Citizenship through marriage....anybody done it?

Submitted by Retronuevo on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 11:26.

Hi all....

I am considering immigrating to Nica.

Have lived for over a decade in Southeast Asia.

After all these years I still struggle with visas...

Citizenship in Asia is a pipedream, marriage or not.

I have been following this forum for several years and I am attracted by the prospect of becoming citizen through marriage.... I know that you have to be married for three years, to apply....

Anybody done it....any hidden snags and such..?

Thanks a lot.

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Make that two years but ...

Submitted by fyl on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 11:59.

I have a friend who just married a man from India. She and I compared notes and seem to be 100% in agreement. The process is:

  1. Get married. (This is the scariest part.)
  2. Apply for/get your Nicaraguan residency. Being married to a Nicaraguan is one possible category. While any type of residency can lead to citizenship, there are two shortcuts you get with marriage. First, you will initially get permanent (that means 5-year) residency. Many other categories initially get your temporary (1 year) residency. Second, if you are married to a Nicaraguan you only need to wait two years after obtaining permanent residency before you can apply for citizenship. In any other category, you need to wait four years before you apply.
  3. Apply for citizenship. Expect the usual hoop-jumping which will include explaining why you want citizenship and an exam on things Nicaraguan.

Don't forget, in Nicaragua (and much of Latin America) mañana doesn't mean tomorrow. It just means not today. That said, I offer a realistic timeline.

  • Getting married -- one hour.
  • Getting all your non-Nicaraguan paperwork acquired, authenticated, ... -- three months.
  • Time to get your residency -- six months. (Yes, it could be a lot quicker but that is probably realistic.)
  • Wait two years. Near the end of this time you can collect the documents you need for your citizenship application.
  • Apply for citizenship and wait for an assortment of mañanas including dealing with some missing paperwork, your Nicaragua exam, immigration checking out where you and your wife live, ... -- one year.

I would say, round up to four years.

Thanks fyl.. I presume ,I

Submitted by Retronuevo on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 12:28.

Thanks fyl..

I presume ,I won't need to show any dinero to get my residency...

...after marrying of course...

You probably will

Submitted by fyl on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 12:52.

I had to do it initially. In theory, you should not need to but I did. When I renewed my residency I once again had to do it which still made no sense. At that time I could show that I had a pension. But, what happened was that I ended up with Pensionado residency whereas before it was married to a Nicaraguan residency. Their "explanation" is sometimes they change it.

This has created a potential problem. I say potential as, so far, no one has noticed. I have been the Legal Representative of an S.A. As a Pensionado I cannot be one.

To get married you don't have to show anything other than your ID and prove you are not married. If you come from a country where there is no such official document (the US being a good example) then all you need is to have a Nicaraguan lawyer write up something that says that you said you aren't married.

I didn't even need that...

Submitted by Juanno on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 15:26.

Just my passport and photocopies of the two witnesses ID.

One question, why citizenship, why not just a 5 year residency?

Variable answers

Submitted by fyl on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 15:36.

Between these two current "get married" threads, the answers are starting to diverge. For someone new to Nicaragua, they are going to wonder what the correct answer is. Like so many things here, that depends on the day of the week, the phase of the moon, whether the official you are talking to likes you, ...

I have, at times, been asked for documents that don't exist and could not and my attempt to explain why they could not received a "that's your problem" response. Talking to a different person in the same office got a totally different response. This is the thing I find most irritating about Nicaragua. Some, however, see it as flexibility.

If I lived across the street from the government entity I needed to appease this might be OK but when I have six or more hours of overhead to get to an office in Managua, I am not amused.

How about pushing for branch

Submitted by dickcobbs1 on Sat, 2013/02/16 - 22:49.

How about pushing for branch offices in Esteli, possibly part-time, a few days per month?

They exist

Submitted by fyl on Sun, 2013/02/17 - 06:52.

Immigration has offices all over the country. The problem is that they can't do anything. They could be replaced by a part-time clerk at the bus stations.

For example, to renew a tourist visa you have fo fill out a form (which is sold to you), pay a fee and hand it is with your passport. Immigraiton has to decide what you are asking for is OK (your current visa is still valid, you are the person who is pictured in your passport, this is the first renewal, ...) and then put the new stamp in your passport. That last step is accomplished by sending your passport to Managua. That means two trips to the local office and a receipt to you for your passport. But, that's the way it is done.

To me, the only explanation is that they want to keep all the corruption in one place.

I went through the passport

Submitted by dickcobbs1 on Sun, 2013/02/17 - 11:11.

I went through the passport renewal in Ocotal, approximately 15 miles away. As you say, two trips,but spaced apart (opportunity to combine other tasks) and a hell of a lot closer! The times that I have been required to go to Managua, sometimes extended to three days of waiting! The quickest trip was started at 5:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM! This was to make a payment to aduana. A branch office in this area would have been helpful, or online payment, something! It doesn't make sense to drive there just to wait for your number to be called so you can hand over some cash!

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