French getting married to a Brazilian in France? Here’s how we did it

Davidson and I struggled so much to get our wedding date at the City Hall that I thought about sharing our experience.

Just a heads up: this post is about the process. If you wanna read about all the papers required, check that post instead.

Timeline

2016

• December 2016: First time that we go to the City Hall to retrieve the list of papers required for the wedding.

2017

• January 2017: We managed to have 1 paper out of 2 at the Brazilian Consulate. Few weeks later, we decided to wait until the baby is born because it became too stressful for me and also because we realized that Davidson didn’t have enough papers for proof of residency.
• January 2017 – November 2017: BIG BREAK
• November 2017: We decided to get back at the paperwork.
• December 2017: We went back at the City Hall with all the papers, only to figure out that we needed an appointment to present our documents. The date was scheduled on January 18, 2018.

2018

• January 2018: At our appointment, we realized that there were 2 Brazilian certificates that were missing. The Birth and Divorce certificates. Davidson thought that his Wedding certificate could cover them but that’s not how it works in France.
• January 2018 – April 2018: Davidson asked friends and family to help him get the right papers. The Birth Certificate was easy to get it. As for the Divorce Certificate, we thought that we could count on friends or friends of friends to help us but we were wrong. On our first attempt we wasted like 1 month because the guy never replied, and for our second attempt, the lady just kept our money and never sent the document.

If you’re struggling too to get the Divorce Certificate, check that blog post.

• May 2018: We finally were able to get our hands on that Divorce Certificate and asked for an appointment at the City Hall. 2 weeks after that appointment, our paperwork were finally approved. There was no need for an interview but we needed to hire a translator for our wedding ceremony.

Tips

• Ask your City Hall if you need an appointment to present your papers. It could save you up some time. For our first appointment, there was 1,5 month of waiting list due to Christmas Holidays.
• If you’re like us and you come back many months later after the first appointment, you’ll need to update all the papers that are “expired”. For example, French Birth Certificate is valid only 3 months, so you’ll need to ask it again. The same goes with papers for proof of residency (1 month), Brazilian certificates (6 months), …

Final words

I know it’s a lot of hassle and it can be pretty daunting when you read what we’ve been through but don’t worry… in the end, it will all turn just fine. Once the paperwork was done, I couldn’t believe it. I realized that I was getting married when finally I was able to try wedding dresses.

More on that on an upcoming post… 🙂