Got married on B2 Visa and going back to home country - but what to do FIRST?

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maswei2

Registered Users (C)
Is it advisable for a non-American citizen, who is a B2 visa holder, to marry an American citizen in the US and return to his home country with his American wife before his I-94 expires? Should they approach the US State Department - Office of Authentications and the DC-based Embassy (of that country where the non-American citizen is a citizen of) to have their marriage certificate and license authenticated?

They can stay in that country for a year or two then approach the American Embassy and apply for a CR1 or IR1 to be granted to the non-American citizen. Is this the correct way?
 
A copy of the marriage certificate must be submitted at the start of the process with the application, and the original must be shown near the end, but there is no separate procedure for the state department or any embassy to authenticate the marriage certificate.

What do they want to do? Do they want to stay outside the US for a year or two? Or would they rather stay in the US right after getting married? Is the noncitizen inside or outside the US at this time? There are different options and appropriate ways to go about it.
 
Jackolantern, thank you for your reply.

1. They plan to live abroad for one to two years, maybe more. The non-American citizen has it all in his country (job, home, etc.) and his wife will reside with him.

2. They are currently in the United States. Just got married a month ago. The husband, who is not an American, does not want to risk any trouble because he holds a valid B2 tourist visa (which does not necessarily entitle him to marriage and employment), been travelling in and out just fine without incident, and wants to play it safe and leave the US before the I-94 expires. Besides, he has everything in his home country and they will make a plan to move to the US in a few years. They are going to have their marriage certificate officially registered in his home country, hence the reason why it needs to be authenticated in the US first.

3. Not sure what you meant by separate procedure, but shouldn't they have the same document authenticated by these organizations?
 
Since they already got married, the fiance visa is no longer available so I won't discuss that.

Because they're planning to stay outside the US for more than a year anyway, they should time the application so the consular interview will be after completing 2 years of marriage. That way, the immigrant spouse would get a 10-year green card instead of a conditional 2 year card. If the I-130 is filed after they completed 18 months (or more), that practically guarantees the interview will be after they've completed 2 years. And with the American spouse living outside the US with him for 2+ years, the interview should be really short and easy.

For the US immigration process there is no separate "authentication" procedure for the marriage certificate. They'd simply submit the certificate to the US immigration authorities as needed during the immigration process, along with the relevant documentation and application papers. It's possible that the US government would contact the government agency that issued the certificate in order to verify it, but that's a procedure they would do behind the scenes without the applicant's involvement.

If they need some kind of authentication for the US marriage certificate to be recognized in the home country of the non-US spouse, that's an entirely different matter which has nothing to do with US immigration, and the requirements and procedures for that would be specific to that country's laws which they'd have to research somewhere other than here.
 
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