# Help: How to register a Gibraltar marriage between Spaniard and US citizen



## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Hi everyone,

I am a US citizen and married my Spanish wife in Gibraltar this spring. We both currently live and work in the UK (where I have a Tier 2 work visa until October 2015). 

We are thinking of moving to Spain soon, so I want to apply for Spanish residency. In order to do this, in addition to other documentation (e.g. proof of health insurance and proof of ability to support ourselves), we have been told that we need a Libro de Familia and a Certificato Literal de Matrimonio. However, the Spanish consulate in London has told us that because we were married in Gibraltar we need to have the marriage registered at the Registro Civil in La Linea de la Concepcion. 

Does anyone know how long this might take and exactly what documentation is required? And whether it is possible to somehow expedite this using a local gestor? I rang the Registro this morning and they told me that it could take months, so I’m a bit worried about this dragging on forever. Also, I am unclear as to whether my US birth certificate needs to be apostilled or translated (with an apostilled or notarised translation) and whether the translation can be done in the UK or must be done in Spain by a Spanish translator. Also, some web pages say that we will need to do an interview before they approve this –*where would this take place? In La Linea?

Everyone seems to be telling us something different (even the consulate), so I am wondering if there is anyone out there who has had any direct experience with this (e.g. marriage in Gibraltar of a Spaniard to a non-EU citizen). If so, could you possible lend some advice? I'd be grateful for any words of wisdom.

Thank you so much ahead of time!

Best,
Dir


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## iant2050 (Jul 15, 2013)

I recently married in Denmark and my wife is Spanish. We submitted the registration at our local consulate and the consulate forwarded it to Denmark, we weren't involved in that process. We were told it could take months but we received the libro in 6 weeks thank god. We're gonna move to Spain in a few weeks.

Our procedure was...

1. My wife registered in Germany at the Spanish consulate. 

2.Then, we brought all the documents and required forms and applied to register the wedding. 

They're gonna need a host of documents, some may seem confusing or not possible to get. For example, we had to submit a fe de solteria, but given we were registering a marriage, the document was no longer valid. Nonetheless, it had to be included. The documents we submitted...

-Copy of her dni and passport
-Copy of my residency card in Germany and passport
-Proof of Residency (Meldebescheinigung) I'm not sure if such a document exists in England or what you would need
-Birth certificate, apostiled, and translated. (May not be necessary for you to translate but I wouldnt count on that)
-Marriage certificate, apostiled. Chances are it will need to have been produced in the last 3 months.
-Proof that we were single before the marriage (Fe de solteria) for the both of us. This one didn't make sense to me but since we had them, despite their not being valid, we submitted them.
-Two different forms. I don't remember the numbers, but look up on the consulate/embassy website to find them.

3. We had to do an "interview" which we did hilariously bad on but wasn't a problem. (My wife can't remember a date to save her life)

It was a bit of a pain tracking down all the documents, but once in hand, the process went really smoothly. Make sure to bring photocopies of everything and you should be good to go. Of course, what we had to do may differ (significantly) from what you will have to do. When researching the situation, we got 4 different conflicting reports of what we should do and we encountered a very nice woman at the consulate who sort of guided us through the process.

Hope this helps! If you have any more questions, let me know! I'll be going through getting my residency soon too so I might be able to help you with that debacle later.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Hey there,

Thanks so much for your response, I really appreciate it. Funny –*I'm actually in Denmark now right now. 

I think if I had realised that everything had to be forward to the La Linea registro (instead of a Gibraltar consulate, which it turns out doesn't in fact exist) I'd have suggested we just get married in the UK. But 6 weeks sounds pretty good–maybe I should have higher hopes.

They told us about all of these documents as well, and also that we 'might' have to have an interview. The problem now is that while I have the "long form" version of my birth certificate, i am still waiting for it to be apostilled back in the US–the process for which is inconsolably bureaucratic. They did say that I could just translate it myself, and the consulate would certify it. Proof of Residency for the UK I think is basically my work visa. I guarantee that the apostilled marriage certificate will be expired by the time I get the birth certificate apostilled. Absurd. 

You didn't have to produce a certificate of not being married before, did you? I was under the impression that the US didn't do those anymore.

In a way, that's good to hear that you also got 4 different conflicting reports*– sometimes I just want to give up when I hear everyone saying something different. 

Great to hear you're getting your residency soon –*I'm going to be doing that soon after the libro de familia is sorted, and am thinking about going through the process with a gestor/lawyer*– just to make things go more smoothly. I guess I am just desperately afraid of missing or getting one form wrong, and thereby setting back the entire process by several months.

Which part of Spain do you think you're going to move to?


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## iant2050 (Jul 15, 2013)

No problem at all! We're moving to Barcelona. Gotta start learning that Catalan.

About the certificate of no marriage, or whatever it's called, the American consulate was able to create one for me. It was basically an affidavit swearing that I'm single. About getting a gestor, it's not a bad idea but I don't think its necessary. I have what I call a Spain folder. I basically have all documents I can conceive of as being useful, with 3 photocopies, and I just bring them to all my appointments involving Spanish bureaucracy. It's kind of a problem for time sensitive documents, but I don't think you need any for the tarjeta de residencia.

I've actually found most of the information online to be clear and understandable once you find it. I also kind of gotten used to what they expect and will want to see. It seems more or less straight forward what documents you should bring to these appointments. Sometimes, though, they'll say, with a general character, you should have X Y Z and that can be damn frustrating. Especially when its about financial support. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I've noticed that if you can get on the good side of the person working in the office, they can make life really easy for you. I suppose the opposite is true too.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Cool, thanks. 

One question: where did you do your post-marriage interview? In the Spanish consulate in Germany? And passing that interview authorised them to send the documents onto Copenhagen?

The Spain folder sounds like the way to go. I'm just making sure that have everything I possibly can notarised and apostilled, since those things seem to take some time – especially if the docs have to be sent back to the US (and as I live outside of the US, I usually have to have someone else do it for me there anyway).

But I think you're definitely right about getting on the good side of the person behind the desk: even to the point of erring on the side of being slightly obsequious. I tried this at the local Spanish consulate a few months ago, and it resulted in me getting my NIE in about a week

Am torn about the lawyer, but my sense is that it will be easier to have one coordinating all this stuff (especially the residency permit) since I'll most likely be outside of Spain until I actually receive this.


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## TCL1972 (Apr 1, 2015)

Hi all,

I'm also an American who married my Spanish wife in Gibraltar. I live in Australia while she is still in Spain, and we are trying to register our marriage with Spain. She was also told by the Madrid Civil Registry that since Spain considers Gibraltar to be Spanish, we need to register where we got married. But since Spain doesn't actually control Gibraltar, La Linea is where we need to register. 

How did it go with registering your marriage there? What documents did they require you to show? There isn't a lot of transparency and they don't answer their phone no matter how many times my wife calls them. Any info would be much appreciated. 

Cheers!


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

TCL1972 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm also an American who married my Spanish wife in Gibraltar. I live in Australia while she is still in Spain, and we are trying to register our marriage with Spain. She was also told by the Madrid Civil Registry that since Spain considers Gibraltar to be Spanish, we need to register where we got married. But since Spain doesn't actually control Gibraltar, La Linea is where we need to register.
> 
> ...


Hi TCL,

Yes*–*based on the past five months of experience, I can vouch that the entire La Linea thing is a complete and utter circus. My first advice to you would be: WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GET MARRIED IN GIBRALTAR!  But alas neither you nor I have this option anymore. I've just gotten through the extremely long and dark tunnel with them a few days ago though, so hopefully I can help with a few tips. 

First off –*and this is going to sound bizarre and completely counterintuitive*–*never believe ANYTHING that anyone on the phone in the La Linea Registro office tells you (in the unlikely event that you're actually able to get through to them on the phone in the first place*–*by the way this is the most recent number i have for them: 956 908 181. the number seems to change every few months). Our marriage documents went missing several months ago, and on multiple occasions when I rang them to figure out what on earth was going on and where things stood, I spoke to at least four different people in that office and EACH ONE OF THEM told me something COMPLETELY different. This included everything from "Your documents are right here, where would you like us to send them to?" to "We do not have time to answer queries about marriage registrations on the phone because we are extremely busy in this office, so you're just going to have to wait" to "We sent them out a month ago but we are having problems with the courier company, which is really busy and so there is a delay with getting the documents delivered to can you call back after Easter?" to another woman who complained to me for 15 minutes about how the state has cut funding for their office and they do not have enough staff and everyone is overworked and several people have just quit, so there is no time to do any of the paperwork necessary. No joke. The place is a study in bureaucratic absurdity. It wasn't a matter of there not being any transparency; it became a matter of people in the office outright lying to us about where our documents were in the process.

So if you feel frustrated with things, do know that this is par for the course and you are not alone! That said, here, simply enumerated, is what I think you need to do in order to get the marriage registered: 

1. Get together these documents:
*–*Apostilled copy of marriage certificate from Gibraltar (takes about 10 days for them to send it to you)*– should have been issued within three months
*–*Your wife’s birth certificate from the civil registry in her home town – should have been issued within three months
*–*Your birth certificate, apostilled from state you were born in and translated by an authorised translator – should have been issued within three months
*–*Copy of first page of both your passports
*–*Copy of your wife’s DNI
*–*Application form for the registration of the marriage (your wife should be able to pick this up in the Madrid civil registry office) with all of your details, and your wife's home address listed as the address for the return of the issued documents.
*–*Signed sworn declaration (Declaración jurada de estado civil) from each of you saying neither of you has been married before, also available in the Madrid office I should think. I believe that this was optional with La Linea however, so it may be that you don't need it.

Once you have all the documents together, send them via registered mail directly to the La Linea office, with a brief cover letter asking that they kindly register the marriage:

Oficina Registro Civil 
Av. Menéndez Pelayo, S/N
11300 La Línea de la Concepción
Cadiz

It took them several months months to do the registration, which seems to be the average. But what happened with us in the end is that La Linea ended up sending the Libro de Familia and certification literal de matrimonio documents which they issued to the civil registry office in Bilbao (where we live), expecting us to pick up the documents there. The minor glitch: they never told us that they had actually sent the documents there(!), so the libro and certificado were lying in a desk drawer in the Bilbao office for nearly two months before a note in the post arrived saying that the documents were there for us to pick up. You have no idea the anger I felt in the moment when I discovered this. So La Linea may send the documents to the return address you give them or they may send them to the local registry office for you to pick them up. 

That said, hopefully it will be easier and more straightforward for you two than it was for us. All told, it took them 3.5 months to register the marriage and issue the documents, but nearly another 2 months for me to actually get the documents in the post. It's all done, and our marriage is registered, and we can get on with our lives, so fine. The ongoing problem is that because of the way La Linea registers foreign (e.g. Gibraltar) marriages, the marriages don't actually get recorded in the Registro Civil Central in Madrid. This doesn't mean that the registration of the marriage isn't legal and valid*–*it most definitely is – but it DOES mean that you will always have to go back to contact La Linea should you need further copies of the documents. With all marriages registered in the Central registry, you can now download the official certification literal very easily from the Ministerio de Justicia's website. This means a difference between a few minutes spent online and what is potentially months of tearing your hair out try to get La Linea to send you the documents.

Anyway, I hope this hasn't been too too discouraging for you! It is possible to do; just requires thick skin and some perseverance. Good luck with everything, and do let me know how you get on and if you have any more questions.

Best,
D


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## TCL1972 (Apr 1, 2015)

Director1,

Thanks for the quick response. I hope that life is good in Bilbao and you and your family are settling down and enjoying life in Spain. 

Since I'm in Australia and she is in Madrid, we're actually going to take a weekend in August and try doing it in person in La Línea. Either way it is going to be a few months, so let's see if a face-to-face transaction would be more or less efficient (let's hope the former). Your information is very helpful and it'll give us time to gather the documents (I was born abroad in a country not party to the Hague Convention. So I'll need to go to a third country within three months of August, collect my birth certificate, have it authenticated by that country's foreign ministry and stamped by the local Spanish consulate).

The Spanish government already played bureaucratic politics with our original marriage certificate. We married in Gibraltar in February 2015, and had the Gibraltar Royal Post mail the original and apostilled certificate to my wife's apartment in Madrid. The Royal Post tracking service had the document leaving Gibraltar, the UK, and then into the black hole. More than six weeks later, the only answer out of El Correo was that since mail from Gibraltar tends to be problematic, it is probably still trying to clear Spanish customs or something like that. I ordered another set from the Gibraltar Civil Registry and had DHL collect and deliver the document. It took one day. Go the Spanish bureaucracy!

ANYONE WHO LIVES IN SPAIN BUT INTENDS TO MARRY IN GIBRALTAR, DON'T HAVE THE GIBRALTAR CIVIL REGISTRY POST YOUR DOCUMENTS TO SPAIN VIA THE ROYAL POST!

Cheers!


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## Slater1 (May 22, 2015)

Hello there quick question,

We got married in Gibraltar on October 7th 2014, we are now in the middle of asking for a residence card of a family member of Union Citizen for my husband in Spain, we had to provide our Marriage Certificate but they refused our application because the certificate was older than 90 days!?!? ....What? :/ Any ideas what I can do? (Sorry I'm new to this I don't even know if I have written this in the correct place lol)
Thnaks


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## ddrysdale99 (Apr 3, 2014)

Slater1 said:


> Hello there quick question,
> 
> We got married in Gibraltar on October 7th 2014, we are now in the middle of asking for a residence card of a family member of Union Citizen for my husband in Spain, we had to provide our Marriage Certificate but they refused our application because the certificate was older than 90 days!?!? ....What? :/ Any ideas what I can do? (Sorry I'm new to this I don't even know if I have written this in the correct place lol)
> Thnaks


Spain is notorious for insisting that all official documents are less than 90 days old. You'll need a new copy if your certificate is older.


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## Slater1 (May 22, 2015)

Thanks for your reply,

I looked at my marriage certificate and the only date it has on it is the date we were married so I thought ordering a copy of the certificate would make no difference because the date will still be the same on it?


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