Renew Cedula de Etranjeria After Divorce of First Colombian Wife

The situation is the following:

I obtained my first visa of extranjeria through the auspices of my ex-Colombian wife. We divorced in September, 2007.

My ex-wife has obtained an official copy of the divorce, had it apostilled in California, and is sending it to me via secure delivery service.

The local notario in Cali is requesting the apostilled divorce document and a official translation here into Spanish.

In addition, I need an apostilled copy of my birth certificate from the State of Texas issued within the past 90 days..

I looked up how to order one of these on the Internet. The problem is that it takes 15-20 business days to obtain a new birth certificate which then must be mailed to my family in California.

I must then return it to the State of Texas Secretary of State for the apostille. I figure that this action will take another 20 days due to the time spent in transit and the actual process of the apostille.

The apostilled document must then be sent to me by secure delivery to me in Colombia.

This puts the document return date sometime in December, 2007. As most people know, this is a difficult time to process paperwork in Bogota, due to the year end vacations.

Unless I missed something, it just seems so much more easy and secure to go to San Andres (though more costly) and get married via civil process there to my current permanent companion (a Colombian citizen) here in Colombia.

Once married in San Andres, I must then take the apostilled divorce agreement with my ex-wife and the officially recognized translation to Spanish along with the marriage document obtained in San Andres to Notaria Primera in Bogota and register these actions.

I will obtain the documented new marriage paperwork from Notaria Primera and use these to renew my visa and the Minister of Exterior Relations.

I am asking those that now the procedure (or have actually done this) to review the above plan and let me know if you see any potential problem areas with this plan of attack.

By pcampbellcali on Oct 7, 2007, 15:16 in Visa & paperwork.

jorgeaev says on Oct 10, 2007, 12:44:

I have a very good lawyer here in Colombia, send me an e-mail to jorgeaev at yahoo.es and i will give you his contact information.

Gator says on Oct 10, 2007, 19:38:

jorgeaec, what's your cut?

pcampbellcali , I believe on San Andres you will have to make a sworn statement in front of the notary concerning past martial status.

Don't panic because I am not really sure about his but I did hear that you must be married to keep your present visa so the second part reference marring again and using that marriage for the visa is probably the best course of action..

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

vicshere says on Oct 10, 2007, 20:18:

gator jorgeaec has no cut cause it is all his

listo

ColombianoGringo says on Oct 10, 2007, 20:29:

I got married in San Andres as a US citizen and was only required to show my passport. I was previously divorced in the US and didn't have to show any documentation related to that.

Since the OP's profile states that he was born in the US, he shouldn't need any documentation. As part of the questions they ask you during the ceremony, you have to swear that you are legally able to be married.

I put up a post a few months ago with all the specifics related to cost, contact info, etc. for the notario in San Andres. Look about halfway down the topic in the following link. Still, you would be wise to call him before going there. Notarios can be very finicky about the rules.

http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/getting-married-in-san-andres/

It is all run together. I tried to edit the comment just now and it stripped out all the line breaks.

ColombianoGringo says on Oct 10, 2007, 20:30:

Yeah, this Jorge character is getting to be a bore. Every one of his comments is along the lines of "Hey buddy, I got a great lawyer for you" or "I can get whatever you need". Isn't there a policy against this kind of spamming?

vicshere says on Oct 10, 2007, 20:36:

DELETE HIS ASS

listo