Marrying a Peruvian

[wbuendia]

Alright so I am from the US and will be getting married in Peru to a Peruvian in the future. I have read the forum about this situation and I think that I understand most everything.

I want to get everything done that I can in the US before going to Peru so that it isn't months before we can actually get married. If I understand correctly I will need a recent birth certificate (within 90 days but 30 is better) and a form from my county stating that I am currently single. Then I need both of those documents legalized and translated. I can get them legalized in the US at the Peruvian Consulate over my area but can I get them translated here too? I have experience with getting documents translated in Lima and it takes a lot of work and time to do so. If they must be translated in Peru is it possible to send them to one of my boyfriends relatives in Peru so that they are done before I get there? (My boyfriend will be on a religious mission until I get there so he will not be able to do so himself.)

I know that other then those documents I will need my passport and we will both need a medical exam done. Anything else?

[susita83]

Alright so I am from the US and will be getting married in Peru to a Peruvian in the future. I have read the forum about this situation and I think that I understand most everything.

I want to get everything done that I can in the US before going to Peru so that it isn't months before we can actually get married. If I understand correctly I will need a recent birth certificate (within 90 days but 30 is better) and a form from my county stating that I am currently single. Then I need both of those documents legalized and translated. I can get them legalized in the US at the Peruvian Consulate over my area but can I get them translated here too? I have experience with getting documents translated in Lima and it takes a lot of work and time to do so. If they must be translated in Peru is it possible to send them to one of my boyfriends relatives in Peru so that they are done before I get there? (My boyfriend will be on a religious mission until I get there so he will not be able to do so himself.)

I know that other then those documents I will need my passport and we will both need a medical exam done. Anything else?

I know this probably won't answer your question, but my husband & I decided to get legally married in the states because the process was a little bit easier and then just have a religious wedding in Peru. (We had a bunch of kids and never got around to the 2nd wedding, but I digress.... ) The fianceé visa takes about 6 months and from what I've heard it's a lot quicker too.

As far as translation goes, I do know that to have the documents legalized at the Peruvian Consulate in the US, they don't have to be translated to Spanish. It may turn out to be a little bit less expensive to have them translated in Peru. I also know they notarize everything so take that into consideration if you have the documents translated in the states.

[ehat]

wbuendia, you should get your documents apostilled by the Peruvian Embassy in the states before you come down. Just getting the legalized means that you have to take the to the Ministry of the Exterior to get them legalized again and then to the translator and then back to the Ministry. If you get them apostilled (both the US and Peru are under the Hague Apostille and will accept documents as legal/original whatever with these stamps on them) then you take your documents to an official translator, the list can be found on the Ministry of the Exterior's website, and then back to the Ministry of the Exterior to get the translation certified.

You cannot get your documents translated in the US, but once they have been apostilled, you can send them here and anyone can take them to the official translator. When I did it it only took about 2 days.

If you have any questions, just PM me, I just got married to a Peruvian so all the info is pretty fresh

[pingouin59]

Just to mention that the Peruvian consulates have nothing to do with appostille- Documents such as a birth certificate or others and issued by a US administration must be appostilled by a US administration entity in charge of appostilles. Legalization is done by the ministry of Foreign Affair (RREE) in Peru after you have translated your appostlled documents. translation just take a couple of days, same for the legalization where you submit the documents one day and retrieve them the following.

Good luck

[rama0929]

I know this probably won't answer your question, but my husband & I decided to get legally married in the states because the process was a little bit easier...

I think this is the way we will go as well.

[viernes]

basically, if you have questions, you need to contact the peruvian consulate closest to you and figure out what they require. Again, the apostille is not done by the peruvian consulate but by the govt organization (probably the liutenant governor's office of the state) with jurisdiction over your document.

Anything that you can get done in the states, do it there. Not only will it be more difficult in Peru, it will probably be more expensive.

Also, in my experience, one consulate may tell you one thing and another tells you another thing. Even individual people in the same consulate are sometimes on different pages. Make sure you know exactly what you need to do, and keep copies of everything you get done.

[ehat]

sorry about the misinformation about the apostille, I actually didn't get that done, so the process was a lot longer and involved, but the last time I did get it done for the Spanish Consulate, they did tell me how to do it, so thats probably what I meant. But yes, contact your consulate, and also contact the Municipality where you plan on getting married. They usually have a nice little pamphlet that they can give you that tells you all the things that need to be done and collected.

[wbuendia]

Thank you everyone for answering. Our original plan was to get a fiance visa and get married in the states but by the time we can even start the process we will have been apart for 3 years so even 6 months longer just isn't possible for us. And I have never been to Peru so I am excited to have the opportunity to go and live there for a year or so while we are working on his visa before we settle in the US.

I might just be more confused now but with everyone's answers I am pretty sure that this is what I'll need to do. Get my documents apostilled here in the US by my state (not at the peruvian consulate) and then have those sent to Peru to have them translated and then legalized. Correct?

I will be sure to talk to the Peruvian Consulate and make sure that I have everything I need to before I go. I read that the legalization should be done here so I am not sure why they would say that if it has to be done after it is translated.

[ehat]

A note on getting his US residency - if that is what you are going to do, (this is really far in advance but just FYI) to file a petition for his residency from Peru, you have to have been here (peru) or 9months or more, doesn't matter what kind of visa you are on. If you haven't been here for more than 9 months, then you will have to start the petition from the states, which takes a long time I've heard.

[susita83]

Thank you everyone for answering. Our original plan was to get a fiance visa and get married in the states but by the time we can even start the process we will have been apart for 3 years so even 6 months longer just isn't possible for us. And I have never been to Peru so I am excited to have the opportunity to go and live there for a year or so while we are working on his visa before we settle in the US.

Sounds exciting

If you haven't been here for more than 9 months, then you will have to start the petition from the states, which takes a long time I've heard.

It's really not such a long time, although the fiancée visa is definetely quicker.

[Kelly]

If you haven't yet, I'd recommend visiting visajourney.com - they've got the best and most up-to-date information for you.

[viernes]

you can finish the 129-F finace visa petition and then go to Peru and wait the 6 months you will probably have to wait for him to get his interview in the embassy. You can even attend the interview with him. Problem solved.

[chi chi]

And I have never been to Peru

You've never been to Peru. And you want to bring your Peruvian bf to the US to get married?
How did you meet then? Have you met him in person or did you meet on the internet?

Some questions the embassy might ask.

[viernes]

I might just be more confused now but with everyone's answers I am pretty sure that this is what I'll need to do. Get my documents apostilled here in the US by my state (not at the peruvian consulate) and then have those sent to Peru to have them translated and then legalized. Correct?

I read that the legalization should be done here so I am not sure why they would say that if it has to be done after it is translated.

You are definitely confused, but it is not an easy process. It's confusing and frustrating. I'm not sure about all the documents you are legalizing, but it will probably need to be legalized(apostilled) by your state, which gives the international certification, and then by the foreign ministry in Peru which approves international documents for national use, b/c a municipality probably will have no idea what to do with a foreign document.

[ehat]

Apostilled is not the same as legalization.

I got my birth certificate legalized as well as my certificado de solteria, and when they arrived in Peru, I had to take them to the RREE so they could legalize them, in order to take them to an official translator. Without the RREE stamps on it an official translator will not translate them. Once the documents are done at the translators, they have to be returned to the RREE so that they can legalize the signature of the translator. Stupid and annoying, but thats what has to be done.

If you get the documents apostilled, you take them directly to the official translator, and then just get their signature legalized. You can skip the first step of taking them to them to RREE.

Contacting the municipality is to check on all of the documents that you need to get married, and some of the municipalities are helpful with foreign fiancees, so they can tell you what needs to be done.

As Kelly suggested, make sure you check out the visajourney website, they have a lot of information and will help you decide what path you want to take in terms of residency.

[viernes]

I'm not sure how an apostille is not a type of legalization, but that's besides the point.

If you get the documents apostilled, you take them directly to the official translator, and then just get their signature legalized. You can skip the first step of taking them to them to RREE.

If this is true, then you need to be able to tell the translator. I had my documents with the corresponding apostille and was still required to go to Relaciones exteriores before and after translation. And despite all that, I found out later that my translation was wrong....stated that my wife (peruvian) was born in the US. So much for RREE approved translators.

[ehat]

It is a type of legalization, but if you just ask them to legalize the papers instead of getting them apostilled, you get something different if you use the term legalized instead of aposotilled. And the point of getting is apostilled is so that it doesn't have to pass RREE, thats why all these countries belong to the Hague Apostille, but whatevs. It's Peru. Thats what I was told would have made it easier.

I guess the best advice is to take our advice with a grain of salt and always check with all the "wonderful" parties involved in this process. At the end of the day you have to do what they ask and however "standardized" the process is, it still varies from person to person. I think I triple checked all the steps it took to get married and still ended up running around in circles.

@viernes, did you have to get a new translation done?

[viernes]

nope, in the end it wouldn't have mattered, since i was trying to register a marraige cert. in reniec, we had this 6 month legal process, with appeals and what not, and by that time I had to go back to the US for a visit anyways, in which I just went to the consulate and registered the marraige there, avoiding the whole process.

the translator wouldn't even change her translation. something about doing the same translation twice differently is against the ethics of translators.....but whatev..

I love how in the US I can just translate my own documents to spanish and sign a non-notarized piece of paper saying that I'm competent enough to translate.

AGAIN, this story is besides the point...

moral of the story, ask everyone twice how to do things, and check everyone's work. Don't just assume they translated it right, because if you do, and then you give it to a govt organization like reniec, they won't give it back to you, won't let you start from scratch, even though you tell them the translation is wrong, even though the translator writes a letter stating that it is wrong. They will still believe the translation is correct even if makes no sense b/c they have your wife's birth cert, and have seen her DNI, but if the translation says that she was born in the US, then you have to appeal to a court because a normal person can't make that kind of decision.

hey, big gulps!! welp, see ya later.

[wbuendia]

I am definitely more confused now than when I started. But I think what I will take from what everyone has said is that I will get in touch with the consulate here and the municipality in peru near him and do what they tell me to do.

I have been in touch with visajourney.com and they were very helpful on the visa part. My questions were actually just about the marriage so that is why I am here.

In answer to the questions that were asked...he came to the US when he was about 12 and left at 18 so we have known each other for quite some time. No meeting on the internet or anything like that. ( I know that this will be asked so I'll just answer it now. He came on a tourist visa and overstayed it so yes it is possible that he will not be able to come back to the US but if that's the case then we will just stay in Peru.) Also it isn't possible to start a fiance visa here and then go there. For religious reasons we cannot live together and not be married. So I know that a 129-F fiance visa is fastest but I honestly do not care how long it takes if we are together.

[susita83]

Also it isn't possible to start a fiance visa here and then go there. For religious reasons we cannot live together and not be married. So I know that a 129-F fiance visa is fastest but I honestly do not care how long it takes if we are together.

Yes, you can do that. As long as you have a co-sponsor making an American income which will meet the guidelines to support themselves, their family, you & your fiancee. I was not able to move because I sponsored my husband by myself and had to continue working.