I am new to this and i am kind of in a similar situation. I am a US citizen and my fiancee is a swiss citizen. We are planning on getting married soon but i just found out that i can't marry him here in switzerland as a tourist. Is this correct and would i have to get a permit as we don't have much time left until my 3 month period expires?
and easy to get married.
We got the marriage certificate with an "Apostille"( Swiss equivalent of having a document notarized ) in the state of California. The Swiss
authorities accepted it without question.
You could have a Justice of the Peace wedding in Tahoe( or Vegas or wherever ) and have a church wedding here, for example.
This is actually the same as how it works in the US to be honest.
IF you are coming simply to visit (or he goes to US to visit you), between the US and Switzerland, you only need to show up with passport, no visa needed, but the visit can only last for 90 days.
IF, on the other hand, you are intending to get married and live in either country, you need to apply for a fiance visa and then you can proceed with the rest of what needs to be done for getting married.
While it is possible to get married in the US while your sweetie is simply visiting, this does not necessarily constitute a need for anyone on either side of the paperwork to hurry things along and can result in other fees due to not doing things "properly".
I do not know how the marriage process here works at all so can not tell you whether it would work the same way if you got married here. (My husband and I got married in the US with the goal of living there but ended up deciding to live here... so we wound up with some of those fees and a bit of run-around.)
I'm American, my husband is Swiss. I came here on a tourist visa, and then we applied for our marriage license. Along with that came a short term L permit, which was sufficient for the wedding. After the wedding, I received a B permit.
Good luck and get started now. I.e ring the US consulate in Switzerland soon.
Thanks for the help with the marriage situation. But i have another question. Recently we found out that im pregnant. Is there any way that i could stay in switzerland with me being pregnant and my boyfriend having the significant funds to support me until we are married?
Secondly, I have no idea. Perhaps ask the local authroities that you are currently dealing with - Im sure if anything and at the very least they will have more compassion for your case. But technically I have no idea.
Me and my husband had to rush to get everything done and it was really aggrevating.
Documents needed:
A sworn affidavit-this document was no problem to get. We went to the US embassy in zurich I filled out the form saying I never been married. The women looked at it to make sure everything was filled out correctly and signed it.
A certified copy of my birth certificate-this document wouldnt have been such a pain if UPS didnt send it to japan, but it finally got in winterthur. You can get this at the site vitalrec.com.
Finally My passport which of course I had all along.
All document can not be no older than 6 months and they do accept documents in english. It might be different for some marriage offices other the one we did it at in winterthur, but im sure it couldnt be that different.
Once we took the documents to the office and registered to marry they will notify you whether everything is okay for the marriage to proceed. This doesnt take long maybe only a few days. You then can go back to that office and they will give you your exact date to marry. Were we was stretching for time until my three month period was up for my stay my husband called the canton in zurich and asked them if i could stay a little over the time that i was supposed to leave. Since we had the exact date to marry this was no problem. He just made the call and they said yes.
Finally we got married the 4th of December and it was such a relief. Soon after that the paper came in the mail for me to go and apply for my B permit. This paper just said i needed to go to a certain place in winterthur and bring the necessary document which are my passport, a passport photo, and the marriage certificate. It is now being processed. So that is it i finally got everything almost done.
Thanks for the help.
Your process sounds exactly like mine, in reality its not that difficult when you think about it.
And I agree Its not really difficult.
I was wondering if any one knew where i can get a international money order to send to the USA here in switzerland. The people that are processing my B permit need my criminal background information from the US and i need to send a money order to the people who give me this information. So does anyone know where i can get a international money order to send to the usa. Any help appreciated.
Still if you think this is necessary and no some sort of third agent rort then Id suggest Western Union via PostFinance. Online is cheaper apparently.
The zurich canton sent me a letter saying they need additional documents from me. They needed a thing called a penal register extract which says that i havent commited a crime. And they also needed 3 recent pay slips from my husband. they shouldve said they needed the papers when i went to apply in winterthur.