How To Get Married in Mexico To A Mexican National As A Foreigner
Posted: January 21, 2025 | Tagged: Mexico
I'm gettin' married in the morning, ding dong the bells are going chime..
Documents needed to get married in Mexico:
Having been through the painstaking process of securing documents so I could get married to Miss CDMX here in Mexico, I would like to emphasise a couple of points, which are in bold text throughout this post.
The documents detailed here are what is required by the Mexican authorities. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, British, French, or from north of the border. Where you are from is irrelevant.
The requirements for getting married in Mexico differ depending on which state you will marry in. This is the one thing that the Mexican Embassy UK and the UK Gov agreed on. Check locally!
Have your spouse-to-be check at the local "Juzgado Civil".
These will be the minimal requirements you will need beyond your passport:
You might need more, but you won't need less!
I did all the leg work online for the documents I would need, finding out where I could get the documents I needed before I left the UK, emailing people, getting advice, and double-checking everything, because, like everything online, there is a lot of fake, irrelevant, and out-of-date information around.
You need your birth certificate (I suggest you get copies of it too, and I don't mean photocopies. I mean proper copies issued by the relevant authorities. This is going to be in the area, state, or department where you were born).
A birth certificate does not need to be notarised, aka, legalised, as it is already a legal document, so ignore notary companies who try and fob you off with services that you do not need.
You need to get an apostille on your birth certificate. The definition of the apostille is 'the authentication of a document for use in another country'.
A document can only be apostilled in the country in which it was issued. And it has to be done by the correct authorities. There are a few companies that can get that done for you, but they do not do it themselves. In the UK, any document needing an apostille is done by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the FCDO. End of story.
The documents detailed here are what is required by the Mexican authorities. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, British, French, or from north of the border. Where you are from is irrelevant.
The requirements for getting married in Mexico differ depending on which state you will marry in. This is the one thing that the Mexican Embassy UK and the UK Gov agreed on. Check locally!
Have your spouse-to-be check at the local "Juzgado Civil".
These will be the minimal requirements you will need beyond your passport:
- Birth Certificate
- Apostille of Birth Certificate
- Translation of Birth Certificate and Apostille
You might need more, but you won't need less!
I did all the leg work online for the documents I would need, finding out where I could get the documents I needed before I left the UK, emailing people, getting advice, and double-checking everything, because, like everything online, there is a lot of fake, irrelevant, and out-of-date information around.
You need your birth certificate (I suggest you get copies of it too, and I don't mean photocopies. I mean proper copies issued by the relevant authorities. This is going to be in the area, state, or department where you were born).
A birth certificate does not need to be notarised, aka, legalised, as it is already a legal document, so ignore notary companies who try and fob you off with services that you do not need.
You need to get an apostille on your birth certificate. The definition of the apostille is 'the authentication of a document for use in another country'.
A document can only be apostilled in the country in which it was issued. And it has to be done by the correct authorities. There are a few companies that can get that done for you, but they do not do it themselves. In the UK, any document needing an apostille is done by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the FCDO. End of story.
I could have sorted it myself, but time was running out, and there was a certain need for speed. I used a Notary in Charing Cross. Why them? Because the guy got back to me sharpish and put me right after being led down the proverbial rabbit hole by a whole host of people who had no idea.
I turned up at the office in Charing Cross at around 10 am. I collected my birth certificate with an apostille the next day at 3 pm. The total cost for using their services was £150. It would have cost me pretty near that once you factor in the transport costs to go pick the documents up, and the additional accommodation costs, waiting around for the documents to be ready. First-class service. If you need their details, message me!
Other than your passport as ID, the only other document I needed was a translation of the birth certificate and apostille, and I am gonna stress this point; the translation can only be done in Mexico. Your embassy will have a list of approved translators. I actually got a list from the local authorities here, then cross-referenced it with the one from my own embassy.
I sent WhatsApp messages to 3 translators. 1 took 4 days to reply. Another responded the next day, and the English in the message did not give me confidence. I chose Ostria Traducciones, which replied to me in proper English (hadn't used Google Translate) and responded to my never-ending questions within 10 minutes.
This cost me 890 pesos, and I picked up the documents 2 days later.
These are the minimal requirements to get married in Mexico to a Mexican national as a foreigner:
As I said earlier, the documents required vary from state to state, and you could end up needing a whole host of other documents, which for me would have been almost impossible. You may need a declaration of your status and your right to get married. This would need to be drawn up by a solicitor, be notarised (as it's not a legal document in itself), and an apostille obtained, and of course, a translation of both and every little step will have you reaching deep into your pockets.
Your spouse-to-be will need a whole host of documents too, and they will need to be scanned, uploaded, presented, etc, and payment made. It all sounds daunting, but if you have all the documents prepared, you will be processed very quickly.
I turned up at the office in Charing Cross at around 10 am. I collected my birth certificate with an apostille the next day at 3 pm. The total cost for using their services was £150. It would have cost me pretty near that once you factor in the transport costs to go pick the documents up, and the additional accommodation costs, waiting around for the documents to be ready. First-class service. If you need their details, message me!
Other than your passport as ID, the only other document I needed was a translation of the birth certificate and apostille, and I am gonna stress this point; the translation can only be done in Mexico. Your embassy will have a list of approved translators. I actually got a list from the local authorities here, then cross-referenced it with the one from my own embassy.
I sent WhatsApp messages to 3 translators. 1 took 4 days to reply. Another responded the next day, and the English in the message did not give me confidence. I chose Ostria Traducciones, which replied to me in proper English (hadn't used Google Translate) and responded to my never-ending questions within 10 minutes.
This cost me 890 pesos, and I picked up the documents 2 days later.
These are the minimal requirements to get married in Mexico to a Mexican national as a foreigner:
- Your passport
- Birth Certificate
- Apostille of Birth Certificate
- Translation of Birth Certificate and Apostille
As I said earlier, the documents required vary from state to state, and you could end up needing a whole host of other documents, which for me would have been almost impossible. You may need a declaration of your status and your right to get married. This would need to be drawn up by a solicitor, be notarised (as it's not a legal document in itself), and an apostille obtained, and of course, a translation of both and every little step will have you reaching deep into your pockets.
Your spouse-to-be will need a whole host of documents too, and they will need to be scanned, uploaded, presented, etc, and payment made. It all sounds daunting, but if you have all the documents prepared, you will be processed very quickly.
