Civil marriage certificate alone: is it enough?!

[fandv]

Hi everyone...

I'm a Canadian citizen who's sponsoring my Indonesian wife to Canada. We submitted our application package last week. We submitted our civil marriage certificate (and of course we had the sworn translation, affidavit, and certified copy) that was issued by the Indonesian civil registry (government).

But here's the thing: since we're both Catholics, we also got married at a Catholic church, and we do have a (religious) marriage certificate from the church, but...we didn't include it in the application!! I hope that's fine?! Is the civil alone enough?

The checklist says "If you are married, you must include a marriage certificate." (singular), and didn't even mention anything about the religious certificate...I hope it's enough...

 

[anticipation]

Hi everyone...

But here's the thing: since we're both Catholics, we also got married at a Catholic church, and we do have a (religious) marriage certificate from the church, but...we didn't include it in the application!! I hope that's fine?! Is the civil alone enough?

The civil certificate is probably all that is required, but here's the thing, the religious certificate would go a long way to proving that you are not a "marriage of convenience." So, wait until you get the acknowledgement of receipt from CIC with your UCI and Application numbers so it doesn't get lost and then send in a copy of the religious certificate. It certainly wouldn't hurt your application.

 

[fandv]

The civil certificate is probably all that is required, but here's the thing, the religious certificate would go a long way to proving that you are not a "marriage of convenience." So, wait until you get the acknowledgement of receipt from CIC with your UCI and Application numbers so it doesn't get lost and then send in a copy of the religious certificate. It certainly wouldn't hurt your application.

I see, good idea! Well at least we did provide some evidence of the religious ceremony though. Out of the 170 total photos that we sent, 65 of them were wedding pictures, and out of the 65 wedding pics, 34 were from the religious ceremony...clearly apparent in them were my parents, her parents, our 70-80 guests, us with the priest signing the paperwork, overall view of the cathedral, etc........

The thing is, the religious wedding certificate is written in Latin, and I thought it would be hard here in Indonesia to find a sworn translator that can translate Latin to English...*sigh*, so we just included the civil certificate instead, which is written in both Indonesian and English (and it was so easy to find an Indonesian -> English sworn translator, for obvious reasons...)

About sending additional proofs: I've been told by many people that it's best to send it to the visa office, as opposed to CPC-Mississauga. What I'm wondering is: once CPC-M has given me the UCI number, it doesn't necessarily mean that they've transferred the paperwork to the Singapore visa office right? Should I wait until e-Cas tells me that the paperwork's been transferred to Singapore before I send more proofs then?


Edit:

Just looked at our civil wedding certificate a few seconds ago, and in fact its lower part mentions the name of the cathedral where we had the matrimony, the date of the ceremony, the religion in which the marriage was performed, and the name of the priest...!! (The upper part, on the other hand, mentions that we had our marriage recorded at the civil registry, the civil registration number, as well as the civil registration date (which happens to be the same as the religious wedding date))
Hopefully this is a good thing........

 

[steerpike]

I married my Indonesian wife in a baptist church and there was no special "religious" marriage certificate. The only one we have is the government issued one which was signed by Pastor because he performed the ceremony.

If your church provides a second certificate, i dont think you need to submit it.

 

[amikety]

Since you're both Catholic and married in the church, I think you should've included it. However, you could send it later or wait to see if the VO requests it. They may wonder why two Catholics don't have a Catholic certificate or they might think the civil is good enough. Unfortunately, we can't read the VO's mind!

Good luck!

 

[fandv]

Since you're both Catholic and married in the church, I think you should've included it. However, you could send it later or wait to see if the VO requests it. They may wonder why two Catholics don't have a Catholic certificate or they might think the civil is good enough. Unfortunately, we can't read the VO's mind!

Good luck!

Yeah hopefully the civil one is enough! =/ But as mentioned in my addendum in my first post: the civil certificate (which we did submit) does in fact mention about the religious wedding, the date, church name, priest's name...hmmmmm...

 

[anticipation]

"I thought it would be hard here in Indonesia to find a sworn translator that can translate Latin to English"

If you do send it don't get it translated from Latin, just send it along with a note about what it is. We sent along a copy of the sermon the minister gave for us, just to show the sincerity of the ceremony. That's all this certificate would be for. Or just to show you had one as would be expected from a Catholic service. But really after everything else you've sent I wouldn't worry about it.

Good luck.

 

[fandv]

"I thought it would be hard here in Indonesia to find a sworn translator that can translate Latin to English"

If you do send it don't get it translated from Latin, just send it along with a note about what it is.

Good luck.

I thought all non-English documents must be accompanied with a (sworn) English translation?

 

[amikety]

I thought all non-English documents must be accompanied with a (sworn) English translation?

Maybe it'll be close to French that they ran read it

 

[Luckyman]

We did the same thing, civil ceremony in Seychelles (great place for honeymoon too) and Catholic wedding in Masbate, Phils.

The Catholic church would not marry us, as we were already married in Seychelles, however they blessed our marriage into catholosism, and provided a "mock" ceremony.....which appears as a normal wedding but is not in fact "the" wedding.....if that makes any sense.

I assume this is a similar situation as yours, and yes we did only submit the certificate from Seychelles, as that is our official marriage certificate.....however, as part of the application we explained about the catholic blessing and mock wedding ceremony into our religion, and also included all the picture evidence...as the wedding party was HUGE!

In the Philippines, the official ROM, or record of marriage registered with statistics (NSO) cannot use a non-official marriage certificate, and therefore states the date of our civil ceremony in Seychelles...again I assume this is similar to you.

So, I'd say you should have nothing to worry about if you provided the details in your application and pictures of both ceremonies. The document you obtained from the church is only evidence that you were there and, my opinion is that the pictures included are the best evidence.

Cheers!

 

[muchacha]

Same here. We included our "official" civil marriage certificate, but not the Catholic sacrament certificate. To be honest I didn't even think of getting a copy made to send. We did include lots of photos of our Catholic wedding ceremony, in the church, with the priest. Proof can come in different forms! What you sent should be enough, and if it isn't, they will give you a chance to send more.