# Marriage to a EU citizen not from Germany



## alweber08

Hello, 

I would love any advice anyone can give. I am an american citizen. My husband is French. We have been married for two weeks. I had my appoitment today at the Ausländerbehörde and they gave us a three month extension to get the rest of our papers together and appear before them. A german friend has told us that we must appear at the Standesamt to prove that our marriage is valid in Germany. 

Does anyone know what information/papers we need to provide to them??

and second

Does anyone know how to make an appointment and around how long it takes to get the marriage validated??

Thanks in advance and I appreciate your suggestions!


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## Guest

alweber08 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I would love any advice anyone can give. I am an american citizen. My husband is French. We have been married for two weeks. I had my appoitment today at the Ausländerbehörde and they gave us a three month extension to get the rest of our papers together and appear before them. A german friend has told us that we must appear at the Standesamt to prove that our marriage is valid in Germany.
> 
> Does anyone know what information/papers we need to provide to them??
> 
> and second
> 
> Does anyone know how to make an appointment and around how long it takes to get the marriage validated??
> 
> Thanks in advance and I appreciate your suggestions!


I don't know how this works exactly, but generally you need to get your marriage certificate validated for international use in the country where it was issued (if outside Germany). So, if you were married in France or the US you would need to get an Apostille (which is an international certification) and maybe a translation into German. I think you could get this done either at the French or US embassy, or wherever the marriage took place. If it occured in Germany I would imagine that you can just bring your German marriage certificate. I would contact the relevant Embassy for assistance.

Can't help you with your question about making an appointment since this varies depending on the city. Where I used to live you probably could have just walked in. In any case you should get a German friend to contact them to find out the info for you and also maybe to accompagny you to your appointment (It is always good to have a German friend along when you deal with German bureaucracy - Trust me!).

No idea what your plans are, but if you get sick of dealing with German visas and bureaucracy and plan to live in the EU in the long term, you could also consider naturalising as a French citizen jure matriomonious in five years' time. You just need to speak French (You don't have to have lived in France) and wouldn't have to renounce US citizenship like you would if you tried to become a German citizen. 

Sorry that I couldn't really help you, but since nobody responded I thought I would try!


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## Seb*

alweber08 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I would love any advice anyone can give. I am an american citizen. My husband is French. We have been married for two weeks. I had my appoitment today at the Ausländerbehörde and they gave us a three month extension to get the rest of our papers together and appear before them. A german friend has told us that we must appear at the Standesamt to prove that our marriage is valid in Germany.
> 
> Does anyone know what information/papers we need to provide to them??
> 
> and second
> 
> Does anyone know how to make an appointment and around how long it takes to get the marriage validated??
> 
> Thanks in advance and I appreciate your suggestions!


Sorry I can't really help, but the simple and obvious solution would have been to ask them what you need - while there. They can tell you directly what papers they want to see and take it from there. If you have language issues, ask a German speaking friend to ring them and ask for the papers, they usually can tell you as well where to get everything required


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