Hey guys,
just thought i’ll share my experience my partner and i have had while trying to get married. almost every step posed challenges for us. but eventually we got it done! :D
1. the trouble of trying to get to Spain. With the crisis and the crazy paperwork, it was impossible for me to even try to apply for a work visa to come here. I had to resort to getting a student visa by applying for a masters programme in an university in Tarragona. The paperwork was horrendous but finally I got it done and came to Spain ^_^
2. NIE card. it turned out to be easier than what i expected after reading the anecdotes from spain expat. I had to go to get my empadronamiento at the ayuntamiento/town hall of my pueblo, get registered at the police office and the oficina de extranjeros. got my appointment more than a month later, waited hours after my appointment time, and collected my card 1.5months later.
3. Translating and Legalising of documents. While waiting for the NIE to be made, I had to take trips to and fro to the High Commission of my country to get my birth certificate, proof that i’m single and other necessary documents translated and legalised. This proved to be a challenge because the documents were reaching the end of the “3 month period”. Another problem was that my country does not have a system similar to the ayuntamiento, so we had to convince the officials that the empadronamiento document does not exist in my country (I was told that I could use the document to proof that i’m not a criminal if it had my residential address on it—mine did not). Somehow the officials decided that it would be ok to submit an application without such a document.
4. Searching for the Registro Civil/Juzgado de Paz. We went to the address we found on the internet where the Registro Civil of Tarragona was said to be located. Apparently it moved! We managed to find the current office which was thankfully, not so far away. Unfortunately, after a wait of more than 2 hours, we were told that we could not register our application at the Registro Civil of Tarragona because our pueblo was supposedly under El Vendrell! We were told to try the one at El Vendrell.
We went to the Registro Civil at El Vendrell and were told that since we were not registered in the ayuntamiento of El Vendrell, we would not be able to fill an application there neither. We were instructed to find the Juzgado de Paz of our pueblo. The funcionario was kind enough to check our paperwork, though, and we were relieved to find that everything was alright (except the lack of the empadronamiento-equivalent document).
Off to the ayuntamiento of our pueblo (Torredembarra) to ask about the existence and possible location of the Juzgado de Paz office of Torredembarra. We finally found the obscure little office tucked away in a corner of the pueblo. We submitted the documents we had to the nice lady at the Juzgado de Paz and she told us that we would have to find 2 witnesses to come with us to do a examination to make sure that we truly know each other.
We did the examination which consisted of a number of simple questions such as:
What is the full name of your partner?
How did you meet?
What are the names of the parents/siblings?
Where your partner was born/birthday?
How long have you been together…
The nice lady said she’ll submit the application to the Registro Civil of El Vendrell and let us know the verdict of our application in about 2 weeks.
5. Post Examination. We received a call one October/November afternoon from the nice lady at the Juzgado de Paz office telling us to drop by the office when we could. She then told us the good news that our application was approved and that we could choose a date in February and where would we like to be married.
6. We got married! Yay!
^_^
hope i have been helpful.
On Wednesday we would be heading down to the oficina of extranjeros to apply for the targeta de residencia for an EU spouse. Any tips on how to fill the EX-19 form? It is mighty confusing!
