6 April 2018 at 9:30PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Marriage, Relationships & Families I hope I'm not just being thick, but I'm looking at my marriage certificate (going through all the name change hassle!) and I don't know which is the marriage certificate number. Wallet Certificates. A set of (2) wallet-sized marriage or civil union records are $15 and $4 for each additional copy. Although smaller, these records are also certified legal copies of your marriage or civil union and perfect for carrying in your pocket.
- Marriage licenses are available at the Page and Williams Justice Courts and at the Clerk of the Superior Court office at the courthouse, which is located at 200 N. San Francisco St. in Flagstaff.
- Both parties must appear together, in person, for the issuance of the license.
- Issuance of the marriage license must occur prior to the marriage ceremony.
- Fees are $83 in cash, cashier's check, or money order. Note: the Williams Justice Court does not accept cash as payment. Please use cashier's check or money order only at that location.
- Both parties will provide a driver's license, a state issued identification card or a passport to verify both parties' legal names.
- Social Security numbers are required from U.S. citizens
- Parties must be 18 years of age or older, or:
- Parties 16-17 years of age must have at least one parent's consent or the legal guardian's consent;
- Parties under 16 years of age must have at least one parent's consent or the legal guardian's consent and a judge's order.
- The license is valid for marriage anywhere within the State of Arizona and the marriage must be performed within one year of the date of issuance of the license.
- The marriage license will need to be returned within 10 days after the marriage ceremony. The license can be mailed in or dropped off. The recorded license will then be mailed to the address of record provided at the time of license issuance.
- For individuals wishing to have a civil marriage performed by a Justice of the Peace, please contact that appropriate court for further information.
- For military service members, it is highly recommended that an Affidavit of Record of Marriage is also purchased with the marriage license. The military has advised that their records division will only process the Affidavit of Record of Marriage versus the original marriage license.
Affidavit of Record of Marriage
An Affidavit of Record of Marriage, sometimes called a replacement certified marriage license or certified copy, is a legal document representing the original marriage license. An Affidavit of Record of Marriage may be used in lieu of the original for all government purposes such as passports, Social Security, and motor vehicle department name changes. An Affidavit of Marriage may also be used for private sector uses, such as for insurance or financial processes. An Affidavit of Marriage can only be obtained at the Clerk's Office where the original license was obtained, regardless of where the ceremony was performed in the State of Arizona.
An Affidavit of Record of Marriage can be obtained either by mail or coming into the Clerk of the Superior Court office. To order an Affidavit of Record of Marriage, a $30 cashier’s check or money order payable to the Clerk of Superior Court will be mailed to the Clerk of Superior Court, 200 N San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. Please include a letter that contains the full names of both parties and the approximate date of the marriage. Please include a contact phone number and email address, as we may have questions regarding your request. If the original marriage license is available, please include the marriage license number, which is identified as the book and page number in the lower right hand corner of the marriage license. You will also need to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of the document. If you do not know the year of the marriage, you will need to include an additional $30.00 for research. The public is always welcome to come to our office in the County Courthouse to conduct their own research, at no cost, if they choose to do so. Cash, cashier’s checks and money orders are accepted at our service counter.
To return to the Clerk of the Superior Court's main page, click here.
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa |
| Publication Date | 5 June 2006 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | IRN101296.E |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Iran: The 'shenasnameh,' including application and reissuance procedure, physical characteristics, security features, period of validity, meaning of inscriptions, significance of identification number and difference between the shenasnameh and the national identification card (2006), 5 June 2006, IRN101296.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/46fb72fbc.html [accessed 12 December 2020] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The following information on the shenasnameh was provided by an official of the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC in a telephone interview with the Research Directorate on 4 May 2006. The shenasnameh is the equivalent of a birth certificate and when one applies for a shenasnameh at the Department of Vital Statistics, one must present their birth certificate provided by the hospital (hereinafter a hospital birth certificate) (Pakistan 4 May 2006). After issuing the shenasnameh, the Department of Vital Statistics retains the hospital birth certificate in their archives, in the case the shenasnameh becomes lost (ibid.). Either parent can apply for their child's shenasnameh, though both parents' hospital birth certificates must be presented (ibid.). Adults applying for a shenasnameh must present their own hospital birth certificate as well as their parents' hospital birth certificates and marriage certificate (ibid. 8 May 2006).
The shenasnameh is valid for the lifetime of the bearer, but the photo must be updated, the official at the Embassy of Pakistan could not specify how often (ibid. 4 May 2006). A minor's shenasnameh does not contain a photo and contains two pages while an adult's shenasnameh has four pages: pages are simply added to the minor's shenasnameh when the holder reaches the age of majority (ibid.).
When asked about the meaning of the inscriptions on each page of the shenasnameh, the official stated that the first page of the shenasnameh is the cover page, the second page contains the photo of the bearer, the names of the bearer's parents, the birth date and the place of birth of the bearer, the location where the shenasnameh was issued, the name of the person who issued it and the serial number (ibid.). The third page contains information on the bearer's marriage as well as information regarding the bearer's children, if any (ibid.).
The official also explained that in the case one loses their shenasnameh, a stamp is affixed to the new shenasnameh indicating almosana (spelling may vary), meaning that the document is the second shenasnameh issued to the same person, and a new date of issuance is printed on it (ibid.). At death, the shenasnameh becomes null and void and a stamp is affixed to it indicating that the bearer is deceased in order to prevent fraudulent use (ibid.).
An official of the Immigration Section of the Canadian Embassy in Tehran obtained the following information from a local Civil Status Registration Office in Iran and communicated it to the Research Directorate in 9 May 2006 correspondence:
In the matter of a first-time shenasnameh, (normally the parents of a newborn child request this) the hospital where the infant is born issues a certificate stating the birth of the child, then the parents go to their local Civil Status Registration Office along with their own shenasnamehs and request a shenasnameh for their child.
Note: The shenas-nameh does not bear any picture of the person until she/he reaches 15 years of age.
In case of loss of shenasnameh, the person refers to a Civil Status Registration Office ('Sabt-e-Ahvaal') and requests a new shenasnameh following this procedure: Submitting an ID or official document, such as driver's license, passport, or national card ('carte melli') that bears a picture of the applicant, and his/her first name and last name. This document must also contain the (lost) shenasnameh number and the district (or city) where it was issued, so that the lost shenasnameh will be searchable in the Civil Status Office computer database. Also, the person must submit an affidavit signed by witnesses (usually neighbours) stating that the person is who she/he claims to be. The issue date of the replacement shenasnameh would be different from the original shenasnameh and reflects the date that the second shenasnameh has been issued.
In contrast, a consular officer of the Embassy of Iran in Ottawa indicated in a telephone interview with the Research Directorate on 23 November 2004 that the date of issue is not shown on the shenasnameh, irrespective of whether it is an original or a replacement, or whether it was issued before or after 1992. According to the consular officer, no date of issue has ever been indicated on a shenasnameh because, unlike a passport, the shenasnameh does not have an expiry date and it is valid for an unspecified period of time (Iran 23 Nov. 2004).
The official at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran indicated that the section where the codes assigned to the bearer's fingerprints appear on the shenasnameh is rarely filled out (Canada 9 May 2006). In fact, the official stated that she had never seen a shenasnameh with the fingerprints code section filled out (ibid.).
Regarding the meaning of the shenasnameh identification number, which is located on the second page of the document, the official indicated that the number can range from one to five digits and has no special significance (ibid. 30 May 2006). The official also stated: 'I have also seen many instances when people have had the same shenasnameh number' (ibid.). However, an executive officer of the Iranian Association at the University of Toronto (IAUT), an independent cultural, academic and social organization that seeks to promote activities related to Iran (IAUT 5 May 2004, Art. 1), provided the following information on the shenasnameh identification number based on her personal knowledge in correspondence to the Research Directorate:
Certificate Serial Number Format
The numbers on the shenasnameh uniquely identify individuals if combined with year of birth number and birth location. In each location, in each year, the numbers start from 1 at the start of the year (Persian year starts at March 21st normally – spring) and start incrementing based on the birth date inside the year. Therefore, somebody born in Fall/Winter probably has a larger ID number. Also in very small cities, somebody born in March 30th, probably has an ID number less than 100~200. But in large cities like Tehran, these numbers increase very fast (29 May 2006).
Regarding the differences between a shenasnameh issued or updated in 1992 or later and earlier shenasnamehs, the following information was provided to the Research Directorate by an official at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in correspondence sent on 17 February 1998. New Iranian identity documents bear the same date of issue as the old identity documents. The print of the bearer's forefinger is affixed inside the cover page of Iranian identity documents. Both new and old identity documents contain four pages. Identity documents issued after 1986 have red covers and are 10 by 14 centimetres in size, which is smaller than pre-1986 identity documents.
As for security features on the shenasnameh, the official from the Canadian Embassy in Tehran stated that 'there aren't many' (30 May 2006). The official provided the example of the photo on the shenasnameh, which is simply affixed to the document and stamped at the Civil Status Registration Office, and stated that the photo could easily be replaced (Canada 30 May 2006). The official at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran also explained that a shenasnameh could easily be reissued if the bearer claims that it has been lost; '[t]his so-called glitch is often abused, for example a married person can simply omit to mention the spouse's name when getting the new shenasnameh, and therefore become 'single' in the duplicate shenasnameh' (ibid.). According to the official, a Shomareh Melli (National Number), consisting of 10 digits, would be replacing the shenasnameh numbering system, but did not indicate when this would take effect (ibid.).
The following information was provided by an official of the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC in a telephone interview with the Research Directorate on 4 May 2006. The official indicated that although a national identification (ID) card is being issued to all Iranian nationals, this card does not replace the shenasnameh (Pakistan 4 May 2006). The advantages of the national ID card is that it is smaller than the shenasnameh (i.e. the size of a driver's license) and it contains general information about the holder in an electronic format, enabling the authorities to simply scan the national ID card to obtain information on the holder (ibid.). According to the official at the Embassy of Pakistan, not all Iranian nationals possess a national ID card; however, everyone is assigned a national ID number, which is required to obtain or renew one's passport (ibid.). National ID cards are issued only to persons who are 15 years or older and, according to the official at the Embassy of Pakistan, it is simply a formality to obtain the card (ibid.).
Marriage Certificate Serial Number Location 302
Similarly, an executive officer of IAUT provided the following information on the national ID card, based on her personal knowledge, in correspondence to the Research Directorate:
Note that Shenasnameh is no longer the main identifying document in Iran. There is a new National ID concept introduced 3-4 years ago and almost all Iranians have the National ID card/number by now. The new National ID has a unique ID number for each Iranian individual. Shenasnameh will probably be out of the system in 5 years from now (or more). At this point, both are used, but I heard that just recently the Immigration Department in Iran as well as Embassies require the National ID in order to issue new passport and Shenasnameh doesn't suffice any more.... The new National ID cards have the picture [of the bearer] printed on them with a dozen of security features on the card that makes it hard to fake or alter it. The look of the new National ID card, is very much like the OHIP or Driver's license here in Ontario (29 May 2006).
Please find attached an example of a shenasnameh with notes written by a visa assistant at the Immigration Section of the Canadian Embassy in Tehran indicating the meaning of the inscriptions on each page of the shenasnameh. Please note that this example does not include the cover page.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
References
Canada. 30 May 2006. Canadian Embassy, Tehran. Immigration Section. Correspondence sent by an official.
_____. 9 May 2006. Canadian Embassy, Tehran. Immigration Section. Correspondence sent by an official.
Executiver Officer, Iranian Association at the University of Toronto (IAUT). 29 May 2006. Correspondence.
Iran. 23 November 2004. Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ottawa. Telephone interview with a consular officer.
_____. 17 February 1998. Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ottawa. Correspondence sent by an official.
Iranian Association at the University of Toronto (IAUT). 5 May 2004. Constitution.
Pakistan. 8 May 2006. Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, DC. Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Telephone interview with an officer.
_____. 4 May 2006. Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, DC. Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Telephone interview with an officer.
Additional Sources Consulted
Oral Sources: The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London, the National Organization for Civil Registration of Iran and the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence [Tehran] did not provide information within the time constraints of this Response.
Attempts to contact the International Federation of Iranian Refugees were unsuccessful.
Marriage Certificate Document Serial Number
Internet sites, including: Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs of Australia; Embassy of Pakistan, Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ottawa; Factiva; Iran Daily; Iran Focus; Iran Human Rights Documentation Center [New Haven, United States]; Iranian Community Association of Ontario; Iranian Information and Documentation Center; Islamic Republic News Agency; Keesing's Document Checker; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Tehran Times; United States Department of State; World News Connection.
Attachment
Canada. 9 May 2006. Canadian Embassy, Tehran. Annotated facsimile of a shenasnameh, including the meaning of the inscriptions that appear on each page, 3 pp.