In this guide7 sections
In Peru, a civil wedding is arranged through the municipalidad (municipal government) of the district where one of you lives. Each municipality sets its own requirements, deadlines and fees, so the first step is working out which one is yours. This guide uses the Municipalidad de Lima (Cercado de Lima, the historic center) as its reference, since it publishes the full procedure, and points out what tends to be the same in other districts.
The requirements and fees in this guide are the ones the Municipalidad de Lima publishes on its civil marriage page (in Spanish), checked on September 16, 2026. If you’re getting married in another district, look it up on gob.pe and confirm with your municipality.
Who can get married, and where
The Municipalidad de Lima marries people who live in Cercado de Lima: only one of you needs to live there, and you prove it with your DNI (Peruvian national ID card) or your latest electricity, water or landline bill. Other districts work the same way: you get married where one of the two of you lives.
You also need two witnesses, one for each partner. In Lima they must be adults and cannot be relatives.
Requirements if you’re Peruvian, single and of legal age
This is the most common case. Each of you submits:
- DNI.
- A certified copy of your partida de nacimiento (birth certificate), issued no more than three months earlier.
- A declaración jurada de estado civil de soltería y domicilio (sworn statement of single status and address). You fill in the form at the office or on the municipality’s online platform.
- A certificado médico prenupcial (premarital medical certificate) ruling out syphilis and TB, together with a certificate of preventive counseling on sexually transmitted infections. It is valid for 30 days to start the process.
- Your witness’s ID document.
If you’re 70 or older, you also need a certificate of mental capacity issued by a psychiatrist, no more than one month old.
If you’re divorced or widowed
On top of the above, you’ll be asked for your previous partida de matrimonio (marriage certificate), with the dissolution noted on it if you’re divorced, and, if you’re widowed, your late spouse’s partida de defunción (death certificate). The sworn statement also says whether you have children under your patria potestad (parental authority) and whether you manage any property of theirs.
For a divorced or widowed woman, at least 300 days must have passed since the divorce or the death, unless a court grants a waiver or she presents a medical certificate showing she is not pregnant.
If one of you is a foreigner
This is the section most guides skip. The Municipalidad de Lima publishes its own list for foreign partners, and it differs from the Peruvian one in three ways: the birth certificate is valid for longer, you have to prove your marital status with a document from your own country, and every foreign document has to be legalized and translated.
What the foreign partner submits
- An identity document: passport, carné de extranjería (foreign resident ID card) or PTP (temporary residence permit).
- An up-to-date certified copy of your birth certificate, no more than six months old (Peruvians are given three).
- The original document or certificate proving your marital status, issued by your home country: single, divorced or widowed, as the case may be.
- The sworn statement of marital status and address, filled in at the office or on the municipality’s online platform.
- The premarital medical certificate and the preventive counseling certificate, valid for 30 days to start the process, exactly as for Peruvians.
- Your witness’s ID document.
One of the two of you still has to live in Cercado de Lima, and prove it with a DNI or the latest electricity, water or landline bill. Everything else—the two witnesses, the edicto, the fees—works the same way.
Legalization and translation
Documents issued abroad have to arrive legalized. The municipality gives two options: an apostille under the Hague Convention, or endorsement by the Peruvian consul in the country of origin plus legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Peru. And: “documents that are not in Spanish must be translated by a duly identified translator.”
That last phrase is looser than it sounds. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “for any procedure before the Peruvian public administration, you may submit a simple translation done by a duly identified translator instead of an official translation,” under Decreto Legislativo 1272 (gob.pe). If you’d rather use a sworn translator (traductor público juramentado), the Ministry keeps public directories for its nine working languages, English among them (gob.pe).
The certificate of single status, and what your embassy can do
Your marital-status document comes from your own country, not from Peru. For U.S. citizens, the U.S. Embassy in Lima says that “Peruvian authorities usually require that single (unmarried, divorced or widowed) U.S. citizens marrying in Peru present a sworn statement (known locally as a Certificado de Soltería) stating that they are legally free to marry in Peru,” and that this document must be notarized by American Citizen Services at the Embassy: you download the affidavit, book an appointment and pay a US$50 fee. The Embassy also notes that birth certificates and divorce decrees “must be certified with an apostille by the Secretary of State of the U.S. state where the document was issued,” that it does not translate documents, and that consular officials cannot perform marriages and you cannot be married at the Embassy (U.S. Embassy in Peru, Marriage Information, consulted on September 17, 2026).
If you’re not American, ask your own embassy or consulate in Lima what the equivalent document is called and how they issue it: each one handles it differently, and we can only vouch for what the U.S. Embassy publishes.
Getting married does not change your immigration status
A Peruvian marriage certificate is not a visa. Residency is a separate procedure at Migraciones, the national immigration authority:
- From abroad, the familiar residente (resident family member) status is requested online, and one of its conditions is precisely to “be outside the country” when you apply. A spouse of a Peruvian attaches a copy of the marriage record no more than 90 calendar days old if it was registered in Peru. The fee is S/ 58.80 and the answer takes up to 30 business days (gob.pe).
- Already living in Peru as a resident, you request a change of migratory status to familiar residente instead: S/ 161.40, also up to 30 business days, and it allows you to work (gob.pe).
Taking your marriage certificate home
To use your Peruvian marriage record abroad, ask the municipality’s civil registry office—or Reniec—for a certified copy, and then have it apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if your country is a member of the Hague Convention, or legalized if it isn’t. In person the fee is S/ 31.00 and the document is ready within 5 business days (gob.pe).
What we could not confirm
- Whether any particular immigration status is required to marry. The Municipalidad de Lima lists a passport, a carné de extranjería or a PTP as valid ID and says nothing about visas or length of stay. Ask the office before you book flights.
- Whether two foreigners can marry there. The published requirements only insist that one of the two lives in Cercado de Lima; they don’t say that either partner must be Peruvian. Confirm it in writing.
- How long the whole thing takes. The municipality publishes the steps but no overall deadline, and the review of your documents is what sets the pace.
The requirements for foreigners above come from the same Municipalidad de Lima page (in Spanish), consulted on September 17, 2026. Other districts publish their own lists, so check yours.
The process, step by step
At the Municipalidad de Lima the process starts online, on its civil marriage website (in Spanish):
- Register and upload your documents, and choose the date and time you’d like. The date is subject to approval.
- The municipality reviews them. If anything is flagged, you fix it following their instructions.
- In-person appointment with both partners and the witnesses to verify everyone’s identity.
- You receive the edicto matrimonial (marriage notice), which you must publish in a newspaper with national circulation. The municipality says to publish it no more than 8 business days before the ceremony.
- Upload the full newspaper page where the notice ran, and the municipality approves it.
- Pay for the ceremony on the same website, once they notify you by email.
Line up your documents by expiry date
The two documents that expire set your calendar. The birth certificate is valid for three months and the premarital medical certificate for only 30 days to start the process. Request the birth certificate first and leave the medical exam until everything else is ready, so it doesn’t expire while you gather the rest.
How much a civil wedding in Lima costs
These are the ceremony fees published by the Municipalidad de Lima, in Peruvian soles (S/):
| Ceremony | Fee |
|---|---|
| At the municipal premises, Monday to Friday, during office hours | S/ 198.10 |
| At the municipal premises, Monday to Friday, outside office hours | S/ 248.00 |
| Off-site, Monday to Saturday, during office hours | S/ 468.80 |
| Off-site, Monday to Saturday, outside office hours | S/ 530.60 |
The municipality also offers optional extras: a reception hall at the Subgerencia de la Mujer y Familia, the municipal Women and Family Office (S/ 300.00), or at the Palacio Municipal, City Hall (S/ 850.00), which must be booked 15 business days in advance, and spaces for catering (S/ 50.00) or decorations (S/ 100.00).
Your budget should also cover what the municipality doesn’t charge for: publishing the notice in the newspaper, the certified copies of your certificates and the medical certificate. We compare those bills district by district in what each municipality charges for the file and the ceremony.
Questions that come up before you start
Which municipality do we have to marry at?
The one for the district where one of you lives; you don’t both have to live there. The Municipalidad de Lima, for instance, marries people who live in Cercado de Lima, and you prove your address with a DNI (the Peruvian national ID card) or your latest electricity, water or landline bill. Other districts work the same way, but each one sets its own requirements, deadlines and fees.
Can our witnesses be relatives?
Not in Lima. The municipality asks for two witnesses, one for each partner, both adults and neither of them a relative. Each partner hands in their witness’s ID document along with the rest of the file, and the witnesses come to the in-person appointment where identities are checked. If you marry in another district, confirm the rule with that municipality.
Do my foreign documents need an official translation?
Not necessarily. The municipality asks that anything not in Spanish be translated by “a duly identified translator”, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that a simple translation by such a translator is accepted before the Peruvian public administration, under Decreto Legislativo 1272. If you’d rather use a sworn translator, the Ministry publishes a public directory.
Does getting married in Peru give my partner residency?
No. A marriage certificate is not a visa, and residency is a separate procedure at Migraciones, the immigration authority. From abroad you apply for familiar residente status, which costs S/ 58.80 and takes up to 30 business days. If your partner already lives in Peru as a resident, the route is a change of migratory status instead: S/ 161.40, and the same waiting time.
After the civil ceremony: the celebration
With the civil ceremony sorted, all that’s left is the party. If your calendar isn’t mapped out yet, our guide on how to plan your wedding month by month tells you what to lock in first.
And if you’d rather your guests help with your honeymoon or your new home than give you random things, parati for weddings puts the invitation and the registry on one link. Here’s how to ask for money as a gift without making it awkward.
