for the love of god does anyone have experience of this?!?

from what I can gather I need my birth certificate which is then had an Apostille "done to it"

but also there’s claptrap about needing full translations?!? an application form from the registry?

can anyone help its tipping me over the edge!! it appears that the Spanish have taken the concept of bureaucracy and stepped it up a gear or three, regionalized it and then added a triple european measure of jobsworthism!

oh the humanity!! hep me STWmassive!!

Can I come?

Marriage is overrated!

(Makes copy of thread. Plots to blackmail Dez, by showing thread to Mrs Dez, if Dez doesn’t pay moneys into RudeBoy’s bank account…)

Yeah, I got married here in the Plaza Mayor. It was a while back (longer than I care to remember) and the paperwork was easily the worst bit. Loads of official translations, writing to my parents for copies of birth certificates etc. etc…

as luck would have it i’m just going through the same process. Not sure of your circimstances, but for me to marry a spanish girl in spain in May i need 1) birth certificate 2) certificate of no impediment 3) proof of residency certificate, all legalised (hague aspostle) then translated into spanish then re-legalised. You’ll also need photocopy of passport. there are various ways of having the trasnlation done…ie can get docs sent to spain to be translated therefore do not need to be re-legalised(cheap and slow), or done here (quicker) but more expensive.

the FCO, your local registrar and various websites were helpful. The exact info of what needs to be done is described on the spanish consulate website: http://www.maec.es/subwebs/Consulados/Londres/es/MenuPpal/Servicios%20Consulares/Registro%20Civil/Paginas/posting_TSW.aspx#sec2 …unfortunately this is in spanish!! I’ve had this company do all the legalisation and translations, will cost ~£400: http://www.amanara.co.uk.

you’ll need to get the cert of no impediment from your local registrar (takes 28 days) and your proof of residency cert at your local election registry. the latter needs verification by a solicitor but amanara can sort that.

once all docs have been done i think that you’ll need to submitt to spanish consulate for them to do their stuff (not sure on this bit as not there yet)

in all process will take upto 4 month so get cracking if wedding soon.

one last point, most foregin countries require this sort of faffage to get married in their country, and what i’m doing the official way, however i’m sure there may be other ways and means if you are in the know!

cheers beejam! (STW really does appear to be the fountain of all knowledge!)

here’s what I’ve just gathered, if it helps you?

civil registry

register at town hall in madrid (but two years regestration is required, without that you need "According to documents as seen" from the BC, see below)

GET – full UK hague Apostille on birth certificate
GET – above document translated – by the ministry foreign affairs: http://www.maec.es (?)

GET – Proof of UK residency for +2 years (household bills etc)
GET – Non Standard document from the British Consulate known as "According to documents as seen" (80 euros – approx)

GET – UK town hall to do the 21 days publication of Banns
GET – Banns translated by the British consulate – (75 euro approx)

All documents only valid for 3 months from UK issue in Spain (regardless of UK or international document status!)

http://www.ukinspain.fco.gov.uk

Paseo de recoletos
7-9
28004

nearest tube: banko de espania
opening times: 8:30-13:30 mon-fri

I spoke to a really helpful lass called Bernadette at the B.C.

I hate all this, there’d better be some descent tax incentives after all this 😆

(Makes copy of thread. Plots to blackmail Dez, by showing thread to Mrs Dez, if Dez doesn’t pay moneys into RudeBoy’s bank account…)

Blackmail away… What’s the worst that could happen?!

What’s the worst that could happen?!

Mrs Dez will have a ‘word’ with you…

How is Mrs Dez, btw? And Dez jnr? All well, I hope?

oh, update:

civil registry

register at town hall in madrid (but two years registration is required, without that you need "According to documents as seen" from the BC, see below)

GET – full UK hague Apostille on birth certificate (£27.00)
GET – above document translated – by the ministry foreign affairs: http://www.maec.es

or (UK translation of birth certificate – £80-£150 for UK solicitor notarization)
GET UK translation & then signed by a (spanish speaking) Notary (get them to confirm that it was translated in UK) then Apostille by UK FCO (£27.00)

* the UK Notary I spoke to said we could do the translation and they would sign it, even though they don’t read Spanish!?! then we’d send them off to be Apostilled both original & translation in one go (2x£27), my biggest fear there would be that all would be sorted then some spanish uber-bureaucrat would announce that everything must stop as there is only a single Apostille stamp on my original birth certificate not two, but that couldn’t happen… ..could it?

GET – Proof of UK residency for +2 years (household bills etc)
GET – Non Standard document from the British Consulate known as "According to documents as seen" (80 euros – approx)

GET – UK town hall to do the 21 days publication of Banns
GET – Banns translated by the British consulate – (75 euro approx)

All documents only valid for 3 months from UK issue in Spain (regardless of UK or international document status!)

Mate, just get married here. Much less hassle.

Can I come?

So where in Madrid are you getting married, then?

Got married in Greece in 07 it was on the whole pretty easy. The list of stuff you have to get looks about right (every country is different) from memory we had
Cert of no imped
Birth certs
Proof of address
Apostille

Now we didn’t need the full notarization just translation and legalisation, the £400 quoted above seems steep, but yeah it’ll cost you a cpl of hundred atleast. The hotel/travel agent arranged the wedding and they offered to translate the wedding certificate (don’t forget about that bit – greek embassy had a list of people over here who do it privately)

British FCO and registry office will point you in the right direction but won’t tell you what you need cos everywhere is different and they don’t want to be held responsible for mucking up your wedding. Travel Agent’s wedding supervisor was more helpful.

Watch your timings for getting stuff posted out and back to you in time, ours went pretty smoothly, engaged in Nov married in May you’d have trouble sorting out a wedding over here in that sort of time.

We had 25 family & friends with us and it was brilliant, much more relaxed than weddings I’ve been to over here.

All together now:

We’re all off to sunny Spain,
Y vi-va España!

We’re all off to sunny Spain,
Y vi-va España!

It’s pissing down here in Madrid at the mo.

Hope you got PP’s permission to post that photo… (and edit it so I look scared)

(Yes, mate all’s fine. Apart from the dog)
(sorry to do this to your very serious thread MrN)

I got married in madrid several times.

Oh wait, it was in England, and just the once.

The registrar was late though if that helps?

DrP

I’d expect nothing less my dears!! 🙂

rudeboy – will they let you into spain? 😉

I got married in the US. Needed a blood test to prove I didn’t have syphilis, a trip to get a form, and half an hour at the JP’s office before a lecture. Job done.

Then it started to go down hill 🙁

I got married in St Lucia. I drunk too much Champagne and was ill on my wedding night.
I’d recommend not doing that whereever the marriage is.

rudeboy – will they let you into spain?

I don’t believe there are any outstanding warrants, or injunctions. As far as I’m aware of, anyway.

Speaking of Spain, how was your trip?