What are the implications of where a couple of different nationalities gets married?

Question

In general, what are the implications of where a couple of different nationalities gets legally married?

A few examples I can imagine of possible implications follow, but please don't take this as a complete or exhaustive list.

• Can the location affect the marriage process itself, for instance with the obtaining of marriage licenses or other legal requirements?

• Can the marriage location affect future residency or citizenship, or the process of obtaining such, of the foreign partner?

• Can the marriage location affect citizenship of future children?

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For reference, my specific situation is that I will be getting married to a Guatemalan/Spanish dual-citizen. I am a US citizen (with Mexican residency). We intend to have our wedding ceremony in Guatemala, but we can do the legal marriage anywhere.

Answer 1

Don't know about Spain and Guatemala specifically but:

• Rules do vary quite a bit and it does matter in practice.
• It might be easier to marry in some place than other. For example, some countries have residency requirements (even a requirement that you live in the specific municipality where you want to marry or some such), others do not. The documentation required is also not the same everywhere; I have a friend who married a UK citizen in the UK specifically because it could be done with his passport, whereas the country where they both live requires a birth certificate (which was a problem for him).
• Marrying a foreigner might require additional documents on top of what's usually required in the country, like this. It might also be impossible to marry on a tourist or visitor visa and then switch to a more permanent status (there are specific “marriage visas” that must be applied for in advance).
• It will also have practical consequences to get a visa or residency after the marriage. The rules typically do not make a difference depending on where you were married but any foreign documentation might need to be translated or notarized, which is costly and sometimes troublesome, whereas a local certificate should be accepted directly (and the non-citizen partner might have to wait outside of the country for everything to get sorted out…).
• I don't really know anything about that but I suspect it might also impact the rules regarding joint ownership and other financial matters and of course what happens if you want to divorce.

Answer 2

My advice is to work backwards - figure out where you both will ultimately be living, and where you both ultimately want to have residency (or citizenship). Contact the State Dept. or equivalent government entity for that country (and state/province, if known & applicable) and find out what their rules for marriage are.

Rules vary widely based on which partner is the foreign national, which countries of origin/residency are involved, and any language or political obstacles. Some countries make it "easy" upfront to marry across nationalities, but then there are difficulties when trying to obtain required later documentation - work/student visas, permanent resident status, "married" tax status, etc.

My (American) brother met my sister-in-law here in the States (she was on a vacation-tourist visa), but they married in her home country of Lithuania, because of love/romance. The first problem was that our English name does not directly translate into current Lithuanian-government regulations, so the spelling is slightly different from US-legal on their marriage certificate. Since they both moved back to the US, there has been a multi-year process where she has had to renew her visa (back in Lithuania), and jump through a bunch of documentation & interview hoops to comply with US Immigration & State Dept. statutes. There was at least a 6+ month period before she was able to get approved to work here, and even then there have been issues.

Keep in mind that you can have your ceremony wherever you want, and consider yourself married. However, you are probably better off getting legally married in the country that will be your primary residence.

(Also, I don't know if it applies in your case, but the future-citizenship of any children may well be affected by the country-of-marriage. Again, rules vary.)

Answer 3

I would start at the registry office in Guatemala - they will tell you what requirements there are to get married in Guatemala, and one would hope that they would know whether your marriage will be legally accepted in other countries. And that's the main point: Whether Spain and/or the USA accept that marriage as legal, and whether they accept it as the same as a wedding in Spain / USA.

It might be a good idea to check this with a registry office in the USA or Spain as well. One, depending on what requirements there are, it might be easier to get married in the USA or Spain. Or it might not. But also, I would expect a US registry office to be able to tell you exactly what your US state would be after getting married in Guatemala. More so than a place in Guatemala.

Answer 4

Where you get married will have no bearing on your eligibility for residency. Residency status depends on obtaining a residency permit for the country if you aren't a citizen. Where you get married will also have no bearing on the future citizenship options for your kids. That will come from you and your spouse's citizenship country rules as well as where the children are born and the rules of the country where they are born.

As gnasher729 states, the key is whether your home countries or the country where you want to gain residency accepts the marriage documents from the country where you get married. Probably they do, but confirm.

I was married in France (which wasn't easy) and my marriage was accepted in the U.S. and everywhere else I resided. People I know were married in Costa Rica while vacationing there. Their marriage was recognized in the U.S. So it's not a likely scenario that your marriage won't be recognized by other countries.

Answer 5

Can the location affect the marriage process itself, for instance with the obtaining of marriage licenses or other legal requirements?

Yes

Can the marriage location affect future residency or citizenship of the foreign partner?

No

Can the marriage location affect citizenship of future children?

No