I am a US citizen, my fiance is Spanish.  We are having our wedding in Spain in July, and plan on living there for at least a year.  (!!!)

This site’s guide was helpful.  After a good bit of searching and reading, it seems like every step is pretty much “go to the consulate and get this form”.  Are all these rules and forms (spanish ok) available online somewhere?

The guides are mostly directed for getting married in Spain, which seems more complicated and takes longer than doing everything US.  Is there a guide for getting married in the US, and then moving to Spain?

Thanks!

Some links for the next bumbling extranjero… =)

US citizen marrying in Spain
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_763.html

US Apostille info
http://travel.state.gov/law/info/judicial/judicial_2545.html

UK citizen marrying in Spain
http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-spain/marriage-in-spain

Australian marrying in Madrid
http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/4409/

Hi Tmonster,

Basically, once you’re married in the US, you’ll need to take official, translated copies of your documents to the Consulate/Embassy to apply for the Libro de Familia. Have you come across this aspect yet?

The Expatriator - 18 November 2009 09:42 PM

Hi Tmonster,

Basically, once you’re married in the US, you’ll need to take official, translated copies of your documents to the Consulate/Embassy to apply for the Libro de Familia. Have you come across this aspect yet?

We haven’t done anything yet.  I have read a lot about it and am still confused. =)  I’m wondering if we should get married by a judge here, and the wedding in spain would just be a ceremony and not official.  You make it sound like that is the common sense way to do it?

That’s how I’d do it. I may just do exactly that sometime soon actually.