A not very helpful British Embassy

There are 8 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 2,680 times. The latest Post () was by Splinter.

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    Adri and I are planning to marry in the near future, the only snag being that I'm divorced, which raises its own little bureaucratic niggles. (Adri has never been married)

    In a nutshell, it appears from the local registry office that I may need a certificate of no impediment (CNI) and the British Embassy website is really the UK Government portal http://www.gov.uk but the means as to how to acquire CNIs and affidavits was proving challenging.

    So I phoned the embassy consular section and got through to a lady with a very heavy accent, who proved hard to understand. Anyway, she told me I needed an affirmation, which is in fact an affidavit and steered me back to the gov.uk site I was at previously.

    Unfortunately there was no information there, so I told her so, but she insisted that there was, even when I said there wasn't.

    I think I know how to navigate a website, but in the end she said she was going to hang up if I didn't finish the call, which I wasn't disposed to do until I had found an answer.

    That was when she hung up.

    I've since written a complaint to the UK consular services department in London and have found the necessary sample documents in a completely different page than the one she had directed me to.

    Not exactly the most romantic of starts to our marriage arrangements, not to mention that we still have Argentine bureaucracy to meet, further down the line.


    I also understand that it's a requirement to provide a blood sample prior to the ceremony. This is something I simply cannot get my head around and object to it very strongly.

    What else do they want?

    • Official Post
    Quote from Splinter

    Not in the province by the looks of it.

    https://www.gba.gob.ar/registr…nios_y_uniones/matrimonio

    I got married in the province (Vicente López) in 2014 because my husband is officially residing at his father's in Olivos.

    The blood sample was a national requirement. On the page you ( Splinter) linked, it reads:

    • Exámenes prenupciales clínicos y de sangre. Dichos estudios no pueden tener fecha mayor a 7 días del momento que se presentan en el Registro.

    We had to go to Hospital Houssay (Pres. Hipólito Yrigoyen 1757, Vicente López, Buenos Aires) in the early morning without an appointment. They collected a blood sample. We picked up the results after a few days and had to bring them to the Registro Civil. I think they are for syphilis and HIV, I can't remember exactly. Clarín says that in the City they are now voluntary. They are free but a waste of time.


    There are two places to get married in Vicente López: Registro Civil in Olivos in the ceremonies room, and an ugly and poorly maintained room in the Munro branch. There are limited monthly slots for marriage ceremonies so we weren't able to make it in Olivos, someone jumped the queue and 'stole' us the last spot available. I needed to get married before my tourist visa expired, so I couldn't wait.


    Also, when you apply for marriage (there isn't a license to marry like in the US, but you have to go to the Registro Civil to begin the process anyway, and they will instruct you on what you need to bring), you should be asked if you want to have separate assets or joint assets. If you don't specify it, it will be joint assets by default. This means that anything you acquire after marriage, even if it is in your own name, it's 50% of your spouse.

    For example, suppose you buy a (motor) bike after marrying: that bike is 50% of your wife, and you won't be able to sell it without her consent. Same premise, but suppose you die: the bike was already 50% of your wife, the other 50% is split among your lawful heirs according to inheritance law: half to the spouse, the other half to your children. You can dispose freely of 30% of your inheritance, but it will still affect only that half-bike that was yours and only yours.


    I didn't have a DNI back then but on the application I had to provide my parents' full names and IDs (my mother doesn't even have a passport, so I put her Italian ID no.), where they were born, where they live, what their occupation is.

    You must bring two witnesses who know you. You cannot ask other employees of the Registro Civil to be your witnesses.

    We had to bring a copy of their IDs and they had to sign a statement about knowing my husband and I had a genuine relationship and are of good character. Something like this... in the end, they didn't asked for it. You can bring up to 6 witnesses but you have to pay extra.


    Is the CNI this thing? The affirmation/affidavit seems to be available in English, only.

    I completely skipped informing the Italian authority I was getting married here as I was not yet a lawful resident of Argentina (indeed, I got my residency by marriage); I told them afterwards. In Italy we have 'publications of marriage', and the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires has a page where they publish the names of Italians who intend to get married at least 40 days before the ceremony. However, it is such a short list that I believe that nobody follow the rule anyway. There is no fine if we don't do it, either.


    On the day of the ceremony, we were given the Libreta de familia, a small booklet with a blue cover with our details and pages to register future kids and deaths. We were also given the marriage record (acta de matrimonio), a paper slip, and the marriage record long form (partida de matrimonio), a stamped photocopy of the marriage registry. The long form is the one you need to use abroad: we had it legalized (on the spot) and then apostilled. I brought it to the Italian consulate (translated into Italian by me) to register my marriage in Italy.



    CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY!