Registration of Foreign Marriage in Panamá

As a foreigner, if you do not register your marriage in Panama, for the Civil Registration, you will be registered as a single man/woman.

The requirements for registering your foreign marriage in Panamá are:

A. Original marriage certificate, issued by the Civil Registry office or entity acting on its behalf in the place where it was held, which must:

1. Be duly authenticated through the Consulate of Panama in the country where it was made or through the Apostille Agreement (Ratified by Panama through Law 6 of June 25, 1990, by means of which the requirement for legalization of public documents is suppressed foreign).
2. If there is no Panamanian consulate in the country of origin and it is not subscribed to the Apostille Agreement, the document must be authenticated by a diplomatic or consular representative of a friendly nation in said country, which must be endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that nation and, later, by the Panamanian consulate in the friendly nation and confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama. If the Apostille is written in a language other than Spanish, it must be translated by a public interpreter authorized in the Republic of Panama.
3. Said duly authenticated certificate must be countersigned or validated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Panama. This request is processed at the Authentication and Legalization office, located at Vía Ricardo J. Alfaro, Plaza Sun Tower (above Banco Nacional), 1st floor, premises 49 and 50. If the document is authenticated by the Apostille Agreement, this management will not be necessary.
4. If the certificate is written in a language other than Spanish, it must be translated by an authorized public interpreter in the Republic of Panama.
5. If there is no official translator in the Republic of Panama of the language of the document, a certification issued by the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Education of Panama must be presented, attesting to the non-existence of a translator for the language, in which case the translation will be accepted from abroad authenticated by the diplomatic or consular official of Panama accredited in the place.

B. Provide a simple photocopy of the personal identity card and a photocopy of the spouses' passports. In the case of passports, the general information page of the interested parties must be visible, and in the same way, they must be duly notarized or verified by the Panamanian Consul or Civil Registry official.

The marriage registration can also be carried out in the country where it was celebrated if there is a Consulate of the Republic of Panama there

Observations:

1. By virtue of article 4 of Decree February 3 February 11, 2008, "the Civil Registry official may personally verify the accuracy of all the evidence presented before making the annotation of the registration of the fact" in such a way that that compliance with the requirements and their receipt by the official does not imply a positive response to the procedure.
2. In the same way and depending on each case, additional tests may be requested and ordered to clarify or verify information that is not clear, which is why the duration of the procedure may vary.
3. The name of the spouse or spouses on the marriage certificate must match their Panamanian identity documents (identity card or passport). In addition, in the case of women who bear the last name of a previous marriage, the document must indicate their maiden name or the name of their parents, as well as any other information that allows identifying that it is the same person.
4. When a translation into Spanish of the marriage certificate is required, the information included by the translator must correspond to the certificate, so translations with errors will not be accepted. It should also be borne in mind that the translation must be done by an authorized public translator FROM PANAMA.
5. In the cases of apostilled marriage certificates, the apostille stamp must be translated into Spanish in the same way.
6. Interested parties must verify their marital status to avoid possible denial of the marriage registration application due to legal inconsistencies. For example, people who maintain current marriages in Panama must register the divorce decree in case it has been dissolved by this way. If a foreign court has ruled the divorce, it must be validated before the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Panama and subsequently registered in the Civil Registry before proceeding with the registration of the subsequent marriage. On the other hand, women with a previous marriage to the one they wish to register must consider the prohibition established in our Family Code in article 35 by depriving them of remarrying within 300 days of the dissolution of the marriage. (This does not invalidate the subsequent nuptial bond; however, they must submit to the rules contained in article 36 of the same Code).

Legal basis:

Law 31 of July 25, 2006