... in response to Heading Back, posted by JimmyUkraine on Jun 22, 2004Well, Jimmy, speaking from experience, get a registered copy of your marriage certificate, get a letter of apostille for it from your state's State Department (make them emboss it with raised print), then get them sealed together down the side (sewn if you can manage it). Once you are in Ukraine, take to a translator/notary office and have it translated and notarized.
Is all this necessary? Perhaps not, but my wife had a lot of headaches coming back last year from Ukraine, as her green card had her married name and her passport had her maiden name. She had a copy of our marriage certificate, but she still had headaches clearing passport control in Kiev and also in Warsaw. The apostille should help a bit there, and the translated copy in Ukrainian/Russian will make it easier also when you leave the country.
This year, my wife is trying to get her last name changed in her Ukrainian passport to match her married name. It's a long, convoluted process, and it has cost us quite a bit in time and money so far. Whether she will get that far or not remains to be seen...