Hello,

Can somebody tell me what is the procedure to get married in Spain? I posted this question in Tenerife forum (where I live) but looks like noone can answer it.

We are a gay couple with European Union passports and live in the Canary Islands more than 3 years. Now we want to get married for tax and other similar reasons.

I speak some Spanish and I got NIE/residence certificate, empadronamiento etc without any assistance but my Spanish is not so good to understand all the details in such a difficult procedure like marriage, especially if the only way hot to get answers is telephone.

Some time ago I sent a letter with my questions to the Registro Civil. I received a list of necessary documents and tel. number of Juzgado de Paz but not answers to any of my questions.

So, below are my questions.

1. The most important thing that I can not understand is if we will be able to marry at all. As I wrote we live in the Canary Islands more than 3 years. We got NIE numbers/residence certificates the next day after arriving, but… till yesterday we were living without any empadronamiento. Could it be a problem to get married? The paper from Registro Civil says that we need “Certificado de Residencia de los 2 ?ltimos a?os”. I don’t understand if it’s a police certificate or “empadronamiento”.

So, our “Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Union” is more than 2 years old but “empadronamiento” we got just yesterday.

2. How do we start the procedure? Where to submit the papers? Registro Civil? Juzgado?

3. How long time we need to get married?

4. Is there a interview for both applicants?

5. A question about witnesses. What happends if we don’t have witnesses/they don’t arrive for some reason? Both witnesses must have Spanish citizenship?

Thanks.