Civil Ceremony & Wedding Certificate in Mexico

Hello everyone!!

I have seen a lot of confussion regarding the Legal ceremony here in Mexico and it is not so complicated as it seems to be!

 

You should not be worried about a thing beacuase your WC supposed to do everything for you!!

 

My mother is a Civil officiate in Acapulco and the requirements are the same but she is much flexible than here in the Riviera Maya or Cabo but I think, this is beacause there are no so many weddings lthere like here or in Cabo.

 

Here is some information that could help you to undestand better:

The Civil Ceremony is the only marriage in Mexico which modifies the marital status of a person from single to married, whether under the regimen of division of property or joint ownership of property and it is the only one that is internationally accepted, therefore your Marriage Certificate is legally binding in Mexico.

 

A Mexican Civil Marriage generates an original Legal Marriage Certificate and a Certified Copy. The Original eventually goes to Chetumal, capital of the State of Quintana Roo, where it is permanently filed: The Certified Copy –duly stamped and signed in ink by the Judge—goes to the couple.

 

Your WC should send to you in about 2 months after the wedding date, the "original" wedding certificate with the mexican apostille or seal that is normally done in the back of the certificate.

 

The Marriage Certificate is recognized by 65 States that are Members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law like the United States, Canada, France, England, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and most other countries.

 

One of the requirements is that the couple and their four witnesses be present three working days before the date of the wedding for delivering and signing all of the documents required by the Civil Registry.

 

The Matrimonio Civil is performed by the Registro Civil via their Judges. The wedding is in Spanish and during the Ceremony; a text from Melchor Ocampo, a nineteenth century Mexican poet, is recited, declaring the couple as husband and wife.

 

Sometimes the Civil officiate does not speak english so your WC should provide an English translator who simultaneously interprets the ceremony.

 

All foreign documents (birth certificate, divorce decree, death certificate, etc.) which are to be submitted to Mexican Officials for any legal procedure within the country, must have the legal Spanish translation (to be done in Mexico by the Civil Officiant or Registro Civil) and must be certified by-an APOSTILLE.

 

An apostille is an internationally recognized notary certification, done in the country of origin of the documents, and usually issued by the State Department of each country.

 

In the United States, contact the Secretary of State in the state where you live.

 

In Canada contact your nearest Mexican Embassy Office and ask for the Authentication Document which serves the same purpose as the Apostille document. We suggest that you bring at least one complete set of copies, plus the originals.

 

A Civil Marriage in Mexico constitutes a Legal act that generates public documents of record; if you fail to comply with the requisites the Marriage cannot take place and that is why the Civil officiate request you all to be on site at least 3 full working days prior the wedding day in case some documentation is missing or something is wrong, to have enough time to arrange the problem.

 

It gets just a little bit complicate (because the apostille) when Bride is divorced but if Bride is single that is very, very easy.

 

I hope it helped a little bit!

 

Good Luck!

 

Yazmin.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for providing this info Yazmin! My FI and I were just planning on getting married in the states before or shortly after we went to Mexico but we are now thinking about getting legally married in Mexico. I just have a question:

 

To get legally married in MX, the ceremony has to be in spanish, correct?

Normally is in spanish but it depends. There are some Judges that speaks english. In the Riviera Maya there are different Jurisdisctions and are different that in the, Cancun or Tulum area, you will have to check it with your WC.

Another issue is than definitelly it is a bit more expensive to get married here than in the USA or Canada and also have to consider the blood test that you do not do in other countries!

Best Regards,

Normally is in spanish but it depends. There are some Judges that speaks english. In the Riviera Maya there are different Jurisdisctions and are different that in the, Cancun or Tulum area, you will have to check it with your WC.

Another issue is than definitelly it is a bit more expensive to get married here than in the USA or Canada and also have to consider the blood test that you do not do in other countries!

Best Regards,

Normally is in spanish but it depends. There are some Judges that speaks english. In the Riviera Maya there are different Jurisdisctions and are different that in the, Cancun or Tulum area, you will have to check it with your WC.

Another issue is that definitelly it is a bit more expensive to get married here than in the USA or Canada and also have to consider the blood test!

Best Regards,

We were legally married at Dreams Tulum and our judge spoke English.

I am still confused! (And I am getting married in a week so I should probably figure it out!) Our WC said that for the civil ceremony all we need is our passports and tourist cards. After the ceremony they will give us our certificate? And then what do we do? Do we need to take it to some official government office to get it recognized or something? I am missing anything important?

 

Thanks!

A few days after our wedding, our WC had our 4 certified copies of the wedding certificate ready for us and we were good to go. The documentation we had to bring with us were our pass ports and birth certificates and my divorce decree with apostile seals. We had e-mailed scanned copies of the birth certificates and divorce decree to our WC a couple of months before for translation.

Karen, thanks so much for posting your experiences at Dreams! We were talking about getting married here before we left, and actually were talking about getting married in Vegas when we are the Nov 2-5. We decided against it because we did not want to take away from our "real" wedding. I am hoping that we will be able to have an English legal ceremony.