Legally Married in Mexico Little Hassles

Karen · 07-28-2007, 09:20 PM

I know that before I got married, I had a lot of questions regarding how getting married abroad would impact changing my name and if my marriage would even be considered legal in the US. I was getting a lot of mixed messages. Just wanted to share my experiance so as to answer any similar questions anyone might have.

Jay and I got legally married in Mexico three weeks ago. And the marriage is considered legal in the US. Getting our birth certificates and my divorce decree authenticated by the county and apostilized by Dept. of State.was not a big deal. but we live in the capital of NY so the Dept. of State building is like 10 minutes from us. Getting the blood tests was easy and painless. Our WC arranged for us to have our blood tests done by a medic in her office. The instruments were sterile and the medic totally professional. We ordered 3 extra copies or our marriage certificate. We left the resort with a total of 4 copies of our marriage certificate and another certified marriage document that was translated into English. The marriage certs. were not translated or apostilized. I've been home 2 weeks and have about 75% of my name change stuff done. The only problem I ran into was DMV (New York State). Only US marriage certs. can be considered proof of identity. However if I bring in other forms of ID (SS card, utility bill, credit card, banking statement) with my new name on it I can get my license changed. Just got all the stuff I need so I'm headed to DMV this week.

Granted a US marriage license is a lot cheaper and easier in some ways . However, I love having the Mexican license and feel that everything was well worth it. I'd imagine that other people might have different experiances depending on their state and where abroad you get married. But the whole name change thing was not as bad as I thought. I just think it's very cool that we're the only kids on our block with Mexican marriage licenses.

michelle08 · 07-28-2007, 09:29 PM

Karen thanks for posting that info....I am getting legally married in Cabo and I am doing it that way no matter what...but I still do feel apprehensive about the hassle when I come back and making sure they do it right in Mexico etc...

I'm sure I will fee that way until it's all over with...but it's nice to hear about a good experience...

Thanks!!!

DreamsTulumBride · 07-28-2007, 10:00 PM

August 20th is our special day (1st date!). Because I wanted a December wedding (my favorite time of the year... holidays) we decide to have all the legal papers done on August 20th in Montreal + celebrate our 9th anniversary + legally married day at the same time so that August 20th would always be special to us...

Annie

TammyB · 07-29-2007, 10:47 AM

I had a legal wedding in Cabo, yes it was a PITA when I got home dealing with DMV but in the end I'm still very happy we did it that way.

lambert13 · 07-30-2007, 07:12 AM

We kind of figured that if it ended up being a huge hassle to get all the name change stuff done for Karen when we got back that we would just go get a quick courthouse ceremony done here in NY. Luckily we have not had problems at all so far.

Sarah · 07-30-2007, 07:14 AM

I also had minimal hassle getting everything changed. It really isn't a big deal. I'm about 95% Mrs. S...... now!

foxytv · 07-30-2007, 08:02 AM

That's great to hear! We're still doing the legal paperwork in the US since the DR is wwaayy crazier these days for legal docs than Mexico. Bummer, wishing we didn't have to do the paperwork here .... but c'est la vie. Don't want to deal with all the DR paperwork hassle.