A Las Vegas marriage certificate not recognised by an Irish department

rakmator

A friend needs advice

A Ukrainian woman married her Irish husband about 10 years ago or so in Las Vegas…. Then they moved to Ireland, and lived happily until he died last year… The marriage was recognised by various department over the years: she moved to Ireland to live with him and eventually became an Irish citizen.

The guy died and the woman applied for a widow pension. The department refused because the certificate is from Las Vegas and does not apparently mention their civil status at the time of their marriage (neither was married). The department suggests that because of this, the marriage cannot be considered to be a civil one but is in fact a religious ceremony.

The marriage certificate obtained was a certified one.

any advice?

Thanks!

She should tell the Dept she wants a little less conversation, a little more action.

rakmator

it’s devastating for a person to lose her husband and this whole “we don’t recognise your marriage” thing is making the whole thing even worse…

does anybody know what could be done in this situation?

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006236#Comment_122006236

Yeah, get legal advice. The circumstances are fairly unique so it's unlikely that many people will be able to share similar experiences to you.

Pauliedragon

Sounds like they got married in a church but didn't fill out the paperwork to make it legally recognised in which case in the eyes of the department it's not recognised. When I got married in a church it wasn't legally recognised until we filled out the legal paperwork after the ceremony.

Peregrinus

What she needs to establish is that her marriage was valid under the law of Nevada, the state in which it was celebrated. I don't know, obviously, exactly what document she submitted to the Dept of Social Protection, but it's possible that it was a document issued on the spot by the wedding chapel in which the ceremony was held. That's generally not good enough for official purposes.

After the ceremony was held, the marriage would have been registered at the Clark County Clerk's Office so that details could be entered in the Register of Marriages maintained by the State of Nevada. It's the celebrant's job to do this; he has 10 days to do it.

Once a marriage has been registered with the State in this way, you can get a marriage certificate — any number of marriage certificates, as many as you like — which are basically very official-looking documents that say "yup, a marriage between X and Y was celebrated in Clark County on X date and has been registered with us". It will look something like you see here.

Officials of other states and countries will generally accept this as sufficient evidence that the marriage was validly celebrated in Nevada.

The key issue is that you need a certificate issued by the State of Nevada and authenticated by an official of the County in which the ceremony was performed (which, for Las Vegas, is Clark County). A document issued on the day of the ceremony by the Sweetie Honeypie Wedding Chapel and signed only by the celebrant, or whoever, won't cut it.

You can search here for the details of the registration of your marriage in Clark County, and here is a page telling you how to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate.

On edit: If what she has submitted is a proper marriage certificate issued by the State and she has still been refused, then (on the limited information provided in the OP) this looks to me like a mistake.

You can appeal a decision to refuse a benefit (or most other decisions in relation to social welfare matters). There's a Social Welfare Appeals Office that reviews the decision. The process is outlined here. Note that the time limit is very tight; in general you need to appeal within 21 days ofthe letter notifying you of the refusal. So the OP's friend should lose no time.