Legal
Articles tagged Legal from The VRO Blog.
What the County Clerk Actually Wants Before They'll Issue a Marriage License
Marriage licensing is a county function and there is no national checklist. Three counties, three different answers, and two situations that reliably derail an appointment.
Annulments: Whether a Record Exists, and What You Can Actually Get a Copy Of
An annulment treats a marriage as never validly formed, but it still creates a court record. Here is what exists, who holds it, and which document an agency actually wants.
Social Security Says You're Dead: How the Error Happens and How to Get It Reversed
Benefits stop, accounts freeze, and the fix runs through a field office that will only accept originals or agency-certified copies. Here is what to bring and what to ask for.
VA Burial and Survivor Benefits: The Records the VA Asks For, and the Two-Year Clock
VA wants a death certificate that includes the cause of death, and for most non-service-connected deaths the burial claim has a two-year deadline families miss while grieving.
Apostilling a Death Certificate: Settling an Estate, Pension, or Property Abroad
A foreign bank, pension, or land registry needs the death certificate authenticated, not just certified. The sequencing is what catches families out, and the deadline is usually already running.
Utah Just Launched the First Full Digital Apostille — and Birth Certificates Are Excluded
Utah now issues e-Apostilles delivered by email. Vital records are the one category left out, which means a Utah birth or death certificate still travels on paper.
You Got Married Abroad: Why There Is No U.S. Marriage Record, and What to Use Instead
No U.S. state or federal agency registers a marriage performed overseas, so there is nothing to order. Here is where the record actually lives and how to make it usable here.
Applying for Social Security Survivor Benefits: The Documents SSA Wants, and Which Must Be Originals
SSA accepts photocopies of some documents and demands originals of most others. Here is the survivor claim's document list and what the originals rule means in practice.
Virginia Adoptees Can Now Get Their Original Birth Certificate Without a Court Order
House Bill 301 took effect July 1, 2026, removing the court-order requirement for adult adoptees born in Virginia. Here is what changed and how the new request works.