An international wedding combines two big words, two people, two cultures, two worlds…. and lots of documents! At Oui Immigration, we have a dedicated service to assist international couples wishing to get married in France or abroad. Right now, we are helping 7 couples find the way to…. the town hall and beyond, and this is an opportunity explain what it means concretely.
Step 1 : if you are an international couple and plan to get married in France in the coming months: download our White Paper specially dedicated to the topic.
It includes a lot of information and concrete details that can help you!
And of course, contact us to have a chat about it! oui@oui-immigration.com
Step 2: ask an expert like Oui Immigration for advice on the appropriate procedure.
Depending on the time of living together, the project, nationalities, documents, etc…. there may be several options to consider: getting married in the current country and continuing immigration procedures locally? Getting married here and returning to the country of origin to obtain the appropriate visa? Do everything abroad?
The timing and documents to be provided will depend on the procedure chosen, so it is important that the idea and steps are clear from the beginning.
Step 3: anticipate!
- Time
At the moment, we are accompanying a couple who wants to get married in France: he is Brazilian, she is German.
After determining the appropriate procedure and verifying the required documents, Oui indicated the documents to be provided. Between the documents to be obtained in one country and in the other, those to be legalized and those to be translated, the file could be filed in town hall after 9 weeks.
Once the wedding is celebrated, we will then take care of the immigration part: obtaining the appropriate residence permit for the husband of Brazilian nationality. On his return to France, other steps will follow so that it is legal on French soil. From A to Z, we engage with these customers on a procedure of about 6 months.
Getting married when you are not of the same nationality involves various steps, with different authorities in each country, and as with any file related to the authorities… You have to be patient! It takes time.
- Energy
Another concrete example….and very close: a Franco-Argentinian wedding! Big clue to guess who is mentioned here: it is following this adventure that we decided to create a special service dedicated to international couples at Oui Immigration!
Between settling a divorce, collecting all the documents, having the authorities communicate with each other, explaining the documents and legalizations to a town hall that did not necessarily know the procedure and asked us for useless and distant documents, being summoned for an interview to prove that it was not a sham marriage, realizing a week before that the banns had not been published in the right place and getting the right document the day before the wedding….it’s been busy! To add to the requirements of a “classic” wedding (what look? where? how? what weather? who? etc….), we necessarily lived some moments that we will qualify as …. strongly tense
Having an expert who is there to frame all this, find the right information, ask for the right documents in the right place at the right time, clarify the procedure and the next steps, is a bit like having a wedding planner: of course you can do without, but there are many moments when you think you should have hired someone who knows the job, and focus on what really matters.
- Money
Oui Immigration does not advise you on the best decoration of your table or the choice of witnesses (although the latter is important, since they must be able to understand French, if the wedding takes place in France!), but we are here to help you get the right documents, in the right form. This usually involves legalization, translation and postal costs, or even travel, not to be neglected. These fees will vary depending on the country involved and the number of documents to be provided.
Step 4: Immigration
Yes, we had almost forgotten it, but having the marriage certificate could be the beginning of the immigration procedure to the chosen country! Depending on where you are, the countries involved and the type of procedure chosen, the next steps may vary and must be organized. Some of the documents used for the wedding can be re-used, others not – this is a separate step that will also take a few weeks or even months.
