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Getting married in Colombia

Last activity 08 February 2024 by Lpdiver

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EdBruck

(Moderated: Off topic)

indianajones1970

Im keen to know which notary in medellin was not so strict with the paperwork listed,as im keen to marry my girl here but dont have a lot of the paperwork on the list so knowing which notary in medellin would be very handy...best rgds

Anna9801

Hello I am hoping since you all ready got married in Colombia if you can help me. Please use my email to write to me.

emma9801@hotmail.com

Priscilla

@ Anna9801 > Hello, please note that your message is not clear, how can we help you please?

Thank you,

Priscilla
Expat.com team

gringo_rick

can you give me the contact information for your notary?  thanks!

IrynaUSA

I got married in Bucaramanga back in 2008. My experience was a bit different because I am a dual Citizen (USA & Colombia).
We had to go to the notaries and get our birth certificates, apply to be married, and we got married about a month later. They have a month-long waiting period to make sure you want to get married. It was very annoying at the time because I was on a time crunch and had to come back to the US. The cost was about 200'000 Pesos (about $120 USD). The marriage certificate took a couple of months to be ready. It's twice the size of a regular US marriage license and I cannot find a place to put it without having to bend or fold it. haha.

Stevens925

Bucaramunga has delicious hormigas colones.

IrynaUSA

Stevens925 wrote:

Bucaramunga has delicious hormigas colones.


I have never actually tried one! Definitely on the bucket list.

gmuller

Looking for a easy notary in Colombia and read your blog :-) Can you give me his full information I would really appreciated it. Have so much trouble trying to get married there with the notaries. Thank you so much! Greg Muller

gmuller

PLEASE SEND ME HIS INFO THANK YOU :-)

PhilipCo wrote:

Getting Married in Colombia can sound a bit daunting, but I was lucky all the formalities were a breeze, once my Wife, found a Notary prepared to marry us, and yes, there were a number who would not entertain marrying a Colombiana to an Extrañjero!

The Notary in Medellin was brilliant, he did not want some of the papers that are listed on all the websites, he was happy with a apostillized copy of my divorce certificate, even though the divorce was ten months previously, birth certificate,  and a photocopy of my passport, he saw the original once I arrived in Colombia, and that was it. I met the Notary once, before the Wedding, he was extremely friendly and talked at a pace that I could understand. On the day of the Ceremony, he arrived spot on time at the Salon we used, but told us, he could not stay on afterwards, as he was going to bury his Brother an hour later, he conducted the service, as if he were an old friend, it was a day I will never forget. That topped it for me, as most people would have just cancelled, he had my utmost respect, and now whenever I need a Notary, I travel to his Office, even though there are many nearer.

Anna9801

Hello can  you please reply to me. I am planning on marrying a colombian and I need to ask you some questions in which you might be able to help me. thanks

Hasnaa

Hi Anna9801,

Please browse through all the posts on this thread and you will surely find some answers.

If you still have specific questions, do not hesitate to ask them directly on the forum for better orientation.

Best of luck,

Hasnaa
Expat.com Team

dondema

Hi PhilipCo,

Could you kindly send me the contact info of the notary?  I'm in Medellin and visited a few notaries here and they're asking for a lot.  I was hoping to have an experience like yours.

Thanks,

Don

D1llon1982

For anyone who is interested in opening a Bank account in Colombia, I opened mine before i had a Cedula and Bancolombia took my passport, it was easy.

Ahmed alhouti

What about i see the docs required is easy a little bit just required to prepare them first ., my country doesn't have colombian embassy  , also in bogota there's no kuwait embassy what about some one who want to married with a colombian girl with health condition ?  Does it required to be check up from governmt for visa ??
What about the colombian passport after i get married when i will earn it

Ahmed alhouti

What the requirements for opening bank account , as foriegner

Paal484225

Well basically you cannot
The basic rule for opening a bank account is to have a cedula (Colombian ID card)
Otherwise when you got this it is easy.

Regards

Paula

Ahmed alhouti

Thats great ., how long to apply for the ID

Paal484225

Well we have to see some points
Are you living in Colombia?
If not (as I understood before) you have to go to the Colombian consulate or the consulate that represent Colombia in your country.
You have to apply for a non touristic visa.  Please refer to the web site of the Colombia to know which visas are available;
Then you have to convince the person in charge of the visas that you project, for going to Colombia, is realistic.
How are you going to live in Colombia? Speak Spanish (forget English in Colombia), $$ for installing, what king of job and so on...
You can also marry a Colombian lady and get a child with her.  This simplifies a lot for cedula, but not for getting a job or for speaking Spanish.
Regards

rooster1

hi my name is tommy thanks for the information on marriage in Colombia .I recently tried to marry in Cartagena and was not successful .you mentioned Medellin can you tell me the name and address of the civil celebrant that does not require all the documents the others ask for Thanks

Tphillips1

Help, can i get Information on the notary in Medellin everyone else is asking for.  Thank you

Tphillips1

Hello my name is Tyrone.  Any luck on getting the info for the notary in Medellin?

gmuller

Sorry No, had to hired a lawyer in Villavicencio for $400 to get all worked out with the papers and set up with the notary!

Tphillips1

Ok thank you

Lalitsaroha

All the information on this thread is quiet useful, I want to know if I am from a different religion and my g.f is catholic is it still possible to get wedded in the church without any problem or I have to do a civil wedding ???

j.blancor

Hi All,

Did you get the notary where is easy to get married in Colombia? I am not living in Colombia but I want to get married in January, my boyfriend is not Colombian and all the documentation and translations are difficult to get and I don`t have time. I`m actually thinking to do a symbolic ceremony. Does someone know a celebrant that do symbolic ceremony? or maybe a notary that is willing to do one?

Thanks

dadomite

Hello to all planning to marry a Colombian citizen.I recently married a wonderful lady here in Medellin,Colombia.The process was fairly simple,the notoria wanted only a certified apostilled birth certificate and divorce decree no more than 3 months old and to make a copy of my passport and a photo of me,I arranged all this before leaving the US. Also as having all this translated to Spanish,which ihad done in Medellin at a reasonable price.The 1rst notaria wanted the translated papers apostilled which we thought was ridiculous,so we found another notaria, ,I had all the papers sent to my daughters in the US and she forwarded them to me regular US mail,,,MISTAKE,,,this was in august,I still haven't received them,so I made a trip back to the US to redo all my paper work and waited until I had them in hand and carried them with me.Although my fience thought her papers were in order,,wrong,,she had to have more done,,I cant say what all it was,,but only took a few days.We visited the notaria office 3 times before the wedding for paper work ,I didn't understand much of what was being done but every few minutes they gave my fiancé papers to take up front and give someone a little money?The last time we went before the wedding I had to hire a translater to read some papers to me, to sign ,,and I paid him around $32 and had to pay another $30 at the front desk again,at that time the date and time was set for the wedding,,the notoria said that all was in order and all we needed to do now was to show up and have my passport and $40 as well as the translater again. The wedding went well and the notoria was very kind and personal .So if someone doesn't think the notoria is fair with docuements try another 1.

Paal484225

Hello, what are the requirement for marriage in Colombia? I ll be marrying my boyfriend soon. I am from the Philippines and moving to Colombia on March 15, 2015

Bram1260

Hello All, I just got married with my longtime Colombian girlfriend in Colombia, It was not as easy as we had though, we had all documents ready  and had hired an official translater required by law to attend the wedding as my Spanish is not very good  and we all were hoping that it will be very easy to do it all in a timely mannor,
but due to recent changes we ended up hiring an atorney for about $700 , it was a well spent money , he did everything and booked an appointment with notory in matter of a few days .
Please do your home work , sometimes you need more documents than are listed

Good luck
Bram

SteveRusso

Bram
Yes not always as easy as described especially if there are kids involved or a previous marriage.
If one of the tow got married (and divorced) in the past, you will have to prove in some way you got legally divorced. Usually the marriage and divorce mention on your birth certificate is enough.

Then kids. A "inventario solemne de bienes" is necessary. Or at least that's what the notaries try to make you believe. This piece of paper can get tricky to get for a foreigner, and even for a Colombian, requires some time (up to 2 months). But this paper is in fact only necessary if you have custody.  And this is a "detail" notaries often tend to forget (because it is a great source of revenue for them).

Another thing to keep in mind: Each notary set his own level of requirements, and some go further to what the law actually requires.  If your notary is too picky, look elsewhere. You may even want to tell your notary that you will shop around for a more understanding notary. He'll probably negociate. Of course the minimum legal requirements will always be necessary.  You won't cut the document official translation and apostille steps, for instance.

Yes getting married requires some preparation work. I believe it is a good thing in a way.  It is slowing down those who may want to get married too rapidly or without having thought well enough about it.

Grindl-POP

I got married in Acacias.  We slaughtered a small cow, roasted three little pigs, had the most wonderful patacones, chimichuri, and all the fixings.  Dancers music, spirits.  It was great.

And yes there are a lot of formalities.  She is Catholic so we had to take classes before marriage.  We were in China at the time and we took the classes there.  These classes had to be approved by our church in Acacias and then by the main church.  I had to have all my documents translated and apostiled, including birth certificate and identity documents.

Then we had to get legally married and for this you have to be careful.  If we registered with the notary in Acacias, every time we would need to update something legal about our marriage for any reason like taxes or houses or whatever we would have to go back to Acacias, so we picked the notary on 100th street.  Much easier to get to, especially making the documents now for her to go to the states.

Before the wedding took a month of going places with our ID's and such to get the church's recognition.  Then another month going to places to get my Colombian ID.

I know I couldn't have done this without her, she is always on top of things… thanks Sweetie.

havo6969

Hi there im in the same boat. Planning a wedding can be stressful. And costly to say the least. I myself would like an outdoor..finca. Wedding. Im bucaramanga Colombia take your time .
hector from California usa

Adamdh348

Im in Medellin also. I would love to get that Notary's  information from you! We want to marry in both the Usa and Colombia.

Adamdh348

PhilipCo wrote:

Getting Married in Colombia can sound a bit daunting, but I was lucky all the formalities were a breeze, once my Wife, found a Notary prepared to marry us, and yes, there were a number who would not entertain marrying a Colombiana to an Extrañjero!

The Notary in Medellin was brilliant, he did not want some of the papers that are listed on all the websites, he was happy with a apostillized copy of my divorce certificate, even though the divorce was ten months previously, birth certificate,  and a photocopy of my passport, he saw the original once I arrived in Colombia, and that was it. I met the Notary once, before the Wedding, he was extremely friendly and talked at a pace that I could understand. On the day of the Ceremony, he arrived spot on time at the Salon we used, but told us, he could not stay on afterwards, as he was going to bury his Brother an hour later, he conducted the service, as if he were an old friend, it was a day I will never forget. That topped it for me, as most people would have just cancelled, he had my utmost respect, and now whenever I need a Notary, I travel to his Office, even though there are many nearer.


Would love to get this notary information from you! Thanks

herbw53

Older couple looking for an easy Notary in Medellin for marriage, can anyone help?

herbw53

Who is the notary in Medellin?

herbw53

Adamdh348 wrote:
PhilipCo wrote:

Getting Married in Colombia can sound a bit daunting, but I was lucky all the formalities were a breeze, once my Wife, found a Notary prepared to marry us, and yes, there were a number who would not entertain marrying a Colombiana to an Extrañjero!

The Notary in Medellin was brilliant, he did not want some of the papers that are listed on all the websites, he was happy with a apostillized copy of my divorce certificate, even though the divorce was ten months previously, birth certificate,  and a photocopy of my passport, he saw the original once I arrived in Colombia, and that was it. I met the Notary once, before the Wedding, he was extremely friendly and talked at a pace that I could understand. On the day of the Ceremony, he arrived spot on time at the Salon we used, but told us, he could not stay on afterwards, as he was going to bury his Brother an hour later, he conducted the service, as if he were an old friend, it was a day I will never forget. That topped it for me, as most people would have just cancelled, he had my utmost respect, and now whenever I need a Notary, I travel to his Office, even though there are many nearer.


Would love to get this notary information from you! Thanks


I think this person ****  or he would have said who the notary is.

Maximilien

Hi herbw53,

Please note the post you quoted is dated 2012 and that this person is not a member anymore as his account is now permanently close.

Thank you

Maximilien

herbw53

I realize that but from what I understand nothing has changed. I did hear or read something about only needing a passport and there was no waiting period in Cali if anyone wants to try going there.

herbw53

have you heard anything about Cali? I read or someone told me that they only needed a passport in Cali and there wasn't a waiting period. They just went there and were married the same day without even an appointment.

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