Marriage registration of a Costa Rican citizen married abroad

Costa Rica citizens who wish to register their marriage celebrated abroad, have two options:

• The Costa Rican citizen, who is planning to travel to Costa Rica, could do the process personally at the Civil Registry. In order to do that, the Marriage Certificate has to be legalized by the Costa Rican Consulate, then it has to be authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, and officially translated into Spanish (refer to section Legalization of Documents for full details for legalization process). Finally, the documents are submitted at the Civil Registry personally by the Costa Rican citizen, in order to begin the process of inscription of the marriage in Costa Rica.

• The second option is to request the process of inscription at the Consulate. In this case you will have to be present at the Consulate to make a marriage declaration, submitting the Canadian Marriage Certificate, valid Costa Rican Identity Card and valid passport of the foreigner spouse.  When due to reasons of health, distance or others, you are not able to be present at the Consulate to make the marriage declaration, please contact-us to consulado.ottawa@costaricaembassy.com, or by telephone. This process of inscription is free of charge.