New York City Marriage Bureau — Local services in New York

The security guards running the metal detector are on a major power trip. Their attitudes towards the public are a bad reflection on American policing.

The woman on duty when I visited commanded that I step back behind a line on the floor until she specifically called me forward despite the fact that no one was ahead of me. I did so and upon being called forward (2 seconds later) she then further scolded me for pre-emptively placing my items into a basket without her express permission to do so. She suggested that I may not be able to read, given my ignoring of the stop and wait sign, and advised me that reading is very important throughout the licensing process.

The Marriage Bureau uses airport style security, similarly to most court houses. Having passed through countless such security checkpoints in my life, it's unquestionably the convention that one steps forward to the belt and places their items in the buckets if there is noone in front of you so as to speed up the process for those behind you. "Stop and Wait" signs, in this context, generally only serve a function if there are already people at the belt and those at the sign need to be told that overcrowding the belt would be inappropriate.

To some degree, I can understand the command to abide by the sign, despite it serving no practical function in context, but the command to wait for the officer to provide a bucket did not seem reasonable in the moment and the comment the which questioned my literacy seemed totally unprofessional.

I hope that the officer's attitude, to whom I hold no ill will, was a rare deviation from an otherwise professional manning of the security checkpoint and not her standard means of interacting with the public. I write this review so as to warn others that they may expect similar treatment from the security.

Once inside, the rest of the staff...

Incredibly rude. I have emailed and called numerous times since 2020 to see what I need to obtain my mother’s marriage certificate (she lives abroad and needs it for immigration purposes) and every time I called, NO ONE was able to tell me what I needed. Every time I’d call, they would say “I don’t know”, “Just look at the website” or “just email them”. I have emailed and NO ONE has responded. I sent the form to request the marriage certificate along with documentation through mail with proof as to why I need it along with documentation that proves that I’m the daughter (since no one was able to tell me EXACTLY what I needed) and my request got rejected. I went in person with all documentation that proves why I need the marriage certificate for my mother and they didn’t even bother to listen to me. They kept interrupting me and didn’t even look at the documents that I had with me as proof. They just kept handing me the same paper over and over again and were clearly in a rush to get me out of there. They were very unprofessional, unresponsive and utterly unhelpful with no willingness to help me solve this issue. I understand that I need something written from my mother authorizing me to get the marriage certificate but WHY WAS NO ONE ABLE TO TELL ME THAT BEFORE OVER THE PHONE? I have been calling and asking for information for over SIX MONTHS! I am dealing with a time sensitive immigration process with my mother and they were unable to work something out with me.

The pictures below show that they handed me the same exact document three times and didn’t even realize it because they were in such a rush to get me out of there. The other picture is to show that they didn’t even want to listen to what I had to say and just handed me the form to request the marriage certificate although I already had...

Big issue!!!!! There are 4 options to change your surname on your marriage application. My fiancé and I chose to combine our last names into 1. Example: Donald and Conner = Doncon. She kept telling me this isn't allowed and we would have to go to court to get this done. I exclaimed that "it says it right on your own website" that it's allowed and she kept shaking her head no and she had the audacity to tell ME that I wasn't listening to her. She was saying how I misunderstood and being rude to me, she showed me examples of what she thought was right, I told her that's wrong. I was listening but she wasn't listening to me. I asked for the manager and she talked to him in the distance ( even though I asked to speak to him personally) she came back like a dog with its tails between their legs and quietly changed our new surname to the combined one, (Doncon) while eating her words, her dignity crumbling with each letter typed into the keyboard. haha that was so sweet. It's messed up how she didn't even know the rules at her own job and it breaks my heart to think of how many people she screwed over. Stick to your guns people. You CAN combine your name into one unique name. She couldn't even look at me because she knew she was wrong. She didn't apologize for being rude. I'm glad I could teach her a lesson. What a joyous event had to be turned into a dispute over her ignorance. Other than that, that place was actually decent. Besides her, friendly staff. It was great. I would recommend this place, just know your rights before you head up there. Fought city hall, literally. Haha ps: Doncon is...