divorce- how would they know? (Cuba) | Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews Forums

	Hi! We are planning our wedding in Varadero January or Februaury 2008. One of us has been married/divorced before. I see the "rules" regarding providing a translated divorce certificate for the Cuban authorities. I am worried we don’t have enough time to get it done!My question is: how would they know? Has anyone just not told them? Thanks for any advice!

Hi cubaquestions,I don’t think the problem is that the Cubans know or don’t, but for your marriage to be valid in Canada you must show proof of divorce if you have been married before. Your marriage information and certificate are not only sent to the appropriate cuban government office to be legalized, it is also sent to the Canadian Embassy in Havana to be validated so that the marriage is legal and recognized in Canada.My husband and I went through this too, as did many others on the board. It won’t take you long to get it legalized through the cuban consulate. Just get a notarized copy of the divorce decree made, courier it to the appropriate cuban consulate along with the appropriate amount for fees (money order).I would strongly advise you to pay them to do the translation and authentication of the translation, unless you have a good friend who is a lawyer and official translator.They’ll legalize everything and courier all the completed documents back to you, so that you can fax them to the hotel you are getting married at. You can also pay for a "rush" if you feel you need to.Please take note that fees are charged by the page, and once it’s translated into spanish then you’re paying for both pages. So, in our case there was a cover sheet on the divorce decree but it didn’t have any information on it that wasn’t contained in the decree, so we didn’t bother to send it and that was fine.

Just go ahead and get it done so you have one less thing to stress about!

	We are in the same situation – went through exactly what karmadoc suggested, and we’re all set to go. Less than 24 hours until we leave!

Hi and all the best for your trip and wedding!! Perhaps you’ll get this once you return.May I ask how long the translation with the Consulate took all together? Or does anyone else know from experience?

Thanks!

Hi Sheila,we paid for the "rush" (which is legalization of your documents in 3 business days) and we had everything back, translated, legalized and sent by courier within 1 1/2 weeks. I was totally stressed about it knowing how slowly our own bureaucracy moves, never mind cuban bureaucracy ::), so we just paid the extra $32. It was worth it to have all the paperwork in our hands!

So, with that said, I’m not sure how "quick" the non-rush wait is…

Maybe someone else can answer that or you can email the consulate and ask them what the average time is.

My advice is to avoid the stress and just get everything together and send it all ASAP ;D

Its been a while for me, but depending on the window of time you have, I think it was pretty fast even in normal time, I think 2-3 weeks tops. I remember being surprised that I got it back so fast.It is very simple, personally i wouldn’t take the chance. I know some people said to be how are they going to know but i didn’t want to get down there only to find out something is not right or even when I get back.

Good luck

	Does anyone know if you have to send a copy of your passport with that notarized copy of the divorce certificate? We just got our packet back "unsuccessful" … and still confused!

	Yes you have to send a photocopy of your passport, make sure the $$ is good as well, they may refuse it if you haven’t sent the proper amount either.

Vic didn’t send a copy of his passport with his divorce certificate. We just sent the divorce certificate along with the following letter, the money order and UPS return envelope. We included contact information in case they had questions. We live in BC so sent everything to the Consulate in Toronto, everything came back promptly.Did they not offer any kind of explanation as to what was wrong/missing etc?? Why not email them to find out what the problem is and re-submit everything? They did return your money order/certified cheque in your "unsuccessful" envelope didn’t they?!Keep us posted as to what’s going on in case we can help with anything else.

Consulate General of Cuba in Toronto5353 Dundas West, Square Kipling, Suite 401-402Toronto, ONM9B 6H8Dear Sir/Madam:Please find enclosed a certified copy of my Certificate of Divorce. I would like to request that it be translated into Spanish. I would then request that both English and Spanish copies be duly processed by the Consulate in preparation for my marriage ceremony in Cuba. It is my understanding that for an additional fee the legalization of these documents can be done within 3 business days, I would like to request this expedited service.Please find enclosed money orders for $464.00 Canadian. $320.00 Legalization fee $ 48.00 Translation fee$ 32.00 Non-personal service fee$ 64.00 Legalization within 3 working daysAlso find enclosed a return prepaid UPS envelope.

If you have further questions please contact me at the following phone number or email address.

	Thank you soooooooo incredibly much!! I will keep you posted! The letter they sent back was so inconsistent with the website and other info we had received! I am going to do what you did and hope for the best. It seems odd to translate/legalize a passport…

Cubaquestions,check your PM’s, I sent you a copy of the email we received from the Cuban Consulate in Toronto when we enquired about documentation required to get married in Cuba. It lays out exactly how you go about dealing with a divorce certificate.

Hope it helps, keep us posted!

fiancee am getting married in Holguin in January and am trying to get our documentation ready to send to the Cuban Consulate.The problem I am having is that I am getting conflicting advice on what is required. The information provided at the travel agent, information on this site, gocuba website and the Cuban consulate website all show different information on what is required.I have never been married before but my fiancé has been married and is now divorced. Am I required to send any information? Or is it only my fiancé that needs to send her divorce certificate and her birth certificate? Can someone please let me know what they sent? Thanks.

jessemc…………your fiancee will have to send the Cuban Consulate a notarized copy of her divorce certificate to be translated and legalized. Also send a photocopy of her passport. If you are sending it via mail you will have to pay a non-personal fee of $32. It costs $160 per page for the English and Spanish copy and $48 for translation. ANd include an envelope with pre paid postage and your address for the return of all her documents.all you will need jessemc is to bring your birth certificate, passport and the tourist card, you won’t need to translate or bring anything else.After you have all your documents you will have to fax them to the resort ahead of time, usually within a 4 week period of your wedding date. You will also need to send them some more info. Best thing would be to contact the wedding coordinator at the hotel you are getting married at and they can tell you what they’ll need from you besides the documents.I believe it will take a couple weeks to process if you feel you don’t want to chance timing, i think there is a fee that will quicken the process.

Anyway hope this helps, good luck. ANything else let us know

Hi again…ok- so we have the copy of the divorce cert. certified. Now, since the lawyer attached a paper to it stating "this is a certified copy and all the legal mumbo jumbo with that" , does this paper now count as an additional document needing to be translated etc. as well?? Did your lawyers write that all out or just stamp that page/copy??

Thanks a ton!

Thanks bluesunset99 for your help.

Just to ensure I have this correct, my birth certificate and passport does not need to be notarized or translated? And my fiance does not need to get her passport notarized or translated, correct?

Cubaquestions,Vic had his divorce certificate copied and certified by a notary public. She stamped the copy with her official embossed stamp down at the bottom and wrote that she certifed that it was a true copy of the original, so we only had the one page. We paid the applicable fees for the 1 page in english that we sent, plus the page that it would become once translated..

hopefully this makes sense

Anyhoo, when we got everything back, the notary’s little blurb was duly translated into spanish on the bottom of the spanish copy of the divorce certificate….

So, my answer would be yes, I think that because the lawyer added the whole other page with his "certification", the embassy will now expect you to pay a fee for that page to be translated… and maybe even legalized…argghh

jessemcmy understanding is that passports NEVER need to be notarized and translated. I don’t believe your birth certificate does either. Honestly, as you say, it is all very confusing, and the information you get is different from everyone, we found that to. And to be honest, we really felt the Consulate’s "extra" requirements where in large part a bit of a money grab. What we went by when we got married is the information the wedding coordinator sent us, as she or he is in contact with the notary who will marry you. The notary is obviously very aware and up to date on what documentation is required to legally marry people.

Hope this all helped and didn’t confuse issues more

Good luck, keep us posted!

Hi Cheryl, we’ll have to honour you at our wedding, hehe, for all your help! So I got the lawyer to re-do it, so its on one page, and have sent it all off, again. I did get that attachment with the info from the Consulate via email recently as well, confirming what you had sent me. If they would have sent it originally, that would have made more sense 🙂

I’ll keep you posted, and thanks again…

Por nada, I’m just paying it forward. ;D I got lots of help from board members who had "been there done that" when we were getting stuff together to get married

Let me know when you get everything back!

It definitely helps when you have others who can provide the info, I struggled with mine, so I make sure everyone else has the info that i fought hard to get.

Good luck let us know how things turn out

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