Marriage certificate conundrum!

I'm in a bit of a panic.  I have three copies of my marriage certificate-- one is a copy I got from the county clerk where we got married, which is stamped, certifying that it's a "true and correct copy of the record in this court."  It is signed by someone from the clerk district court with the title "Deputy."  This is what we have as our original, since they don't give you their original copy of the record-- that is turned in when it's signed and completed after the marriage.  I also ordered another from the office so we would have two.  The other is a copy of the marriage certificate without the stamp/signature saying it's a true and correct copy.  On this one, the clerk office stamped it with a big, bold "DUPLICATE" on the bottom.

Okay, so I have two applications needing the marriage certificate: my son's UK passport application and my spousal visa application.  What should I send where?  Both are certified copies from the exact same office, but they look different.  Should I send the stamped and signed one with my visa application and the other with my son's passport application?  Would I be able to get a notarized copy of the stamped and signed one?  Since it's not a notarized copy itself, I would think it would be okay to get a copy made and notarized, right?  I'm sorry this is so convoluted! 

Technically, the passport application only says "full" marriage certificate, not original, although I'm sure it's implied they want originals.  What should I do?  I'm leaning toward getting the stamped and signed version copied and notarized, and sending that with the passport application and the other with the visa application.  Help!

My opinion is that you should be ok with the two that you have.  They are official copies, which is good enough (in a fast track country).

You could tried to get them notarised, but I am not sure what that is going to prove and by whom.  Notaries usually just validate that something that was signed was signed by the person signing it in their presence.  There is some ambuguity between what are considered "certified copies" that the UKBA is after and a notarised document.  You can walk into a lot of places in the UK (mostly lawyers) and get them to make a copy of an original document and attest to it being a copy of the orginal document and to mark it a certified copy.

If I send the one stamped "DUPLICATE" with an application, do you think I should include something explaining that it's a duplicate directly from the original?  And I'm sure there's no right answer to this, but would you say it'd be better to send the "DUPLICATE" one with the passport application or visa application?  I can't really decide which application would favor having the more official-looking copy :/

They are both valid, so don't worry which you send where.  The duplicate means that it is a second copy issued by the people who issued the first, so it is as official as the first.

You certainly don't need to make certified copies or get them notorised.


Vicky

Thanks!  As you can probably tell, I'm getting pretty freaking nervous!  I've got my application all filled out and ready to submit online, I'm getting together the few remaining items for the package tomorrow, then I'll be ready to submit and get my bio appointment, ahh!!