Don’t think that it’s better to come to Cancun, quickly register your marriage on your own and leave. You will have to stay here for at least a week. To independently register a marriage in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo (Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum), you will need at least 3 working days. It will take another 3 working days to affix an apostille to the marriage certificate. Total minimum 6 working days. And only if the deadlines for the acquisition of all documents are met, and the judge sets a registration date on the same day as he receives extracts from the Civil Register. We will explain the deadlines in detail.
1. When you apply for a marriage license, the judge will ask the State Civil Registry for an extract from the registry of alimony debtors. Without these extracts, marriage is impossible. You are a non-resident and do not have any child support debts in Mexico. But the law requires confirmation of this. Purchasing statements takes3 working days.
While you are waiting for discharge, you have the right to have a blood test. If you pass before lunch, after lunch you will have the opportunity to receive the result by email, print it out and bring it to the judge.
Although a birth certificate and its official translation are not required to register a marriage in the state of Quintana Roo, the judge may ask for a translation of your passport (we read that right) from an official Mexican translator. The fastest time for preparing such a translation — 1 day.
After receiving the transcripts and blood test results, the judge sets a date for registration. He is able to set a date in advance if he is sure that the statements will arrive on time. But sometimes receiving statements takes longer than 3 days. And then registration will be scheduled for a later date.
2. Marriage registration is not always scheduled for the same day as the extracts are received, but more often — for one of the coming days. Then add at least one more to the total period1 working day. The marriage process itself takes about half an hour, or longer if your documentation and that of witnesses needs to be checked again.
3. After registration, the Mexican marriage certificate must be apostilled, then it will become valid in other countries. It takes3 working days. Neither the registry office nor the judge issues an apostille. From Cancun, the document is sent to the main office of the Civil Registry of the State of Quintana Roo in the city of Chetumal, where an apostille stamp is affixed and the document is sent back to Cancun. But if you register a marriage, particularly in Tulum, the certificate must first be taken to the state government office in Playa del Carmen or Cancun, and from there it will go to Chetumal and return back with an apostille. If you do not plan to use a marriage certificate outside of Mexico, you have the option not to issue an apostille.
In total, the entire process of registering a marriage in the state of Quintana Roo takes6 or 7 working days, that is, at least 8 calendar days. This does not include the day of arrival and the day of departure, when you are unlikely to want to deal with registration issues. That's 8 days of living in Cancun, with associated living expenses.
How can I speed up the marriage registration process?
1. When applying for marriage registration, try to negotiate privately with the judge so that he can speed up the process of obtaining extracts from the register of alimony debtors. If you register your marriage through the registry office (Registro civil office), it is unlikely that you will be able to reach an agreement. But you can contact the judge in advance, before you arrive in Cancun, or ask someone else to negotiate with the judge for you. Under any circumstances, in order to issue statements, you must pay the state fee in advance. In addition, you can order an official translation of your passport in advance, if necessary.
2. When submitting an application for marriage registration to the registry office, they will not set a registration date until they receive extracts. But if you are registering a marriage through a judge, you have the right to agree in advance so that the registration takes place on the same day when the extracts are received. You can even fly to Cancun on the day of the marriage registration, take a blood test, and go to the judge for registration in the afternoon. Or the judge has the right to allow the results of a blood test to be reported or sent after registration.
3. There is no accelerated apostille process. The only way to speed up the process of apostilling a marriage certificate is to take the document yourself to Chetumal (390 km from Cancun), and then they will be able to put an apostille on it on the same day. But you are allowed to do it differently: negotiate with someone who will give the certificate for apostille, pick it up with an apostille and send it to you by courier service. A power of attorney is not required for apostille. Then there is an opportunity not to wait until the apostille is ready, but to fly from Cancun immediately after registering the marriage.
If you follow the recommendations to speed up the marriage registration process, 1 day will be enough for the registration itself. Well, or 3 days, counting the day of arrival and the day of departure: fly to Cancun, take a blood test, come to check-in and fly out on the same or the next day. Or devote the rest of your time in Cancun to a beach holiday.
And if you need assistants who can organize the entire process of registering your marriage correctly and quickly for you, then this is us!