# Is Marriage Performed In The US To A Mexican National Considered Valid In Mexico?



## flybeech

My fiance has little desire to emigrate to the United States. She has a nice casita and a good job. We would like to get married in the United States in August, then I will move to Merida with her a month or two later.

Marriage of extranjeros to Mexican nationals in Mexico is costly, time consuming and complicated, whereas here, it's a piece of cake.

Is the marriage between a Mexican national and American national, performed in the United States, considered by all Mexican authorities as a fully valid marriage?


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## RVGRINGO

Of course. Just get apostiled copies of your license and certificate from the Secretary of State where you were married. In Mexico, have them translated by an official translator. Make several copies, as you'll probably need them for other things, like INM, Foreign Affairs, etc. as you progress toward permanent residency or even citizenship.


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## mcse9073

*Remarried In Mexico*



flybeech said:


> My fiance has little desire to emigrate to the United States. She has a nice casita and a good job. We would like to get married in the United States in August, then I will move to Merida with her a month or two later.
> 
> Marriage of extranjeros to Mexican nationals in Mexico is costly, time consuming and complicated, whereas here, it's a piece of cake.
> 
> Is the marriage between a Mexican national and American national, performed in the United States, considered by all Mexican authorities as a fully valid marriage?


Started Visa process in Mexico with my Mexican wife after we were married in USA. Federal officer said our marriage wasn't legal so he sends us to remarry at the local registro with his buddy the judge. Uppon returning to start my FM3 process the Federal officer smiles and says I have married twice and have committed a felony. He laughs and remarks how funny it is they stole my money and committed an illegal freud which I have committed a felony. had to hire other lawyers to protect me. I had to have an Ampado to keep from going to jail there just trying to immigrate with my wife and kids. My advice is if your wife does not want to live in the USA divorce her and save your self because in mexico eventually they will get you one way or the other. I lost my home there 40 yrs of savings and retirment. I am now disabled - wife after 10 yrs ran off and left me with the children 8 and 9 yrs. People down there do not have the same values as we. You won't beleive this but you will eventually see. I was poisoned there, beaten in front of my children, wife raped 2x, lost all life savings in home there. Never will be able to recover financially. Lawyers wont work there to help us just take retainers and dissappear. Even honest Noterios olong the border will not do work in the interior of mexico because of too many extorsion schemes. You invest in property in Mexico you messed up as a foreigner. Your wife will take it.


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## RVGRINGO

Ok, mcse9073:
You purchased ejido land and should have known better. You have dealt with less than honest people and have paid the consequences. You have evidently been involved in physical confrontations & I won't try to guess who might have been the antagonist.
Bad things happen everywhere; often between bad people & much less often between good people and those who have done their homework and chosen good neighborhoods in which to live.
Please consider the fact that there are a million or more expats living happily in Mexico. I understand your need to 'vent', but please take a deep breath and look forward to a positive future. You can't fix the past.
We're all sorry to hear of any misfortune, but all we can do is wish you well as you move past it.


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## pappabee

mcse9073 said:


> Sorry but the fact of the matter is that my wife and kids R Mexican. We should have been able to live anywhere in Mexico. The Police there R the greatest fear. After waking up from being beaten, the police show up, hug the assailants and march me around in front of my house jabbing me in the back with a machine gun, to humiliate me in front of the crowd. As an american I have no rights there. yes people live there unscaved but as life has it eventually it will catch up with foreigners there and when it does-you will see. They abused my children in the schools and said directly we have no rights there. Ignorant trash! I hope you ex-patriots never are allowed back in and are forced to renounce your citizenship for abandoning your country when it needs you most. Bacteria never dies down there hope yall enjoy wallering in it.


I too am sorry for what you have gone through. And no one should have to go through the same. BUT, no one should have to live where they don't want to live. Since you are having all of these problems there is but one thing to do-------MOVE. Make yourself happier and the rest of us who love living here will not have to listen to all of your problems again.


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## maesonna

flybeech said:


> Is the marriage between a Mexican national and American national, performed in the United States, considered by all Mexican authorities as a fully valid marriage?


Yes it will be, provided it is a legal marriage, once you have registered it in Mexico by going to the Registro Civil with your marriage license along with a translation of it into Spanish by an official translator (“_perito traductor_”) authorized in your Mexican state. What you are getting is an “_inscripción del matrimonio contraído en el extranjero_” (registration of foreign marriage).

Check with the Registro Civil what else you need for this. I don’t recall, but you probably need the usual official ID documents as well.


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## Guest

Best way to play any game is to first know the rules of the game where it is going to be played, and to learn the rules from someone you can trust. If you don't know the rules, you're gonna get played.

The game becomes more complex when you add in another country, a spouse of a different nationality, and a different language.


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## flybeech

RVGRINGO said:


> Of course. Just get apostiled copies of your license and certificate from the Secretary of State where you were married. In Mexico, have them translated by an official translator. Make several copies, as you'll probably need them for other things, like INM, Foreign Affairs, etc. as you progress toward permanent residency or even citizenship.


Thanks RVGRINGO for the concise answer. I've ordered a "fresh" copy of my birth certificate and as soon as it arrives, I will return it back to the Secretary of The Great State of Texas to have it apostilled.

Unless you think this is a bad idea, I then plan to upload my apostilled birth certificate to Fox Translate for their certified translation to Spanish. I've seen their work on my old, un-apostilled birth certificate and it was fast, easy and I thought, reasonably priced at $29 per page. I will end up with 4 pages, including a certified and "fresh" long-form birth certificate, the apostille certificate and two pages of translated copies. I am hoping this collection of documentation will be sufficient for the mayriad of needs I will have when I am in Merida, both for immigration and ISSSTE health insurance as the spouse of a government employee spouse.

I certainly didn't mean to stir up any hornet's nests with my very first question on these forums. I've been to MX many times since childhood and never had the anything remotely like another poster here. Thanks again RVGRINGO for your help.


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## RVGRINGO

Mexico will require that your translation be performed by a government authorized and licensed translater, I think they're called peritos. No other translation will be accepted, so save your money and have the translation done when you get here.


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## kazslo

RVGRINGO said:


> Mexico will require that your translation be performed by a government authorized and licensed translater, I think they're called peritos. No other translation will be accepted, so save your money and have the translation done when you get here.


RV, is this also the case for when a birth certificate is required - that it must be translated by a gov't translator? And what offices are the ones that require it to be translated officially?


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## flybeech

RVGRINGO said:


> Mexico will require that your translation be performed by a government authorized and licensed translater, I think they're called peritos. No other translation will be accepted, so save your money and have the translation done when you get here.



Grax, RVGRINGO. Advise easily and well taken. She's an executive in Aduana and certainly can find a translator. The next time she comes to the US, we'll get married and take my apostilled birth certificate and our marriage license to Merida and get it completed there.


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## RVGRINGO

Any government requirement for a translation will require the use of a 'perito'. Granted, some of them don't translate all that well, but they are 'official'. Our only need for translations were on our very first applications for visas from INM. Since then, none have been required on renewals. This requirement can vary by location; perhaps depending upon the level of education of the agents involved and their own abilities with other languages. Nothing in Mexico is ever the same from place to place, time to time or person to person.


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## atlgdl

*Apostiled Marriage Certificate*

Hi, I have just printed the requirements from the INM website. Regarding the documents required, it says that I must submit the marriage certificate. It doesn't get into specifics about what type of certificate is acceptable. I have a US marriage license that is apostiled. 

I have read references here in this thread to registering the out of country marriage with the "registro" run by the state authorities here in Jalisco. Is this step absolutely necessary or will Immigration accept the apostiled certificate without the state registration step?


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## DNP

atlgdl said:


> Hi, I have just printed the requirements from the INM website. Regarding the documents required, it says that I must submit the marriage certificate. It doesn't get into specifics about what type of certificate is acceptable. I have a US marriage license that is apostiled.
> 
> I have read references here in this thread to registering the out of country marriage with the "registro" run by the state authorities here in Jalisco. Is this step absolutely necessary or will Immigration accept the apostiled certificate without the state registration step?


A marriage license us not a marriage certificate. You will need the marriage certificate.


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## atlgdl

DNP said:


> A marriage license us not a marriage certificate. You will need the marriage certificate.


Yes, that's what I have. It's a marriage certificate.


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## maesonna

atlgdl said:


> I have read references here in this thread to registering the out of country marriage with the "registro" run by the state authorities here in Jalisco. Is this step absolutely necessary or will Immigration accept the apostilled certificate without the state registration step?


I don’t think anyone except immigration themselves can give you a definite answer on that, since different immigration offices don’t always interpret and apply rules and requirements the same way. 

However another benefit of registering the marriage in the state registry is that if you later need proof of legal marriage for some other authority in Mexico, you’ll have it once and for all.


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