6mo.  Feel free to join our IR/CR-1 conversation.  Just make sure that you check out the FAQ's and read back some pages to see what's been going on (link to the FAQ's in my signature).  Since your profile is filled out, you can ask Hawkriders to add you to the tracking spreadsheet (also linked in my signature).  

 

Your husband will have to provide the custody agreement and permission from their mother that he has permission to permanently immigrate to the US with the children.  My ex and I do not have a formal, court filed custody agreement, but we do have a parenting agreement that we'd written and the CO looked at it.  We wrote a letter and had it notarized (gold seal stamp, embossed) by a lawyer stating he knew I was immigrating permanently with the children and the Consulate 100% asked for it and added copies to our case files.  

Thank you.  This is helpful.  My husband has sole custody.   But no where in the process is custody or anything like this mentioned.   We haven't seen or heard from the mother in 2.5 years.  We had to write a letter to passport people to get passports without her already.  His lawyer already told him how to handle us moving.  Just don't want any surprises once we get to the interview stage.  

On 12/12/2021 at 11:45 AM, Trish&Jeremy said:

I am at the NVC stage.  Just looking for any information on the interview process for children.  Should be around 6months left.  

I didn't ask anything about if I can petition them.  I am well aware of how the process works.  I am just looking on specific information on the interview process for small children.  

9 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

You can petition for them as long as their mother has given permission for them to immigrate.

 

You are asking about interviews.  If you have not even submitted a petition yet, you are years away from an interview.

I am at the NVC stage.  Just looking for any information on the interview process for children.  Should be around 6months left.  

My husband will be immigrating with his 2 small children from Canada.  I am hoping I can get any advice or insight on what the process looks like with children (4) & (5).  Thank you in advance for your help.