Marriage certificates and government opinions

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The Marriage Certificate Story:

Applying for our visas was more exciting than we expected since we were required to furnish certified copies of our marriage certificate. The excitement came from a collision of three government viewpoints. The UK simply wanted a certified copy. Most US notaries are unwilling to certify marriage license copies because under US law you cannot use a copy, you are required to get a new 'copy' of your US marriage certificate from the government, which is fast and easy, so notaries are unwilling to certify copies of any marriage certificate. 

The South African government also has a voice in this story. We were legally married there and they also issue new copies, You can simply get the forms from their website and apply. The catch is that their website claims it takes six months. Those with local SA experience claim this is optimistic and an argument/negotiation/bribe may also be required. Anyway, we hopefully downloaded copies of the application from the SA consular website, filled out multiple versions, and sent them to a family member in SA--who then spent hours waiting in line only to be told those were the wrong papers and different ones were required. 

In the meanwhile, back in the USA, a friend who is a notary, said she could, in fact, simply certify that two pieces of paper were valid copies, without certifying that it was a valid marriage license--which was all the UK required, so we did that, crossed our fingers and sent it all in. Well we just (mid-November) were told that our visas have been approved. Hooray for Israel! We are hoping to (eventually) get new copies of our S. African certificate, in case we need them for future visas or whatever. 

Comments

  1. MitchJanuary 03, 2018 10:57 PM

    This is the first time I have seen this. We know only too well about getting official documents from Africa. A unique experience, we all would rather not have had!

    ReplyDelete

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