Marriage in Spain for foreigners: the expediente matrimonial and a ceremony before a notary

Can foreigners marry in Spain

Yes. The right to marry in Spain is not tied to citizenship or to holding a residence permit: couples where one partner is Spanish can marry, and so can couples where both are foreigners, including people in the country as tourists or with an irregular status. The authorities check your capacity to marry (age, no subsisting marriage, free consent), not your immigration history.

There are still practical conditions:

• as a rule you need empadronamiento, registration at your place of residence in the municipality where the application is filed (usually evidenced by the padrón for the last two years for at least one of the couple);
• you will need a full set of documents from your country of origin, with an apostille and a sworn translation;
• if one of the couple does not speak Spanish, an interpreter attends the signings.

Same-sex marriages are also celebrated in Spain: they have been legal since 2005 and follow the same procedure.

Two stages: the expediente matrimonial and the ceremony

A Spanish marriage is not a matter of "turning up and signing". The process has two stages:

1. Expediente matrimonial is the administrative file in which the couple's capacity to marry is verified: documents, marital status, absence of impediments. The stage covers filing the package, the review and separate interviews (audiencia reservada) that confirm the relationship is genuine.
2. The ceremony (celebracion) is the marriage itself, once the expediente is approved: signing the record before an authorised officer and witnesses.

It is the first stage that takes most of the time and raises the most questions for foreigners, because of the documents and the queues. That is why the couple's key decision is where to open the expediente.

Where to open the expediente: Registro Civil or a notary

Until recently there was only one option: the Registro Civil at your place of residence. It is free, but in large cities the wait stretches to many months.

Reform changed the picture. Ley 15/2015 de la Jurisdiccion Voluntaria already allowed notaries to perform marriage ceremonies, and since 30 April 2021 (with the new Registro Civil law fully in force and the instruction of the Dirección General de Seguridad Juridica y Fe Publica of 3 June 2021) notaries have also been entitled to handle the expediente matrimonial itself. The whole route can now be completed in a notary office:

The couple may choose either route; you can also open the expediente before a notary and hold the ceremony at the ayuntamiento, or the other way round. For mixed and foreign couples the notarial route often turns out to be the most predictable on timing.

Documents for foreigners

The exact list depends on your citizenship and on where you file, but the basic set for a foreigner looks like this:

• passport (and NIE/TIE, if you have one);
• birth certificate, with an apostille and a sworn translation;
• proof of marital status (a certificate of marital status or of no subsisting marriage), with an apostille and a translation;
• if you were married before, a divorce certificate or the death certificate of your spouse;
• padrón, proof of residence in the municipality;
• the application and the details of two witnesses for the ceremony.

Three practical rules: the apostille is only affixed in the country that issued the document; the translation is done by a sworn translator after the apostille; and certificates of marital status have a short validity period (a benchmark of 3 to 6 months, varying between authorities). If your documents stayed in Ukraine, they can be requested remotely, and we have a separate guide to that procedure.

The ceremony and what follows

Once the expediente is approved, the ceremony is scheduled: before a notary, a judge-encargado, or the mayor or an authorised councillor at the ayuntamiento. Both spouses and the witnesses attend, plus an interpreter if needed. The marriage record is signed (an escritura or an acta), and the marriage is registered with the Registro Civil.

What matters after the wedding:

• the marriage certificate (certificación literal) is the key document for every later procedure; to use it abroad you need an apostille and a translation;
• surnames do not change automatically: in Spain spouses keep their own surnames, and a change is a separate procedure under the law of your own country;
• immigration steps: the spouse of a Spanish or EU citizen can apply for the family member of a Union citizen card (RD 240/2007); the spouse of a resident should look at family reunification;
• matrimonial property regime: the default depends on the region, and if you wish you can sign a prenuptial agreement (capitulaciones matrimoniales) before a notary.

How Krepko does it for you

The wedding is the pleasant part; we take the rest. Krepko prepares the whole package: requesting documents from your country of origin, apostilles, sworn translations, the padrón, an appointment at the Registro Civil or the choice of a notary office, an interpreter at the signings and the setting up of the next steps, from the certificación literal to the family member card. Legally significant acts are performed by licensed specialists: lawyers, gestores and sworn translators.

Our notarial practice is on the Notary service page. Or leave a request and we will review your situation and put together a plan with dates.

Sources

• Instruccion de 3 de junio de 2021 (DGSJFP) on marriage before a notary - BOE
• Matrimonio y regimen matrimonial - Colegio Notarial de Madrid
• Consejo General del Notariado - the official portal of Spanish notaries