Getting Married at the Registro Civil

[Vagrant Violet]

Hello, everyone,

My Argentine boyfriend and I are going to get married. Neither of us have been married before. We are aiming for Oct. 24th this year, but before we go to the Registro Civil together to request the actual turno, I wanted to ask a few questions for those who have gotten married here...

1). I went to our Registro Civil in Belgrano this morning (just por las dudas). I showed them my temporary DNI (which shows that I am here legally until July 2012) and my US passport which indicates the same. Unfortunately, someone in New York (where I was born) had sent out my birth certificate with my name as "Lauren E. XXXXX" (which is what my DNI says) instead of "Lauren Elizabeth XXXXX" as indicated in my passport. I cannot begin to tell you all how much grief that has caused me...

The point is, my two documents that I need do not have the same name. Although I have "same person letter" in Spanish from my embassy declaring that these two names correspond to the same person, to reprint my name in my DNI will take about 9 months or more from what I was told. The woman at the registro civil advised me NOT present my DNI- I only need to present my passport for getting married and nothing more... Is this accurate? Has anyone here also gotten married with only a passport and no other documentation?

2). (Not as serious a question, but still important to me)- I understand that the ceremony is about 15 minutes... Will I have any opportunity to say anything personal?

3). Finally (as silly as it may sound, but I want to prepare myself) when the justice of the peace is performing the ceremony, do I only have to say "Sí, quiero" or will I have to repeat a few lines after him? When I get nervous, I stammer like crazy, so I just wanted to know so that I know what to expect!

Thank you all in advance! Besos!

 

[sesamosinsal]

1. I used my passport to get married. I'm also here on a tourist visa, so I don't have a DNI to present.

2. We said nothing personal in front of the judge, nor were we presented with an opportunity to do so.

3. You say, "Sí, acepto," and I didn't have to repeat anything after the judge (I actually had the same question..)

Congratulations in advance.

 

[nikad]

The above is good advice.Beware that some judges might ask you to bring a public interpreter to the ceremony if he believes your Spanish is not good enough to comprehend everything.

 

[Vagrant Violet]

Thank you both! I don´t think I´ll need a public interpreter, as my Spanish is fine (at least I can understand pretty much anything, and manage to articulate myself, etc.).... it´s only that when I am flustered, I tend to stutter a bit, but I think I´ll be okay

 

[Smcali23]

Hiya - Just to add to the experiences you've heard:
I got to say something during my wedding. In fact the judge asked us to. The judge also asked the witnesses and parents to say a few words.

We said, 'Si, quiero' - and there are posters all over the walls of the registry office (coronel diaz) with those words on them, so I'm guessing that was alright.

Finally, we had a public translator. It wasn't necessary, but they reckoned we should do it just to be on the safe side, as its a contract and all that.

 

[sundae]

I can't help you with your DNI issue, but having been to 2 civil weddings this year, I can tell you it's pretty quick, and not very personal. In neither one were any special words said, nor did they repeat anything, except 'si quiero.' The justice did most of the talking. Perhaps Belgrano is different since it's a nicer area, but the ones I went to were very small affairs - tiny rooms, the 'judge' didn't look like a judge at all, and all done pretty quick.

From my understanding, before getting married you have to get some type of medical checkup as well with your partner. Depending on the area, that can be a bit of an annoyance. Argentina's bureaucracy is everywhere.

Congratulations!! and hope it all goes smoothly for you.

 

[sesamosinsal]

From my understanding, before getting married you have to get some type of medical checkup as well with your partner. Depending on the area, that can be a bit of an annoyance. Argentina's bureaucracy is everywhere.

These are the "prenupciales," blood tests, whatever. We did them at the Hospital Fernandez. It wasn't *that* bad. It was pretty quick, as well. Make sure you are there BEFORE the time they start doing them. In other words, if they start at 9 a.m. (I forget already), be there by 8:30. Basically, someone from the hospital announces what's going on when they initially begin the process. After that, they go into their cubicles and never really come out again, leaving you to ask everyone in the hospital where the line is for the "prenupciales."

At Hospital Fernandez, they will tell you to line up by a door. (Initially, everyone will be in a HUGE line by the one door. Don't worry; there are people in the same line for other reasons, such as getting a food handling permit.) Once your turn is up at the door, they give you some forms, tell you when the results will be available, etc. etc. Then, you will go to the room with all of the ventanillas and get your number (turno). Once your number is called, you'll go into another room where they will draw about 100 mL of blood. Then you're done.

All in all, it took us about 3 hours. I moan and groan when it comes to bureaucracy, but I wasn't too overwhelmed by this. I just hadn't had coffee or anything to eat yet... (You have to fast for 8 hours or so).

 

[sesamosinsal]

Thank you both! I don´t think I´ll need a public interpreter, as my Spanish is fine (at least I can understand pretty much anything, and manage to articulate myself, etc.).... it´s only that when I am flustered, I tend to stutter a bit, but I think I´ll be okay

The woman giving us our forms at the registro civil tested me on this by asking, "¿Cuál es tu estado civil?". I was able to understand and respond, thus no translator was needed. They may ask you similar questions.

 

[amcarey]

2. The judge let my wife, her mother and father, her grandmother, and me speak during the ceremony. She also let me hang pictures up of my family, who weren't able to make it down for the ceremony.

 

[KatharineAnn]

As others have mentioned, whether or not you will be asked to speak depends entirely on the judge. We got a VERY personalized judge and a long ceremony, where me and my husband were both asked a number of questions (how we met, and so forth), as well as all of our family members (the judge even had me translate my parents' comments - now that is a bit stressful!) But we also had a judge who typically does very "nice" and personalized ceremonies, and who also happened to be the mother of a friend So I don't think you can expect that.

As for prenupciales, if you are anywhere near the hospital durand (parque cenentario area) I HIGHLY recommend it, as there are much fewer people there (we had 2 couples ahead of us) and waited no more than a half hour or so. We were in and out in about 45 minutes - pretty smooth.

I also used my passport to get married - I actually had a current temporary DNI at the time, but they were mostly interested in my passport really You will, however, want to present that DNI vigente when you apply for permanent residency, as you probably will not be required to present a FBI police report or birth certificate in this case (at least in my case I was told they didn't need them as I already had a valid DNI!)

Funny anecdote - when I was asked "estado civil?" when first filling out paperwork at the registro civil, I got confused because I didn't understand what other estado civil I could have other than single if I was getting married! ...then I realized that "divorced" is also an estado civil...luckily, it wasn't a Spanish test in my case, so I wasn't forced to hire an interpreter. Haha!

Good luck, and congratulations!