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Hi guys, need some help on clarifying the process.
My finance and I plan to get married. I am a us citizen and resident of jersey city for a long time, she is a foreign citizen. I understand the first step is to goto the city clerk office in jersey city with the required documents and get a marriage license.
However i am very confused what happens after that, as I understand it the marriage license is just that - a license to get married, it is not the actual marriage certificate. I tried calling the city clerk office but the person was very impatient and wouldnt explain the next steps to me.
We dont want to have a wedding dinner/ceremony type thing, just want to be legally married (a court house wedding? is that the right term?).
My question is what do we do after getting the marriage license, is there another place we have to go to be legally married and get the actual marriage certificate?
Marriage license is a registration for marriage. There is usually a waiting period (3 days in most states I think) from the date on the license before you can actually get married. Whether you get married in a religious ceremony, regular ceremony, civil ceremony, all you need is for witnesses to sign the license, then you can take it back to City Hall for them to file and give you a legal marriage certificate.
If you want a quick, easy wedding for immigration purposes, call Town Hall again and ask to "schedule a civil ceremony with a justice of peace".
Marriage license is a registration for marriage. There is usually a waiting period (3 days in most states I think) from the date on the license before you can actually get married. Whether you get married in a religious ceremony, regular ceremony, civil ceremony, all you need is for witnesses to sign the license, then you can take it back to City Hall for them to file and give you a legal marriage certificate.
If you want a quick, easy wedding for immigration purposes, call Town Hall again and ask to "schedule a civil ceremony with a justice of peace".
Pretty sure they don't do that anymore - marrying a US citizen does not grant the spouse citizenship. I worked with a girl from Sweden (was here on a student then work Visa) and after she got married she still had to go through the entire citizenship process - had to wait a while, attend classes and take the exam just like anyone else wanting to be a US citizen. At one point she almost had to leave the country because her Visa was up even though she was married to an American. She was able to get it extended without that hassle, thank God. One of the nicest people I know.
Pretty sure they don't do that anymore - marrying a US citizen does not grant the spouse citizenship. I worked with a girl from Sweden (was here on a student then work Visa) and after she got married she still had to go through the entire citizenship process - had to wait a while, attend classes and take the exam just like anyone else wanting to be a US citizen. At one point she almost had to leave the country because her Visa was up even though she was married to an American. She was able to get it extended without that hassle, thank God. One of the nicest people I know.
Nope, they still do that. A citizen can sponsor a green card application for a foreign immigrant who is currently in the US on a valid visa. There are hoops to jump through, but green card by legitimate marriage is still one of the fastest and surest methods to secure permanent residency. I don't know what the situation with your Swedish friend is, but if you have applied for a marriage sponsored green card, you do NOT need to leave the country anymore, as you cannot be deported while your application is pending. If it was rejected in the meantime... then that's another story =(
Citizenship is not the same as residency. My father already had his greencard when he got married to my mother (a natural born citizen) and did not become a citizen until I was 12 or 13 years old.
As for the process of marriage, once you have applied for a marriage certificate you get a form to be filled out by whoever will be performing the marriage. Be that a Judge, Mayor, or Clergy member. Once filled out, you take that back to where you got your license and they give you a proper certificate.
for getting marriage licence, what documents has to bring by witness person and should witness person be citizen or green card holder? or can any temporary green card holder be a witness?
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