My boyfriend (Spanish) and I (American) are planning on getting married in Madrid in a civil ceremony. I have a question about how to get one of the documents I need. I need some kind of certificate that shows where my place of residence has been during the past two years. The problem is that I've been in Madrid for not quite two years but I'm not "empadronada" here because I'm here illegally. So, I'm not sure how I can get such a document since I don't have anything to prove where I've been living (I live with my boyfriend but the apartment is under his name). I'm not sure if it would be easier to try to get this document from the U.S. using my parents' address even though I haven't lived there for close to two years. Does anyone know how I should go about getting this document--either here in Madrid or in the U.S. Thanks for your help.

I am not sure what document you are referring to as I do not remember needing anything like that, but I did get the empadronamiento even though I was illegal. If you tell me the name of the document they are asking for, I could probably be of more help.

Hi Meg --

I think that even if you were to "empadronar" now, doing so would not be retroactive and would not serve as an indicator of where you have been living for the past 2 years... unless you have some sort of utility (phone bill, gas bill, etc) in your name.

My husband (Spanish) and I (American) got married in the States 3 years ago. I had to give proof of where I had been living. I used my parents� address although I hadn�t been living with them for over 4 years. I did so because it was easier since my voting registration and drivers� license were all at their address and I still received mail there. I think you would be fine to use your parents� address.

Perhaps maraslattery can offer more detail on her experience with the "empadronamiento" not having her residency "regularizado".

I (American) recently applied for a marriage license at the "Registro Civil" in Alcal�.

My hubby-to-be and I hadn't registered our "empadronamiento" until the day we asked for the "certificado de empadronamiento". We made no effort to prove where we had been living for the last 2 years, and no one seemed to care.

I also had to present a certificate from the American embassy, which, supposedly, should have said something about my place of residence. But the 30-euro standard certificate that the embassy provided said NOTHING of the sort. But that didn't seem to matter at all to the people at the Registro Civil.

That was my experience. You need a lot less than what people say you need.

Sorry it took me so long to reply. Thanks for the info- I have a document from the embassy that says that my permanent address is in the U.S. (which is technically true since I still have an address there and I'm not a resident in Madrid). I'll just use that and see what they say.

Another question for any one who has gotten married through the civil registry in Madrid. The information that they gave us says that we have to hand in all of the necessary documents with 2 witnesses who are supposed to be friends or family members. The problem is, according to the paper from the registry they are only open Monday to Friday from 9-12. We don't want to ask friends to miss a morning at work just to go with us to hand in some papers and neither one of us has family members in Madrid, so we were just thinking of asking anyone we see on the street (or possibly offering them money) to go with us to the registry to be our witnesses when we hand in the papers. I'm just worried that the people in the civil registry will somehow try to find out if the witnesses are actually friends/family members by asking them questions or something to see if they know us. Does anyone know if it's okay to use complete strangers as witnesses for this--obviously for the actual wedding we'll have family members there as witnesses. Thanks a lot.

hiya Meg!
on the registro civil the witnesses are taken to a private room with a funcionario and asks each one separately whether they know any of you, for how long, which relationship you have with him/her and if they know anything that could make your marriage invalid (if any of you is married or something like that)
You could pull out the strangers thing but I don't know if you'll find someone (after all is lying to a funcionario and is a penal offence) and besides they'll have to be good actors as they'll have to remember the same story (they will ask you how you met them as well) and they could ask inexpected questions like how you and your fiancee met...
I'll recommend you ask at least to one friend and then maybe the other could be a stranger. If at least one talks knowing what he is talking about I don't think they get to fussy if your other witness doesn't know you that well.....but I'm just guessing!

Good luck!
besitos!!

Hm. Once again, my experience at the Registro Civil (in Alcal� de Henares) was much less of a hassle. Our witnesses, a couple of friends who have afternoon jobs, weren't asked to say ANYTHING AT ALL. They just stood behind us while the funcionario signed and stamped papers, watched what was happening (true to their witness-nature), and signed where the guy told them to at the end. Oh yes - and they also had to show their ID cards.

Perhaps we didn't look suspicious enough for them to bother interrogating us... after all, we were waiting for over an hour outside the funcionario's office, talking & laughing... so it was obvious we all knew each other.