What Zardoz writes in his amended statement is ambiguous and at the risk of being boring someone needs to set the record straight. He appears to confuse petitions for divorce with applications for the right of permanent residence in Canada. (1) Divorce. When you get married in the UK the new spouses and their witnesses sign a register, which is a ledger (a large book) kept by the Registrar. The spouses get a copy of the entries in that register, signed by the Registrar. That is called a marriage certificate. You can get additional copies of the register (ie further marriage certificates) by applying to the Registrar. True enough you have to lodge an original (as distinct from a photocopy) of such a certificate in the County Court office if you are the petitioner for divorce and that remains in the Court file. You do not get that back but that does not prevent you getting another certificate. You could probably get a photocopy of the certificate from the Court office, though you would have to pay through the nose for it! (2) Applications for immigration. You do not have to send an original marriage certificate to Canadian Immigration: see the blurb at the top of the Document Checklist - Immigrant ' Send originals of the immigration forms (items 1 to 5 below) and police certificates. Send photcopies of all other documents, unless instructed otherwise'. If there is such an instruction relating to marriage certificates I must have missed it! What spaceraceone was asking was whether he/she needed to submit with the application to Canadian Immigration both a copy of the divorce decree absolute and a copy of the marriage certificate. The answer, like Zardoz's answer, is probably no, but not because the marriage certificate is in the court file but because the decree absolute of divorce is by law proof to the world at large that there was once a marriage which has now been dissolved. A photocopy of the decree absolute of divorce should therefore suffice to satisfy the requirements of Canadian Immigration without enclosing with the application a photocopy of the marriage certificate as well.
