Moving to Spain & Marriage Paperwork as a US Citizen
Posted by PainImmediate5438@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Hey all,
I need some advice on how to handle my situation and would greatly appreciate your help!
I’m a US citizen (also a citizen of another non-EU country) planning to move to Spain to be with my girlfriend, who is a local there. We are planning to get married and I'm trying to figure out the necessary steps and documentation.
- Birth Certificate Apostille:
- I have my birth certificate from VitalChek physically with me, but I am not currently living in the USA. How can I get it apostilled while I'm overseas?
- Single Status Affidavit:
- I need to prove that I’m single with a "Single Status Affidavit". How can I obtain this document and get it apostilled as well, given that I'm not in the USA?
- Additional Citizenship:
- Since I have another citizenship, will I need to provide similar documents from that country too (like a single status affidavit)? Or would the documents from the USA suffice for the local notary in Spain?
Any advice on how to navigate this process would be incredibly helpful. Thanks in advance for your assistance!
greasemonk3@reddit
I’m going through the marriage documentation progress here in Spain right now as well.
For the birth certificate, it needs to have been issued within the last 1 year. If not you can’t use it. I just ordered a new copies online to ship to a family members house, they’ll mail it to be apostilled in my home state and then mail it to me over here.
For the single status affidavit, the U.S. Embassy of Spain has this document below on their website. I’m going through the notario route for marriage so perhaps they’ll accept this: https://uploads.mwp.mprod.getusinfo.com/uploads/sites/58/2022/05/Letter_About_Civil_Status_Certificates_Spain-1.pdf
For point 3, no idea
Human_Ad_6537@reddit
Hello, did you have success with using that Single Status document from the US embarsssy of Spain with the notario?
greasemonk3@reddit
They didn't accept it. I had to request a document from my home county stating they didn't find any record of me being married and get that apostilled/translated
Human_Ad_6537@reddit
Really!! Wow. It felt so clear on the embassy site that it’s not necessary. Did you use a lawyer or did you do it on your own? I am debating currently to pay to help expedite/ease process because it feels like from my calls to notarios everything “depends” / varies with what is required.
greasemonk3@reddit
Hmm well going through the marriage process with a notary is the expedited process, much faster than going through the registro civil. Unless lawyers can get you appointments can get you appointments with the registro civil whenever they want. In Madrid the registro civil was booking appointments 7/8 months a head of time and that’s not even counting the processing time for the expediente.
In any case, once you’re assigned a notary to process your expediente matrimonial they send a list of everything required and are available for any and all questions you might have. For me was pretty clear and straightforward working with them just the paperwork itself was a pain to acquire
Human_Ad_6537@reddit
Can you share what documents they asked you to provide? That’s been my biggest concern with regards to time.. that I need to apostille things and that takes so long in the US!
The impression the lawyer has given us is that they can do things even faster one told us it would take just a week.. but then I started to question well which documents do I need don’t I need to apostille? And then they said I need to pay them first before they can tell me haha!
I haven’t ever used lawyers for any of the bureaucracy I have gone through here yet so I am hesitant but also wouldn’t mind if it would help us.
SquareNo1806@reddit
hi! Was wondering what you ended up doing? As I am going through the process (for proving you are not married) thanks!
Human_Ad_6537@reddit
I wrote a letter for the US embassy to sign off on.. i made an appointment for their ñotary type service and then brought a letter I wrote thwt they embossed and signed and that worked!
SquareNo1806@reddit
thanks so much! do you mond me asking if you happen to be in madrid? thats where i am idk if they are strict with that
Human_Ad_6537@reddit
Yes Madrid and they will tell you they can’t guarantee it will work that you’re paying for a document notary that they can’t guarantee will get you your outcome bur otherwise it’s fine you just need to agree thwt yeah this is best you can hope for :) good luck!!!
greasemonk3@reddit
Sent you a DM!