Marriage certificate and evidence of being free to marry

[spoggers]

I married my husband in March in Chile and I'm preparing to get the papers together.

Our marriage certificate equivalent is called a Libro de Matronomio (Marriage book) and is quite different to a traditional marriage certificate and has space for our children, etc. However, it doesn't have our signatures and is in Spanish, do I need to get it translated? Will this be a problem?

Also, my husband was previously married and was divorced, what evidence do we need to provide to prove he was free to marry again. On the paperwork that we signed before getting married he came up as divorced but has no contact with the girl and no certificate as this happened when he was very young (the idiot).

Any help would be much appreciated

[CR001]

I married my husband in March in Chile and I'm preparing to get the papers together.

Our marriage certificate equivalent is called a Libro de Matronomio (Marriage book) and is quite different to a traditional marriage certificate and has space for our children, etc. However, it doesn't have our signatures and is in Spanish, do I need to get it translated? Will this be a problem? You will need to get it translated by a professional translator or your embassy etc., ie you cannot do the translation yourself.

Also, my husband was previously married and was divorced, what evidence do we need to provide to prove he was free to marry again. On the paperwork that we signed before getting married he came up as divorced but has no contact with the girl and no certificate as this happened when he was very young (the idiot). He will need to provide proof that he is divorced and was free to marry you. This is a standard requirement for spouses who have been married previously.

Any help would be much appreciated

[Casa]

On the first point...the Libro de Matrimonio won't be accepted. You'll need to ask for a full marriage certificate to be issued.
You might find these full instructions to Entry Clearance Officers helpful.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... ndix-fmse/

[spoggers]

Thanks for that, the signposting was really helpful, even though I had looked at that document before I had forgotten where to get the detail from.

Hopefully Alvaro will manage ok to get the papers needed together in Chile, their bureaucracy is ridiculous and it would be so terrible if there was some incompatability in the system and we couldn't get what we need.

I am hoping that the Registro Civil can issue something to say that he is divorced - but as it says must be evidenced by a decree absolute from a civil court. I guess that means he needs the actual divorce certificate. I am hoping that they can issue him with a new one - the marriage happened 15 years ago when he was young and he thought the wedding has been annulled and found out just before the wedding that he was actually divorced as the father of the bride had sorted it at the time. I am really hoping we can get this sorted out and not get penalised for something stupid he did many years ago.