Apostille of marriage certificate

My husband needs a "beneficiary visa". I currently have a 5 year Colombian visa, so I'm all set.
Here is my question.
I had the original english language certificate translated here in Medellín by a firm called Extranjería en Colombia.
Now, they tell me (after paying for the translation) that the next step is to have a NEW certificate issued at the location of the marriage, San Diego, CA., and it has to be apostilled. These 2 new docs have to be less than 3 months old. So basically, I paid for the translation for nothing as they cannot use the document to initiate his visa process. Seems like they should have known this right when I walked into their office and not even bothered to translate the original since it apparently cannot be used!!
... can anyone chime in that has experienced this situation in the past?

I am from the UK, I used a translation and apostille service there. All documents you submit from another country have to be apostille stamp. I took my translated and apostille certificate to a notary and have a Colombian marriage certificate now.

We just had this done in January. We used Langon Law Firm. langoncolombia.com/immigration-law/

My wife got a beneficiary Visa as well due to her not being old enough for SS.
We had to get our marriage certificate apostilled, certified from the state of Hawaii. Langon provided all the information on whom to contact in Hawaii and we submitted all the docs required to Hawaii. It took 8 weeks to get the docs back to us. Once received here in Medellin they had to be notarized and translated to Spanish. Once all the docs were submitted to Immigration she received her stamped Visa in about 3 days. Langdon was great to deal with. Ask for Anna- Maria. She is awesome to work with.

Good luck!

John and Susan

David0913 wrote:

I am from the UK, I used a translation and apostille service there. All documents you submit from another country have to be apostille stamp. I took my translated and apostille certificate to a notary and have a Colombian marriage certificate now.


Did you need to get the appostilled and translated documents attested by the Colombian Embassy in the UK before they could be used in Colombia?

Hi AguilaCondor

I had the same thing happen to me with trying to get my 3 year visa application underway and not knowing spanish. I went to a Notary office downtown. They produced a certified copy of my Passport that I did not need and charged me 40,000 pesos.

Welcome to Colombia hahahahahahahahha

I hope you are enjoying it here as much as I do. Forget the problem and chalk it up to experience like I did. You can't avoid that problem of getting a fresh apostilled certificates. It's the way it is here. What a pain BUT I have been told by American friends that those "apostilled" certificates are good for life so you don't have to go thru it again.

Have fun and adapt.

Less than 90 days is always the determining factor in almost any country. They wanted your money not your service.

Gotcha heheheheh How are things my friend? I hope you are enjoying Colombia as much as I am.

Sadly, my wife and I had the same experience.  She had to fly back to the US to get our certificate reprinted and apostilled.  It was a very expensive hassle and we fired our lawyers because of it. 

Our new lawyers informed us of exactly what you heard. New apostilles less than 3 months old.  I am sorry to say we are going through the same thing.  Well worth it though!

Flying back is one option. I did that initially also when my credit card got hacked in Nicaragua. I believe if you agree willing to go thru the paperwork/forms hassle you can get the documents released and apostilled "remotely" from here in Colombia. then shipped here. For instance...I can talk to Canada and USA unlimited minutes on my present Tigo cell phone plan.... 55,000 pesos per month. I have the document "releaser" mail my document directly to the "Apostile" agent in Canada and then they ship me DHL.
I have found all remote dealings with Canada a terrible experience UNTIL I got the unlimited cell plan from Tigo. Now I am ready for any problem.