Marriage officiant won’t sign license!

[DaDunDun]

What is the name of your state? Minnesota
Hold on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
April 13th 2024 - husband and I get married and officiant signs license

April end 2024 - we find out that license never made it to the county. County says that the officiant needs to re-sign the license with the original marriage date and we’ll be fine



End April to July 2024 - officiant keeps avoiding us and giving us reasons why she cannot meet. We offer more money, she keeps making excuses about being busy. Goes AWOL for weeks.

July 4th 2024 - Officiant blocks both me and my husband after we reach out to Universal Life Church and they contact her too. Mind you, we have been SUPER kind to her and have not been annoying or demanding. We just need 30seconds of her time and offer to meet her anywhere she needs to meet.

Other options: we cannot get remarried since we’re legally married now. A couple lawyers and the county suggest we petition the county and have them issue us a certificate. This will cost close to $3000. Called the volunteer lawyers network in my city and they declined to take the case. So, IF WE DO THIS WE WILL SUE HER.

Any other options anyone can think of???


Outstanding issues: husband has a chronic disease and loses his school insurance soon and needs to get onto my insurance.

Can I bring him on as a domestic partner? Someone told me that’s illegal since he’s my husband and submitting a notarized document saying he’s my domestic partner is fraud.

We’re poor and afraid and unsure of how to move forward. Thanks in advance!

 

[Taxing Matters]

Other options: we cannot get remarried since we’re legally married now.

If the state considers the marriage valid without the signature then there should be no need to track the person down at this point. If the marriage is not valid because the signature is missing then doing a simple, inexpensive marriage would fix the problem so long as you follow the steps correctly.

 

[adjusterjack]

we cannot get remarried since we’re legally married now

I'm not sure I agree.

What I am getting from your post is that there is no documentary evidence of your marriage in your hands or at the county marriage records.

Ergo, I think you can take the position that you aren't married.

Now go to the justice of the peace and get married.

Make sure you keep copies of all the documents for yourself this time.

If the first marriage certificate ever turns up, well, I don't think there is anything illegal about being married to the same person twice. Plus, you'll have two anniversaries to celebrate every year. (grin)

One more thing. Write the b---h up on Yelp so everyone can see what she is like.

 

[DaDunDun]

If the state considers the marriage valid without the signature then there should be no need to track the person down at this point. If the marriage is not valid because the signature is missing then doing a simple, inexpensive marriage would fix the problem so long as you follow the steps correctly.

Thank you so much for your response! If the county considers our marriage legal, how do we get a document that says so for proof - without having to petition the court? Happy 4th of July!

 

[DaDunDun]

I'm not sure I agree.

What I am getting from your post is that there is no documentary evidence of your marriage in your hands or at the county marriage records.

Ergo, I think you can take the position that you aren't married.

Now go to the justice of the peace and get married.

Make sure you keep copies of all the documents for yourself this time.

If the first marriage certificate ever turns up, well, I don't think there is anything illegal about being married to the same person twice. Plus, you'll have two anniversaries to celebrate every year. (grin)

One more thing. Write the b---h up on Yelp so everyone can see what she is like.

Thanks for the response! I am not a U.S. citizen (here on a work visa) and my husband is. Our immigration lawyer told us it would be a bad idea to get married again , and so have other lawyers, apparently it is illegal to marry the same person twice. Are there any work around or loopholes I am unaware of?

 

[adjusterjack]

I am not a U.S. citizen (here on a work visa) and my husband is.

Should have said that at the beginning.

You can ignore anything that you've read here so far, now that there's an immigration issue.

 

[LdiJ]

Should have said that at the beginning.

You can ignore anything that you've read here so far, now that there's an immigration issue.

I agree. The immigration issue means that they need to be following the advice of the immigration attorney. However, if by any chance the officiant wasn't actually able to officially perform marriages, then that might explain why she is ghosting them now. If she is not official she may have never sent in the marriage license in the first place. It also might make a difference in the immigration attorney's advice.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Thanks for the response! I am not a U.S. citizen (here on a work visa) and my husband is. Our immigration lawyer told us it would be a bad idea to get married again , and so have other lawyers, apparently it is illegal to marry the same person twice. Are there any work around or loopholes I am unaware of?

The issue you need to resolve first is whether your state recognizes the marriage as valid even though the officiating party failed to sign the marriage certificate or whatever document. For that, consulting a family law attorney in the state the marriage license was issued would be a really good idea. If the state treats your marriage as valid, then there is nothing further for you to do. If the marriage is NOT valid than the two of you are not married now and fixing that by getting married means you are getting married to your spouse for the first time, as far as the law would be concerned. After you determine whether the marriage is valid then you may want to see an immigration attorney to find what impact this incident has, if any, on your immigration status.

 

[adjusterjack]

The issue you need to resolve first is whether your state recognizes the marriage as valid even though the officiating party failed to sign the marriage certificate or whatever document.

Failing to sign a document is one thing, but OP seems to imply that there is no documentation of the marriage extant.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Failing to sign a document is one thing, but OP seems to imply that there is no documentation of the marriage extant.

It's not at all clear what the events were that the OP relies on for saying that there is a marriage. Assuming the OP gave all the pertinent information to the lawyers that were consulted, their response that it's a bad idea to get married twice suggests the lawyers believed, or least assumed, the marriage was valid. Thus the first thing the OP needs to do is determine whether the state recognizes the marriage the the OP is saying took place. The only way for the OP to do that is provide a copy of all the records involved and any other relevant facts then put the question squarely to the lawyer: is there a valid marriage? If there is, there is nothing left to do. If there isn't a valid marriage then the way to fix that is to try again and get it right. If the only hangup in making it valid is that lack of signature of a person who was authorized to preside over the ceremony and sign the marriage certificate just starting fresh and getting the marriage right is likely to be faster and cheaper than the run around the OP is experiencing in tracking this person down. And if that person wasn't authorized to sign it, all that effort would be wasted anyway, other than to perhaps sue that person for the costs caused in fraudently representing that he was authorized to do it.

 

[zddoodah]

Any other options anyone can think of?

Have a friend do an online ordination, go through another (informal) ceremony, and have the newly-ordained friend sign the license.