Getting Married in Lima, Peru

[peruviangirl 0]

Hi, my name is Carmen, I live in Peru. My future husband is George from TX. We want to get married in Surco, Lima-Peru. George is coming next week to Lima but he can only stay for 5 days, we are planning to get married onhis next trip to Lima around September. But we are getting a little overwhelmed as I talked to a guy who works for the City Hall in Surco and he said I can start the paperwork with a certified letter left by George on this trip and that will be valid for 6 months, but that it will be better if we state in all our paperwork that George lives in Surco, in my house , he is saying doing that will save all kinds of more paperwork like him flying to Lima, getting the medical examination, getting the wedding paperwork, flying back to TX, having to post the wedding papers in TX for 8 days, then coming back and getting married.

But they require a certified copy of his passport and I don´t know if I need to do that now or when he comes back on September.

Please if somebody from the USA who married a peruvian can post more or less how they did it and the timings will help a lot. Thank you very much!

[TracyLuis 0]

I am the USC from Texas and married a Peruvian man. We were married in Texas, but we didn't have to do any of those things you wrote about.

I know it's different if you are married in Peru, but your marriage verification from Peru is valid in the States.

Check out the Embassy website for Peru for the best information. It sounds to me like you are being told something very complicated, but I'm not sure why.

The best advice I can offer is to be honest with all your documentation. Let me know if there is something else I can help with.

Tracy

[MandR 0]

Hi, my name is Carmen, I live in Peru. My future husband is George from TX. We want to get married in Surco, Lima-Peru. George is coming next week to Lima but he can only stay for 5 days, we are planning to get married onhis next trip to Lima around September. But we are getting a little overwhelmed as I talked to a guy who works for the City Hall in Surco and he said I can start the paperwork with a certified letter left by George on this trip and that will be valid for 6 months, but that it will be better if we state in all our paperwork that George lives in Surco, in my house , he is saying doing that will save all kinds of more paperwork like him flying to Lima, getting the medical examination, getting the wedding paperwork, flying back to TX, having to post the wedding papers in TX for 8 days, then coming back and getting married.

But they require a certified copy of his passport and I don´t know if I need to do that now or when he comes back on September.

Please if somebody from the USA who married a peruvian can post more or less how they did it and the timings will help a lot. Thank you very much!

[MandR 0]

What I suggest you is to make your wedding in Texas..actually , Lima requires a lotttt of staff to make a civil wedding, like the blood test that must be done one week before the wedding and in certains labs that the City Hall listed for all the marriages. Actually, if you guys plan to said that your future husband is living with you at the same house, they can request for the "carnet de extranjeria", that's the document that allow an american to live in Peru..if they just request for the passport, be carefull at the moment of taking the photocopies cause they can look into the admission stamp and see how long he's being in Peru.

Something that they must be asking too, is the certificate of civil status...or "certificado de solteria"..paper that in USA doesn't exist.

Good Luck guys...hope this city hall don't ask for all the 10000 things for a civil wedding.

[peruviangirl 0]

Thank you very much for answering. Yes, I have gone to the Surco city Hall and the amount of paperwork is amazing, and everything needs to be authenticated in the peruvian consulate , then certified in The Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores and finally translated by an official translator. We are considering now marrying in the USA.

Thanks again,

Carmen

What I suggest you is to make your wedding in Texas..actually , Lima requires a lotttt of staff to make a civil wedding, like the blood test that must be done one week before the wedding and in certains labs that the City Hall listed for all the marriages. Actually, if you guys plan to said that your future husband is living with you at the same house, they can request for the "carnet de extranjeria", that's the document that allow an american to live in Peru..if they just request for the passport, be carefull at the moment of taking the photocopies cause they can look into the admission stamp and see how long he's being in Peru.

Something that they must be asking too, is the certificate of civil status...or "certificado de solteria"..paper that in USA doesn't exist.

Good Luck guys...hope this city hall don't ask for all the 10000 things for a civil wedding.

[peruviangirl 0]

Tracy: Thank you very much for answering. Yes, there is a LOT of paperwork involved when you get married here in Lima and because we are both divorced it´s even worse, it really discouraged us to find out how many papers, translations, authentications, and very strict timings they required,

thanks again Tracy.

Carmen

I am the USC from Texas and married a Peruvian man. We were married in Texas, but we didn't have to do any of those things you wrote about.

I know it's different if you are married in Peru, but your marriage verification from Peru is valid in the States.

Check out the Embassy website for Peru for the best information. It sounds to me like you are being told something very complicated, but I'm not sure why.

The best advice I can offer is to be honest with all your documentation. Let me know if there is something else I can help with.

Tracy

[Artegal 1]

Please read my post last year in response to this very question:

Getting Married in Peru, Why?

By the way we stated that I the USC lived in Surco, so we didn't have to do extra paperwork with the court house and police here in the USA, which the state of Georgia does not keep records nor concerns itself with foreign (overseas) weddings. And getting a dental exam for my civil wedding was a hoot!

[ardilla 0]

Hi, I second everyon else's comments ... it is much simpler to do a civil wedding in the U.S. than in Lima.

[Kevin FitzGerald 0]

I am a USC and married my wife in Lima in August. It is complicated and took months to take care of everything. Luckly her municipality worked with us a little, and we still were down to the wire getting the tramites(beauracratic paperwork) completed. We had both a civil and catholic wedding.

Luckily, my state, Maryland, will provide a certificate of no marriage, for a low low cost of around $100. I also had to get a notarized copy of my passport, take it to the county courthouse to get the notarization certified. Same with a paper which gave my wife the right to operate on my behalf in Lima which I had faxed earlier so they would at least start the process. I also requested a new copy of my birth certificate from the state. After everything was certified at the courthouse, except the state documents since they already had the state seal on them, I went to DC to the Peruvian consulate. $30 a page, and a few hours of waiting, and they were legalized for use in Peru. I then overnighted these documents(another $70), along with new original I had obtained of my baptism and confirmation to Lima. Luckily the churh down there took the other documents, including a pre-marriage investigation and counseling by fax, when faxed directly from my church here.

I arrived in Lima on a Thursday, my parents came as well. We had a big wedding, close to 200 people in a private club. My parents and myself were my family's total at the function . We had a lot to do, I arrived at 5 in the morning, and had to go for a blood and saliva test at the muncilpalidad. They waved the 8 day restriction after much complaining by my wife, since we wanted to use my vacation time for a honeymoon week after the wedding, it had been 10 months apart. Then we had to produce a certificate saying I lived with her parents in Lima, we grabbed a notary, took him to her house, and showed our proof that it was my residence, of which there was none, but only he knew, and he was being paid . The only way this happened was a bribe by her friend's father who was a lawyer there. So we return to the notary's office and he prepares the legal documentation.

We were planning on a civil wedding on Friday and the religous was all set for Saturday night. The municipalidad wanted more paperwork, and the blood tests ended up not being ready Friday. We ran around and finished the paperwork Friday, I don't remember all they wanted but is was pretty easy, just waiting in some lines. I think they make up the paperwork requirements as they go, because the list kept changing, so it is impossible to be prepared for everything ahead of time.

Anyway, we were married at a civil ceremony in the municipalidad with both of our immediate families present(except of course my brothers and sisters that couldn't make it to Peru). After that we seperated and she got prepared, and did the bridal photos, while I memorized my spanish lines for the wedding that night in my room at the private club. It all went great and we had our honeymoon. Unfortunately, some of the last paperwork I needed to sign with her local church wasn't completed. A priest form a different church near the private club performed the ceremony and aparently they didn't communicate very efficiently. So we were able to lie to the priest at her church and sign the papers as if we hadn't been married yet. Yeah lying to a priest, I know...

But all is well, in the end I have both the Peruvian and Catholic marriage certificates for the visa process. I figure the Catholic certificate shows we went through the extra process since it requires consultations and counseling. Oh, and of course just the cost of getting all of the correct documentation was probably more than total fees I'll be paying for the visa. Much easier to do a US wedding $35 bucks and 10 minutes in the courthouse in my state.

[ardilla 0]

When we got married here in MN, we took our drivers licenses to the county license office, filled out a one page form to apply for the marriage license, paid the fee, and a few months later got married with our friends and family present. The pastor signed the certificate, we brought it back to the county office, and got certified copies and sent them in with the AOS application.

In our state there are no background checks, certificado de solteria, nor medical exams. There is a waiting period of about 10 days or so.

Later we had our civil marriage certificate notarized and legalized by the secretary of state here in MN, I translated it, and we brought it to the Peruvian consulate. They needed my husband's DNI and my passport, and then our marriage was entered into the civil registry (book) of the RENIEC. We have a second marriage certificate from the consulate. I guess we will probably have to have that document eventually translated and legalized by MINRREE in Lima if my husband ever wants to change his DNI or if I need to get one myself.

[Vi Mazzella 4]

Don't get married in Peru, trust me, is a pain in the.....

We had both ceremonies the same day, actually first the religious ceremony and right after that the Civil ceremony. Somebody recommended "Maria Reina church" in San Isidro, there's where we got married, they have a beautiful chapel and the ceremony was in english and spanish, Father Edward was our priest and the ceremony was beautiful.

Good Luck

Vi

[peruviangirl 0]

Thank you very much for all your kind answers. I really appreciate your opinions. Just reading what one member had to go through makes me think it twice before insisting in getting married here. Although it made me laugh because it sounded so much like how Peru is, lying to a priest, bribing the notary, that is how you get things acomplished here , sounds bad but that´s how it is.

Thanks again to the people who answer my post,

Carmen in Lima, Peru

Don't get married in Peru, trust me, is a pain in the.....

We had both ceremonies the same day, actually first the religious ceremony and right after that the Civil ceremony. Somebody recommended "Maria Reina church" in San Isidro, there's where we got married, they have a beautiful chapel and the ceremony was in english and spanish, Father Edward was our priest and the ceremony was beautiful.

Good Luck

Vi

[Martin11581 0]

Hi, my name is Carmen, I live in Peru. My future husband is George from TX. We want to get married in Surco, Lima-Peru. George is coming next week to Lima but he can only stay for 5 days, we are planning to get married onhis next trip to Lima around September. But we are getting a little overwhelmed as I talked to a guy who works for the City Hall in Surco and he said I can start the paperwork with a certified letter left by George on this trip and that will be valid for 6 months, but that it will be better if we state in all our paperwork that George lives in Surco, in my house , he is saying doing that will save all kinds of more paperwork like him flying to Lima, getting the medical examination, getting the wedding paperwork, flying back to TX, having to post the wedding papers in TX for 8 days, then coming back and getting married.

But they require a certified copy of his passport and I don´t know if I need to do that now or when he comes back on September.

Please if somebody from the USA who married a peruvian can post more or less how they did it and the timings will help a lot. Thank you very much!

Dont marry in LIMA, VETE A PROVINCIA! I went 1 month before my wedding, got tested and all paperowkr ready. I flew in to Chiclayo and went str8 to my ceremony :-) In provincias a couple soles can do miracles :-) I apid a bit more and had the people from city hall come to us and marry us at the party.