Hi all, I wanted to give you an updated walk-through of the process my Spanish fianc? and I have gone through to get married (our wedding date is May 18, 2011 and will be a civil ceremony, I cannot speak to church ceremonies), in the hope that it will help future couples who might be confused. We are in Madrid, so everything I say applies there. Procedures may vary a bit according to where you are. First, yes, there’s a fair amount of paperwork, but it REALLY isn’t that difficult, I promise.

The first thing I did was go to the Registro Civil in the calle Pradillo and request “Informaci?n sobre matrimonios civiles.” They will hand you a 3-4 page document that tells you EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO DO. If you read it carefully and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, you won’t have to go through a lot of the frustration that many complain about.

Bear in mind that ALL PAPERWORK EXPIRES three months from the date that you get it, so once you have everything in hand you need to move fast.

If you are doing this in Madrid, at least one of you MUST be empadronado in Madrid.

Also, MAKE AT LEAST TWO PHOTOCOPIES OF EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT…just in case.

YOU BOTH WILL NEED:

An original birth certificate. For the Spanish citizen, this is obtained from the Registro Civil in the region in which he or she was born. Do some creative googling here - my fianc? was born in a pueblo of Ja?n and we were able to request his birth certificate online. It arrived, I swear to you, four days after we requested it. They must be unusually organized in Ja?n. I understand that they can take up to 30 days to arrive.

For the American citizen, you will need an original birth certificate stamped with the Hague Apostille and translated by an official translator into Spanish. I ordered my copy online, had it sent to my parents’ house in Arizona, and when it arrived my mother went to the Secretary of State’s office in Arizona, paid $3, and they stamped it with the Hague Apostille (again - do some creative googling as the procedure to get the Hague Apostille varies from state to state). Then she priority mailed it to me. I then found a sworn translator via this page: http://www.traductorjurado.com/ , got in contact with her, and for ?90 euros she did the translation overnight.

The original and photocopy of both of your DNI’s, NIE’s or passports (you need not copy each page of your passport, just the picture/information page).

A record of where you have lived the last two years. For the Spanish citizen, this is easy-peasy, he or she just needs a historical empadronamiento. This generally can be requested via email as well, from the ayuntamiento of the city in which he or she has been living. We had a complication in that my fianc? had been empadronado all his life in Fuenlabrada, but they made an error and had him dado de baja from 1996. It took us nearly two weeks to convince them it was THEIR error. Just keep trying. We eventually did get the document. If he or she has NOT been empadronado for some reason, you will have to provide a multitude of documents - rental or work contracts, utility bills, bank documents - for every few months of the past two years.

My legal residence was not in Spain (I’ve gone back and forth from Spain to the US for the last several years), but in Arizona, and - bad me - I was not empadronada (do yourself a favor and empadronar if you’re living in Spain, whether or not you are legal. They don’t ask). So I went to the American Embassy (you will need a previous appointment which can be scheduled on their website), where, for a price, they provided me with a document in Spanish, notarized by the vice consul, stating that my legal residence for the past two years was in Arizona. The Embassy is quite used to this, by the way, and very helpful.

We brought a copy of our apartment rental contract together, for good measure, and it turned out to be very useful as they will accept that in lieu of empadronamiento as proof of where you live in Spain.

Instancias y declaraciones juradas, filled out and signed. These are included in the information packet they give you at the Registro Civil, and you must both fill them out and sign them.

Proof of eligibility to marry. In my fianc?‘s case, this was included in the declaraci?n jurada. In mine, I filled out both the declaraci?n jurada AND got a declaration in Spanish from the American Embassy that I am single (eligible to marry) and that the United States does not require the posting of banns (they do this in Spain in case anyone objects to your marrying).

IF YOU ARE DIVORCED:

The Spanish citizen needs his original marriage certificate with the notation of divorce or annulment.

The American citizen needs an ORIGINAL copy of BOTH the marriage AND divorce certificates, with the Hague Apostille attached and an official translation into Spanish (done by that traductor jurado I mentioned above). Depending on the State in which you were divorced, this can be a huge pain in the ass to obtain.

IF YOU ARE WIDOWED:

The Spanish citizen needs the original marriage certificate and the original death certificate of the spouse.

The American citizen needs them both as well, Hague Apostilled and translated officially.

This sounds like a ton of paper, but honestly, it only took us four weeks to obtain everything we needed.

THEN. One of the two of you must go to the Registro Civil with: photocopies of DNI or passport of BOTH, original birth certificates (and the American’s official translation of same) of BOTH an declaraciones juradas of BOTH and wait in the (long) line to request an interview date. I was a bit worried, as they gave the people ahead of me a date two months later, but when I stepped up they gave me one three weeks later - it just depends on availability and the mood of the funcionario in charge.

To be continued in the next post, as this is apparently getting too long.

ON YOUR INTERVIEW DATE

Bring ALL the paperwork and ALL copies with you…and a WITNESS who knows you both (need not be Spanish but MUST speak Spanish - I just served as a witness for two friends) with his or her ID. If one of you does not speak Spanish, you MUST bring a sworn translator with you (I am fluent, fortunately). You will have been given a piece of paper with your appointment date. This allows you to skip the long line and go directly to the funcionario in charge. Give him or her the paper…and sit down to wait till you are called. We waited about 45 minutes, it can be up to two hours or even more depending on how many people are there and what mood the funcionarios are in. Bring a book (we were all reading Stephen King, funnily enough).

WHEN YOU ARE CALLED:

The funcionario will go over all the paperwork with you, bit by bit (more or less cheerfully depending on who you get. Ours, Mario the funcionario, decided that because I was American he had to speak VERY LOUDLY AND SLOWLY to me, until my fianc? and our witness started to speak that way to each other and to him. Then he finally cracked a smile and things went much more smoothly). Once it’s determined that everything is in order, he will take everyone’s id’s and enter them into the computer…and ask some questions of the witness. Generally, how long he has known you both, whether he believes you are both available to marry, whether he believes it to be a real relationship.

Nota bene: I have been told that in some cases the partners are separated and asked questions about each other to determine whether or not it is a real relationship. This NEVER happened with us, not once. Frankly, I was a bit surprised.

Once the paperwork is in the system, you will be given a date on which to pick up your expediente (to find out whether or not it’s approved, too!). This is anywhere from one to three months later (ours was exactly four weeks). In the meantime, you CAN be called in for further interviews if the judge has questions or doubts. THIS WILL LARGELY DEPEND ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE FUNCIONARIO WITH WHOM YOU DEAL, so it behooves you to be cheerful and patient throughout the process, no matter how frustrating it becomes (and it can be INCREDIBLY frustrating trying to deal with Spanish bureaucrats). Mario the Funcionario was quite clear with me that one reason our wait time was (comparatively) so short is we were cheerful, patient, funny, friendly, had all of our paperwork done correctly on the first try, and QUITE CLEARLY a real couple (body language, etc.).

You will also be asked where you want to marry. If you haven’t decided yet, go ahead and say Madrid, once the expediente is ready this can easily be changed, the change takes 3-4 days.

Assuming all goes well and you are not called for further interviews (we were not), one of you goes in on the assigned date and picks up your official permission to marry!

Madrid has a 4-6 month delay for civil marriages, when we picked up our expediente on April 18 they were giving dates for NOVEMBER, so if you want to get married sooner start calling around to pueblos while you wait. The Juzgado de Paz in Arroyomolinos, just outside Fuenlabrada (so still in Madrid province although you can legally get married anywhere in Spain that you want once you have the expediente), had lots of dates available, so that’s where we’re doing it.

We have one more slight snag to deal with - on Wednesday, just before everything closed for Semana Santa, the Juez de Paz in Arroyomolinos called me to tell me that er, she’s now not available on our selected wedding date, can we change it? Frankly, no, as the invitations have already gone out. She and I hit an impasse, so on Monday my wonderful fianc? is going to call and be Very. Serious. This usually works just fine.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

If you have overstayed your tourist visa and are worried about it in terms of getting permission to marry - don’t. No one will ask. No one cares. I promise. I do not mean to imply that no one in Spain cares if you are illegal - just that for purposes of your marriage paperwork, it seems to be irrelevant.

Get ALL the paperwork together well before you go in and double and triple check to make sure you have EVERYTHING ON THE LIST. This will save you hours of aggravation and they will treat you much better at the Registro Civil if they see you’re organized. Once the documents are entered into the system, you no longer need to worry about that three-month expiration date.

PATIENCE, FLEXIBILITY, GOOD CHEER AND A SENSE OF HUMOR are absolutely necessary when dealing with all the papeleo. Keep your eyes on the prize.

And, of course, congratulations!

Hi Konstanz,
Congratulations and good luck for the 18th. Your post brings back memories of when I married two years ago. I’m a Brit and my wife is Spanish. There do seem to be a few things that vary from Ayuntamiento to Ayuntamiento and of course there are differences depending on where you are from. We went to our local Registry about 9 months before we wanted to marry. The Registrar was helpful and gave me a list of the things we needed. My list was 1)Birth Certificate, with apstille and legally translated; 2) what they called ‘Certificado de Solteraia’ to prove my single status in the UK, 3) Proof of residence over the last 2 years.

The apostille I arranged over internet with the UK apostil service, I sent my birth certificate registered post to them in St Albans UK, and they returned it three weeks later.  The Certificado de Solteria doesn’t exist in the UK so after consulting with my local registry in the UK, the registry in my home here and with the British Consulate I had to travel to Madrid, to the UK embassy to swear an oath and they posted banns there, I beleive that cost me 134,00? plus postage !!! My registrar told me that the ‘certificate of no impediment’ that was the result was what was required, but when he presented everything to the ‘Fiscal’, she rejected it saying that nowhere was it mentioned that I was single. The Consulate in Madrid had to send a fax stating that the UK only had the certificate of no impediment and not a certificate of spinsterness. The registrar told me that probably the Fiscal - the council’s lawyer - was new to the post. Once the Fiscal was happy and the judge had given permission we too went with our witnesses to sign everything - I should point out that the witnesses used at this point need not be the witnesses used in the actual ceremony, mine were my in-laws whilst in the ceremony, one was my mother who speaks no Spanish.

One last thing, as the birth certificate was the original, I asked if it could be returned to me after the wedding. They returned not only the original but also the translated copy, just in case I needed it for anything else.

Thank you SOOO much Konstanz for all of this great detailed information. I have one question (for Konstanz or anyone else who might know) when Konstanz was talking about:

“Proof of eligibility to marry. In my fianc??s case, this was included in the declaraci?n jurada. In mine, I filled out both the declaraci?n jurada AND got a declaration in Spanish from the American Embassy that I am single (eligible to marry) and that the United States does not require the posting of banns (they do this in Spain in case anyone objects to your marrying).”

What documentation do you need to provide at the American Embassy to get this? Do you receive the certificate that same visit?

Thanks so much!!!!

this would go up on spanorama page going to ask for it , keep us up todate whahs going on please http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/spanorama/
jurdy

Is there a specific place to put it? I asked it here only because I quoted a person who wrote on this post. I want to respect the organization of this wonderful site, but I’m not clear on if I just post in anywhere on “spanorama” or something more specific.

Thank you!!

We’ve covered this issue a couple of times on the regular site but this is great first hand info. Konstanze, would you mind if we republish this info elsewhere on the site to make it easier for people to find it?

Sorry I missed the questions, been a busy month - husband opened a bar in Madrid. Expatriator, go ahead and re-post it anywhere you like!!!

With regard to what you have to provide at the Embassy - I had to provide my passport as identification. Nothing else. They take your word for it that you’re single.