Recognition of foreign marriage by Spain

[jtb0]

Hello. Grateful for help with a tricky situation. Will Spain recognise a marriage (done at a Brazilian embassy elsewhere) between person A with dual Italian and Brazilian citizenship (registered resident of Barcelona for last two years) and person B who is an Australian single national with no current immigration authorisation for Europe? What is Person B be entitled to in terms of immigration/residency rights?

[liksah]

Sure, but you might have to legalize the marriage certificate in some way (apostille it or add some other signatures to it..) for them to recognize it.

The non-EU spouse will have the right to live and work in Spain with their partner.

[mgb]

Brasil is not part of the apostille convention.
There is a hotline number at the bottom of this page to ask the ministry of foreign affairs in spain what to do if a legalisation is needed.
http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/en/ ... iones.aspx

[mgb]

Information for eu citizen and familily members can be get from here: (only in spanish available)
http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/Inf ... index.html

[jtb0]

Thanks all. An immigration lawyer in Spain has told me that Spain won't recognise the Brazilian marriage because the EU citizen must get married using his EU country citizenship (Italy) or the marriage must be recognised by Italy. The Brazilian embassy won't marry non-Brazilians and Italy does not recognise same-sex marriage. So does this mean the Australian cannot join his partner in Spain? This seems at odds with the EU directive on family reunification. Surely there is a way??

[liksah]

The situation now sounds more complicated than you earlier mentioned.

Spain *should* recognize a foreign marriage even if it's not registered in Italy especially if a discriminatory Italian law doesn't allow you to officially register it there. But that's just the right thing to do and not necessarily what the law says.

Your case seems quite complex and honestly if you were to take it to court you'd probably be given the right to live and work in Spain with your spouse since Spain DOES recognize same sex marriage.

Since you're in touch with a Spanish immigration lawyer, why not work it out with the professional? Getting to Spain is no problem for an Australian citizen, all you need to do is apply for residence based on your marriage (with the Brazilian documents) and if they ask why you cannot provide an Italian registration it's fairly easy to explain that with documentation.

Like you said, the directive rules are very clear on who has these rights.

[jtb0]

Thanks liksah.

A Brazilian marriage won't take place now that we know that Brazilian diplomatic missions won't do marriages involving non-Brazilians. So the aim now is to get a marriage/civil registration done in Spain. The process is opaque and the lawyers and civil registry refuse to give answers over the phone but instead insist on the couple (currently overseas) coming to their offices to discuss. Totally disorganised and unclear system it seems. Help!