Skip to Main Content

Legal Requirements

The following is a list of the documentation required to be legally married in Costa Rica.

  • The full name of the Bride and Groom (how it is written on your passport). Brides, if your last name does not match your father’s (for a reason other than a previous marriage), please provide a brief explanation.
  • Describe your occupation briefly. For example: engineer, electronic technician, school teacher, broker, assistant in electric company, etc. Kindly avoid the following terms as they are vague: company director, project control officer, public official, service technician, assistant, assistant manager, strategy consultant, manager, operations manager, coordinator, etc.
  • Current home address (No P.O. Box).
  • Passport number and Citizenship. Please make sure each passport is signed by the bearer. Scan them together and email (Scans: send the scan in JPG or PDF format and size around 500k)
  • Marital status: If divorced, please indicate the date, city and state or province, name of Court that decreed the divorce, and the full name of ex-spouse and his/her citizenship, no initials, please. No need to send the actual divorce papers. If you’ve been divorced more than once, please send the information only on your last.
  • Date and place of birth (city, state or province, country).
  • Full name of the Father and Mother and current citizenship (no initials). Required by law, even if parents are deceased. Mother’s name must be her current name, not her maiden.
  • Mailing address (No P.O. Box). This is the address where the final documentation will be sent.
  • Phone number: Necessary for delivery, in case they can’t find your address.
  • Witnesses: Costa Rica Law requires two witnesses for the marriage. Family and friends can certainly be witnesses, as long as they are 18 years of age or older. If you are coming alone, let your coordinator know so the necessary arrangements for local witnesses can be made. If you want your family or guests to bear witness, you will need to send the information of the first 5 bullet points above for each witness. On Item 5, just the status will suffice (“single”, “married”, “divorced”, etc.), no details necessary.

No paperwork is required for a symbolic wedding. For additional information, please contact your resort’s Wedding Coordinator.