Getting married in Argentina.

[marquitos]

Hello to all - any advice for an expat for getting married here? anyone done it?

Is it true that you have to wait for a long time for an opening? i've also been told that i need long-form birth certificate, translated, and a few other slightly ridiculous requirements...

is there no argie equivalent of las vegas where a guy can go get a quickie 15 minute marriage??

 

[nicoenarg]

We had to book a spot 28 days before we wanted to get married. We then had to get our blood tests done 10-7 days before we were to get married. Then we had to take the medical test results, my passport and photocopy, and my wife's DNI and photocopy a couple of days before the actual day. Then we had to just show up on time. I had to arrange for a translator for me. You need to have two witnesses present. That's it. You say "si" and then all is history!

Good luck.

 

[solerboy]

I booked my marriage a month before. Is that a long time ? Anyway you need to take a blood test and the results take a week to process. Yes you will need your full birth certificate translated and legalised.

I dont think you can get a quickie marriage here.

 

[marquitos]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the info...
Meh, I guess a month isn't so long. A friend had told me 2 months. Hey, does it matter if you're on a tourist visa? Expired tourist visa?

I didn't know about the blood test. Anyone know the rationale behind that? Can't get married if you're sick?

 

[nicoenarg]

They told us that it is to know if our blood type is compatible (whatever the hell that means) and also for the both of us to know if either of us has any disease that we didn't tell each other about (sounds stupid but whatever).

They didn't check my visa (I had a valid tourist visa).

 

[earlyretirement]

The others are spot on target. I got married in Buenos Aires several years ago. My wife and I both had DNI's and are permanent residents of Argentina but I went through the same process.

It took about a month ahead of time to register for it. We had to take the blood tests and it's important to note you had to go to the Public Hospital for this (kind of a sketchy place). I guess they don't trust people to forge test results at their own doctor or something. But as they explained it, it was to make sure the other person knew that you didn't have any communicable diseases or HIV, etc.

The results took about 10 days or so. We went to a public ceremony where we had to have 2 witnesses that were locals (had DNI's). I was pleasantly surprised that they had some guy taking "professional photos". We paid some relatively small amount of money and he gave us a ticket to pick up a CD a week or so later.

Fairly easy. I've never heard of any quickie type marriages there. Nothing in Argentina is too easy or too quick as you probably figured out already.

Good luck and congratulations.

 

[sivan]

Here is a website that might be helpful. http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/aplicaciones/guiaba/guia/index.php?info=detalle&menu=1&id=329
Just so you know there are different rules if you get married in Capital Federal or in the Provincia of Buenos Aires. You definately need a vaild tourist visa though. If you are marrying an Argentine you need to go to the registro civil associated with the address on their DNI. This website has a list of them.

If you are planning on applying for permanent residency after that I would start looking into that now as that can be quite a lengthy process as they need paperwork from your home country - police clearances etc.

 

[gpop]

I , for one, could not say for sure that I understood the ceremony or the papers that I was signing at the time, so I was obliged to have a translator present at both the civil and religious ceremony.
You may want to look into an on-the-spot translator if you have difficulties with understanding Spanish; you are entering into a legal union and you will be signing legal documents, so it behooves you to implicitly understand what is uttered and printed (as unromantic as it sounds, be pragmatic and make sure someone didn't slide in a power-of-attorney transfer clause or something like that... cuz, you know... everyone's suuuuper honest here

The blood test, as I found out, is partly to check for disease, but also to check if you are somehow 'related' and unaware of it.

 

[ben]

1) It no longer needs to be booked 28 days in advance. When you're booking online, the system gives you available dates.
2) You have to come by their office (I think it was a week before?) to make sure all the documents are in order.
3) I personally got married many months after my 90 days had expired - no one so much as mentioned it.
4) No idea what the test is for, but if you've never been in an Argentine public hospital, be warned: it is not for the faint of heart. Private hospitals look like Western ones; public ones do not. Cats walking into the waiting room and spiders crawling around are what I personally found unsettling.
5) If when you show up at the place prior to the wedding, you can put on a show of passable Spanish, you'll be fine. At the ceremony itself, just stay quiet and say "Si, acepto".

 

[Crema Americana]

I didn't need the birth certificate to get married, just my passport, but I was married in provincia. Our registro civil told us we would need a document stating I was single (which doesn't exist) so we went to another registro who thankfully bended the rules a bit (it's not our designated registro) and let us marry there.

The blood work and checkup was a waste of time... I doubt they even check anything, but it's a necessary step. We had to go to a public hospital 7 days before the wedding for the blood work and physical (the physical basically consists of listening to your heart for 2 seconds and looking at the back of your hands).... 3 days before the wedding we had to pickup the results and take them to the registro civil. I lucked out here as well since I passed out while getting my blood taken (Dr. couldn't find my veins and only got a drop out) but he was nice enough to not make me come back.

All in all it was pretty painless. You do have to plan ahead though, reserve the date 30 days before the day you want to get married. The registros here only marry on Thursday and Friday.