US Citizen Married to Bolivian Moving to Cochabamba

by Daniel
(Tiquipaya Bolivia)

Hi, Im 22 years old and married my Bolivian wife in September. I have the Matrimonio visa and just got the objeto determinado: Tramite Residencia in the US. Im planning on moving in may. I have a job offer with an American School there and will begin working in August oficially. Ive gotten used to the hassel of the Bolivian government, so Im expecting it to be a journey to get residency. My only question is if Im married to a bolivian why do I only get Temporary residency for a year, then extend? According to the migracion website there is a "boliviano por matrimonio" visa/or status that can be applied for...but it really doesnt give any details of what it allows you to do. My goal is to stay but want to have the option to leave if for more than 90 days with invalidating anything. It seems like if youre married to a Bolivian, bam! youre bolivian too. Also, if anyone can provide a tramitador in Cochabamba that would be great!

Thanks everyone.
Daniel

daniel.willis@live.com

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US Citizen Married to Bolivian Moving to Cochabamba

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Feb 04, 2012
 bolivian tramites
by: Rachel

Hey there - I am in a similar situation (married to a Bolivian citizen and just moved down to Bolivia last November on Visa de Objeto Determinado)...I am THRILLED to say I just got my 1 year residency VISA approved yesterday!!

You are right that your first step is the 1 year residency VISA - supposedly after that you apply for a 2 year residency VISA and during that 2 year visa you can finally apply for naturalization (citizenship). I have heard conflicting stories of whether you can apply for naturalization after 2 yrs. or 3 yrs....but in any case you can't jump straight to naturalization.

Get ready for a long ride with the governmental agencies - it took me 2 months instead of 1 and I really busted my butt to move as quickly as possible (except I did it all legally and without bribes - yippee)!! The problem is that your Objeto Determinado is only valid for 30 days once you enter the country, so since it's practically impossible to do everything in those 30 days, you can either pay a fine ($3/day) for each day you overstay your Visa de Objeto Determinado, or there is some way to apply for an extension of your VISA, but that also has a cost, and for me it was pretty much the same cost either way, so I just paid a total of 30 days x $3 = $90 fine.

Anyways, I would HIGHLY recommend that before you come down to Bolivia, you get the following documents legalized through the Bolivian embassy/consulate: Birth Certificate, Marriage License, FBI or State criminal background check (you will need this for Interpol fingerprints in Cochabamba).

In case you don't know, the legalization process is the following: get each U.S. document translated, then notarize both the English and Spanish versions, get them authenticated at your County Clerk office (they will sign off that the notary public was on their registry), then take them to your state Secretary of State to get authenticated, and finally send or take them to be authenticated at the Washington D.C. Secretary of State (where Hillary Clinton works). FINALLY after all of that, you send or take them to the Bolivian Consulate (not sure if it has to be the Washington DC one or if it can be the Miami, New York, Chicago one) and you pay around $85 per document (the marriage license should be a bit less since your wife is bolivian, and bolivians pay around $42 for legalizations) for them to "legalize" it, so that when you get to Cochabamba you can present them to be stamped at the Cancillería de Relaciones Exteriores (located off Plaza Colon) and you will be able to present those documents as if they were issued here locally by a bolivian authority. I guess they really mistrust documents from other countries because of so much falsification and corruption, so I kind of understand the reasoning behind it, but it's a huge pain!!
Feb 04, 2012
 Rita Espana at Quillacollo Tours
by: Anonymous

Rita Espana at Quillacollo Tours in Cochabamba is great.

http://www.turismo.gnb.com.bo/datempresa.php?cod=38970

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