marriage license or marriage certificate? certified?

doctor1

Registered Users (C)
In the state of Texas, you are supposed to go apply for a marriage license along with your spouse, need to wait 72 hours, and then get married at the same place where you got the license, after the ceremony the judge takes the license and sends you the same license after 3 weeks with a few stamps on it,

Is this the license that is needed for the green card petition? I mean is it certified aleady .. still stays license on it..not certificate.. its confusing... does it need any more certifications or is it already a certified copy...

thank you
 
You need a marriage certificate, and not the marriage license. Obtaining a marriage license doesn't mean parties are married. Many people obtain marriage license in order to get married but then they do change their mind and don't get married. So marriage certificate is all matter. At some places it takes some time for court/city offices to send it to the parties, while at other places courts/city offices give it right away after the marriage ceremony.

Just make a copy of it since it's already certified because of it having a state seal in there. You must take the original one to your interview if immigration officer would like to see the original of it. You may also get the copy of it notarized, if you like.
 
Wording on the document varies. In some states, the license and certificate are the same piece of paper.

You may order more than one certified copy after the marriage is registered at the courthouse; I recommend doing so and keeping the spares in the bank vault along with duplicates of other important documents.
 
In california it says on top Marriage License/Certificate, once signed at the bottom by the witnesses and the judge who marries you, it goes from becoming your license to being your certificate. At least thats what the judge told us.
 
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