I don’t know if my situation is that unique but I need some clarifications:

My husband and I are both Canadian citizens.  He was born in Canada to Spanish parents and he also got a Spanish passport and spanish citizenship at the same time.

We got married last year in Cuba and we have a marriage certificate in Spanish that has also been stamped by the Canadian embassy in Havana(that makes it legal in Canada)

We called today the Spanish Consulate in Toronto to ask what documents are necessary to register the marriage.  My husband explained everything that there is a possibility that we one day we might move to Spain so we wanted to take care of all necessary paperwork that we can do from here. 

Now hear this:

The person on the other end told my husband that in order for me to work in Spain I would have to give up my Canadian citizenship.  Now this sounds really ridiculous because having the ability to work and citizenship to me were two different things.  I think the Consulate is wrong.  I can understand that if I ever wanted to get Spanish passport I may have to give up my Canadian passport, but you can still be a permanent resident of one country and have a passport of another in most places in Europe if I am not mistaken

Has anyone gone through a similar situation with marriage to a Spanish citizen?  Does anyone know what steps we have to take to get all the necessary documents in order to be able to function in Spain normally?  My husband only has his Spanish passport.  He has never worked or lived there on a permanent basis so he does not have that NIE number(I think that’s what it is called)

Spain doesn?t have a double nationality treaty with Canad?. That?s why if your husband wanted to claim his spanish nationality ( because of having spanish mother and father) would have to renounce his canadian nationality. Of course,as you can prove you are married, you would have residency and work rights in Spain.

Of course that is not the only way for you to have work and residency permits in Spain, but definitively would be the easier one. Other way, you would need to come to Spain with your work visa from Canada with a previous work contract.

Thanks Maria,

My husband was born in Canada and since both his mother and father are spanish, my husband was registered with the Spanish consulate at the time of his birth.  He has always maintained his Spanish passport and recently had to get a Canadian passport for business travel to the USA.  When he called the Spanish Consulate in Toronto about a year ago he was told there was absolutely no problem in him having both Canadian (because of being born in Canada) and Spanish passports at the same time as long as he maintains his Spanish passport and does not allow it to expire.

We decide to get married outside of Canada and our marriage certificate indicates us as Canadians since we both live and work in Canada and that was the most logical option.

Our question is as follows: Can our marriage certificate from Cuba be used to register with the Spanish Consulate and therefore be recognized by the country of Spain as a valid marriage being a Spanish citizen (my husband) and myself (Canadian).

Thanks again for your input.

Information from the Spanish Consulate in Canad?:

Marriages

Once the marriage is registered, this Consulate will provide you with a FAMILY BOOK.

The procedure may be to have your marriage registered in Canad? first. Have you thought about registering it in Spain directly?