Hi everyone,

Well, it's settled- we're getting married and we're going to do it here in Spain! I'm so happy I could hug the computer. Anyway, I just wanted to offer an update on what I'd discovered this week about the Spanish marriage process (in case anyone here is still looking for information on this subject). Let me tell you, getting accurate information from the public administration system was not easy. After spending one full day talking to the civil registry, immigration office, and the American consulate in Seville, and after talking to the US embassy in Madrid, the California Secretary of State, and various other institutions, I still had no idea whether a US citizen who marries in Spain "sin papeles" and with no special entry visa would not be considered a "fraud" (as is the case in the US). Nor could anyone tell me what documents would be required of me in order to obtain residency here once married, how I'd go about that, when to expect to get health insurance, etc etc. I finally came to the conclusion that *no one* in the public administration system knows ALL the steps involved in this kind of marriage, the ins and outs of residency, etc. Finally, we called the Council of Social Affairs here in Seville & they told us that the only place of any use in these matters was the Sociedad de Mujeres Progresistas, who, it turns out, have free legal counseling on Thursday afternoons.

What a service! After my odyssey through the tangled administration net, the efficiency and generosity of this group was like a cool rain after a day in the desert. The lawyer there works pro bono three afternoons a week and was very professional, to the point and reassuring. Apparently she has walked hundreds of couples through the mixed marriage process, so I have to assume she knows what she's talking about. She said not to worry, the state of my passport won't affect the legality of our marriage and that I can even do the "Solicitud de Tarjeta en Regimen Comunitario" along with the "Exencion de Visado" at the same time here in Spain, and so get residency almost immediately without having to return to the US. She explained that the latter form is to show that we have been living together in Spain for at least a year and that, since we can already prove that this is the case via various kinds of papers and mail sent to our address, we don't need to wait but can apply for it right away. (This is apparently the one way to avoid having to return to the States to pick up your Visado Para Reunir Una Familia-- had we not been living together for a year before our marriage, either I would have had to stay in Spain for a full year with no trips back to the States, and then apply, or I would have had to return to the States for the Visado and then apply for residency here). She also said, even though I'm not working at the moment, I am automatically covered for health insurance under my partner's social security number once married, regardless of my residency status.

Amazingly, she'll file all our paperwork for us with the appropriate offices, FOR FREE, & will even accompany us to the Immigration office when we apply for my residency, so that we don't have to wait in line. Is that not just unbelievable?! I'm so grateful and awe-struck that I've decided to add the Mujeres Progresistas to my list of charity groups.

FYI, these are the things we will need to gather for the civil ceremony:

--copies of our birth certificates. Mine will arrive next week with the Apostille of the Hague seal on it, cost a total of $61 including Fed Ex shipping, was ordered by phone direct from my birth state's vital records office.

--copies of my partner's DNI and my passport

--certificates of "empadronamiento" for both of us. Since I had not done this before and since my name is not on our rental contract, we had to make an appt for the empadronamiento office to come to our home in order to get the certificate. There was a waiting list of about one week for the appt.

--certificate of consular inscription in which my place of residence and time of residence in Spain are affirmed, with the Apostille. This is a fairly new requirement. Supposedly you can get the Apostille from either the consulate or the American embassy in Madrid.

--legal translations of all documents not originally written in Spanish, ie the birth certificate and consular inscription certificate. Legal translations should be commissioned AFTER the Apostille has been placed on the documents in question.

--I am not sure whether the photocopy of my passport needs to to be translated and/or carry the Apostille seal, as well. I'd think not.

That's it! I called a legal translator and he said he'd be able to translate all of our documents for about 50 euros total and have them ready within a few days. Once that's done, we need to take the paperwork back to the civil registrar's and get a date for the interview and cermony. If all goes well, we should be married by noche buena.

By contrast, the US marriage option sounds a lot more lengthy and expensive. When I checked into this, I was told by the INS that the "fianceé visa" my boyfriend would need to get in order to legally marry me there would take *at least* three months for them to process, perhaps as long as one year, and was not guaranteed. If it were rejected for whatever reason (apparently about 40% of them are), we'd have to apply, pay, and wait all over again. Since we're not living in the US right now, once the visa had gone through we'd have to plan to at least a 4-5 week stay in the States so we'd have sufficient time to: (1) obtain the marriage licence (2) marry (3) get a certified copy of the marriage license (sometimes you have to wait a week) (4) take this and any other necessary docs to Sacramento & get them sealed with the Apostille (5) and get the docs to the Spanish Consulate in L.A. & apply for the Libro de Familia, and (6) when the latter arrived, (after 10 days to 2 weeks), go back to the L.A. consulate to get the Visa Para Reunir Una Familia (7) return to Spain, and (8) apply for residency/work permit. All told, if we chose to wed in Calif. we probably wouldn't have been able to do so until next summer! Besides, even just a civil ceremony in the US would have cost us a few thousand dollars-- $110 for the visa, $100 for the ceremony, $26 for each document sealed with the Apostille, costs for juridical translations to/from the Spanish, travel expenses for trips to Sacramento and Los Angeles, etc., not to mention plane tickets and everything else.

Conclusion: it is faster and cheaper to marry in Spain if one is already here-- even without papers-- than it is to marry in the US. (I'm crossing my fingers and hoping there won't be any catches ).

Okay, I *am* going to stop writing. Hope this post will be useful to some people out there!

Laura