This might be belated yet it will surely help someone else with the similar question.
For the Unites States Citizens to marry abroad there are sever documents that need to be provided to foreign authorities to confirm that you are able to do so. What I mean is that there is a need to establish a legal right for you to marry a foreign national outside the United States. In other words, you are not married in your home country.
Typically, foreign authorities accept the document known as a Single Status Affidavit which is a sworn statement that you are free to marry. Alternatively, one can request a state wide search of marital records to indicate that one is not married in the state of one’s residence. However, such method does not show the nation wide date due to the fact that there is no national database for such records in the United States. In this case it is best to verify with the target authorities which document will suit them best.
In addition to the Affidavit one may also need a Divorce Certificate if one has been previously married and got divorced. Some times a certified copy of Birth Certificate is also required. This is a little tricky due to the fact that it is not the copy that you were given at birth and has to be requested separately. It is best to get a full list of documents from the target authorities to prepare documents simultaneously due to the fact that some of them take time to retrieve and are only valid for a certain amount of time.
Once you have all the documents you will have to legalize them via an Apostille as shown above or through a process of foreign certification which is also a chain legalization process similar to an apostille with one additional step which makes the whole process extremely inconvenient.
To determine which process you need to undertake please refer to the list of countries who did sign the Hague Convention of 1961 in regards to the Apostille. Please be advised that the list is constantly changing and there are some countries are not yet reflected in the list who have recently became members f the Convention. (Dominican Republic joined early September)
For more information about the requirements of Freedom to Marry you may refer to the web source in regards to Single Status Affidavit. (http://apostille.us/Documents/single_status_affidavit.shtml)
Hope this helps.
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