Stubborn Civil Registry Officials?
Fellow German blogger ix got married in Las Vegas recently (congratulations) and faced the problem to have the marriage accepted by his local civil registry office in Hamburg—because only then they would be able to get all the rights and duties that marriage entails in Germany.
So far, so good: Along with a certified copy of the marriage certificate, he also needed to bring an “Apostille”—a standardized transcription of a legal document (in this case: the marriage certificate) to be accepted by another country (in this case: Germany). Of course, one cannot expect the government officials to be able to read the English language, not even when a marriage certificate consists of a quite simple set of information that does not differ significantly between the two countries. So he had to obtain an official translation of both documents from a certified translator, before they finally accepted his marriage as valid.
That the German government is very strict about “our official language is German” is no news to me: Once before I had to provide US documents to an agency and in spite of the relevant passages being very tiny, they demanded to have the whole document translated. Eventually, I managed to have them accept my (and therefore an uncertified) translation, which probably saved me what would have felt like a million dollars in translator fees.
Though all in all, it seems to be a quite tedious process, I now hope to know quite well what needs to be done to have a US marriage accepted in Germany. My fiancée and I will face the same process soon and this way we know what to expect. I’ll make sure to blog about it again when it’s time.
(pictured: “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563))
I myself had to go through this bureaucracy about 6 months ago. It wasn’t all too bad, once we figured out how to do it. It gets a little more complicated, when applying for a visa and a work permit at the same time. First we had to have my father-in-law go to the government office in the state Capitol in the state we got married in, and get the apostille for us. (If you remember to get it before you leave the States, it would be good). Then we had to take that along with our Marriage license down to a translation service and pay a little upwards of 100€ to get it all translated (they charge by the word). Then we had to take all that down to the Kreisverwaltungrefereat (KVR) and let them process it. Before doing all that, it made things easier to go ahead and get my wife’s passport renewed to reflect her new married name, so a trip to the US consulate was in order for that. Once the KVR was satisfied with our marital status, we were able to apply for a residence permit and a work visa. Once that was all approved, we were able to get our tax classes changed, etc. We got married in August. Sometime around mid-December we had it all straightened out.
My advice is to get the documents you need from the States before you leave there. Get your wife’s name and passport changed first to avoid confusion with the Germans. Also, after going through the visa application process a few times here in Munich, I will say it is much easier if you live in the city and can deal with the KVR. If you live outside the city, you’ll have to deal with the Landratsamt (which ironically is also in the city), and those people are assholes.