The Vow Kit

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Getting legally married in Mexico

Mexico does not have one marriage law. It has thirty-two. This page sets out what the civil registries of Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, Jalisco and Nayarit actually require, where the official sources contradict each other, and why roughly nine couples in ten should not do the legal part in Mexico at all.

Every requirement below was checked against the source shown beside it on 7 September 2026. Sources are labelled Official for government pages and Industry for established wedding-trade sources. Nothing here is legal advice.

On this page

  1. Read this first
  2. Civil vs symbolic: what each one actually is
  3. Is a Mexican marriage valid back home?
  4. The default most couples pick — and why
  5. State by state: QR, BCS, Jalisco, Nayarit
  6. Four states side by side
  7. The 15-day blood-test trap
  8. Apostille and certified translation
  9. Document checklists
  10. Where our sources conflict
  11. Every source, listed

1. Read this first

What this page is not

This is not legal advice, and we are not lawyers. Mexican marriage law is set state by state, and fees are set municipality by municipality. Requirements, fees and processing times change every year — UMA-indexed fees reset every February, and each state rewrites its Ley de Ingresos annually.

Everything below is stated as of September 2026 and must be re-verified with the Registro Civil office for your specific municipality, or through your planner, before you book flights or pay deposits. Cancún is the municipality of Benito Juárez; Playa del Carmen is not Cozumel. The office that will actually marry you is the only authority that counts.

Where our sources disagreed with each other, or looked out of date, we say so in an orange box rather than picking whichever answer reads more smoothly. There are four of those boxes on this page. They are the most useful thing here.

2. Civil vs symbolic: what each one actually is

Civil ceremony (boda civil)

Performed by an officer or judge of the Mexican Registro Civil. This is the only ceremony type that creates a legal marriage in Mexico. A religious ceremony — Catholic, Jewish, anything — has no legal standing on its own, and neither does a beach ceremony led by a resort officiant.

Industry dreamwed.ca — marriage licence in Mexico, corroborated by helloislamujeres.com (“Civil Ceremony: Performed by a judge. This is the only legally binding ceremony in Mexico.”) — checked 7 Sep 2026

Symbolic ceremony

Any officiant — or a friend, or a parent — leads your vows wherever you like. No filing, no witnesses requirement, no legal effect. Documentation for the couple is typically a passport and nothing else.

Industry blog.destinationweddings.com — how to legally get married in Cancún (comparison table: “Symbolic … Documents: Passport only”) — checked 7 Sep 2026

The two are not mutually exclusive and are not in competition. The question is never “which ceremony do we want?” — it is “in which country do we want to do the paperwork?”

3. Is a Mexican marriage valid back home?

United States

The State Department's position is that marriages performed abroad are valid in the country where they are performed if they follow local law. Whether and how your home state recognises it is a question for your state Attorney General's office, not for the federal government. Separately: US embassy and consulate employees cannot perform marriages abroad, so there is no such thing as “getting married at the US consulate in Mexico.”

Official travel.state.gov — Marriage abroad — checked 7 Sep 2026

Canada

“Marriages that are legally performed in a foreign country are usually valid in Canada, and you do not need to register them in Canada.” Canadian consular officials also do not perform marriages. Ottawa separately cautions same-sex couples that Canadian same-sex marriages are not recognised everywhere and that destination rules should be checked. (Same-sex civil marriage is legal nationwide in Mexico; confirm the current procedure with the specific Registro Civil office.)

Official travel.gc.ca — Marriage outside Canada; same-sex note on the same page. Mexico-side note Industry blog.destinationweddings.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

The practical read

A Mexican acta de matrimonio is a real marriage certificate, and it travels. The friction is not in whether it counts — it is in the six-to-twelve-week document chain needed to obtain it, described in section 8.

4. The default most couples pick — and why

Marry legally at your local courthouse, then have exactly the ceremony you want in Mexico with zero Mexican paperwork. This is not a workaround invented by wedding blogs; the State Department names the pattern itself:

US State Department

“Some couples having destination weddings choose to get legally married in the United States before or after their destination wedding ceremony abroad. Completing the legal marriage in the United States … avoids the complexity of obtaining a foreign marriage certificate and otherwise complying with local laws on marriage.”

Official travel.state.gov — Marriage abroad — checked 7 Sep 2026

Industry sources describe the same behaviour from the other side of the counter: “Most couples who get married at a Mexican resort have a symbolic ceremony. The legal marriage happens at a courthouse back home, usually a few days or weeks before they fly.” A second source states plainly that the vast majority of Cancún destination weddings are symbolic.

Industry weddingplan360.com; blog.destinationweddings.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

What going legal in Mexico adds to your plan

  • Apostilled and translated documents from your home country
  • A blood test and medical certificate performed in Mexico
  • Four witnesses, present at the signing, with photo ID
  • Several business days in-country before the ceremony
  • Roughly US$700–$2,000+ in legal-only costs in the Cancún area

Industry blog.destinationweddings.com — checked 7 Sep 2026. Official government fees are far lower than this range; see section 6 for the actual state schedules and what the gap represents.

The affidavit problem, if you do go legal in Mexico

Some Mexican offices ask foreigners for proof they are free to marry (a certificate of non-impediment, or single-status affidavit). The US government cannot attest to marital status; what you can do is execute a sworn statement, notarised at a US embassy or consulate if you are abroad.

Official travel.state.gov — checked 7 Sep 2026

Canada does not issue certificates of non-impediment at all. Global Affairs Canada issues a “statement in lieu” and suggests alternatives such as a provincial marriage search record or a single-status affidavit. Canadian couples should raise this with the Registro Civil office early, because the document the office is asking for does not exist in your country.

Official international.canada.ca — statement in lieu — checked 7 Sep 2026

Bottom line for the 90%

A US or Canadian marriage licence is cheap and fast. Get it at home, then fly. Do the legal part in Mexico only if the Mexican acta de matrimonio itself matters to you — for immigration, for family, or because you want the marriage to have happened in the place it happened. Those are good reasons. “It seemed like what you're supposed to do” is not.

5. State by state

“Mexico” is not one legal regime. Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, Nayarit and Jalisco each set their own marriage requirements — and within a state, fees and fine print vary by municipality.

Industry weddingplan360.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

Quintana Roo — Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres

Who performs it
Juez / Oficial del Registro Civil of the municipality. Cancún is the municipality of Benito Juárez. Industry blog.destinationweddings.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
Witnesses
4 total — two per spouse, adults with valid photo ID, present at the signing. Official cozumel.gob.mx (“TESTIGOS: Dos por cada contrayente”); Industry helloislamujeres.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
Blood test
Mandatory. Pre-marital medical certificate plus lab work — blood type, HIV, VDRL/syphilis — performed in Mexico. Cozumel's official page states a validity of 15 days (see section 7 for the trap this creates, and for the calendar-vs-business-days ambiguity). Official cozumel.gob.mx (certificados médicos y análisis clínicos prenupciales, “vigencia de 15 días hábiles”); test panel detail Industry helloislamujeres.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
Days in country
Plan 3–4 business days in-country before the ceremony for labs and filings. Treat this as planning guidance, not statute — see the conflict box below. Industry blog.destinationweddings.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
Documents
Valid passports, plus a Spanish translation of the passport by a state-certified perito where the passport is not in Spanish (this is Playa del Carmen's published requirement); proof of legal entry and stay (FMM / entry record); apostilled and perito-translated birth certificates; apostilled and translated divorce or death certificates if previously married; the marriage application form. Official playadelcarmen.gob.mx — Matrimonio Extranjero en oficina; Industry helloislamujeres.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
Official fees
Playa del Carmen, foreigner marriage in office: 65 UMA ≈ MX$7,625 (2026 UMA = MX$117.31). Cozumel, Mexican–foreigner: MX$4,017 in office, MX$7,057 at your venue; certified acta MX$109. Official playadelcarmen.gob.mx; cozumel.gob.mx — checked 7 Sep 2026
Processing time
Playa del Carmen lists 20 business days resolution for the trámite. Cozumel wants payments and lab results submitted about a week before the wedding. Official playadelcarmen.gob.mx; cozumel.gob.mx — checked 7 Sep 2026
Legal basis
Reglamento del Registro Civil del Estado de Quintana Roo. Official ordenjuridico.gob.mx — full text (PDF) — checked 7 Sep 2026

Judge-to-venue: the Registro Civil judge can travel to a resort or beach venue for an extra fee. This is how legal beach weddings actually happen, and the size of the premium is visible in Cozumel's own published pricing above — MX$7,057 at the venue against MX$4,017 in the office.

Industry blog.destinationweddings.com; fee gap Official cozumel.gob.mx — checked 7 Sep 2026

Conflict 1 — Quintana Roo's waiting period has no official number

The widely repeated “you must be in Quintana Roo for 3–4 business days before the wedding” comes from industry planning guidance. We found no official Quintana Roo statute stating an exact day count. The official numbers we could verify are different things: Playa del Carmen's 20-business-day trámite resolution, and Cozumel's request for labs and payments about a week out.

Plan for 3–4 days because the labs and filings genuinely take that long, but do not repeat the number as law, and confirm it with your municipality.

Baja California Sur — Los Cabos, Todos Santos, La Paz

Everything in this subsection comes from the state Registro Civil's own page, which is the strongest single source in this document — a state government publishing its own foreigner-marriage requirements in one place.

Official registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx — Registro de matrimonios — checked 7 Sep 2026

Witnesses
4 adults — two per spouse — who may not be the couple's parents (the domestic-couple version of the requirement also excludes grandparents). Each needs a photo-ID copy.
Blood test
Yes. Análisis pre-Nupciales issued by a Centro de Salud (public health centre), valid 15 days, and they must still be current on the wedding day.
Lead time
Complete documentation must be submitted 10 days before the appointment date. All marriages are by prior appointment (cita previa), subject to calendar availability — which in Los Cabos high season is the real constraint.
Documents (foreigner track)
Marriage application; original birth certificate, current or recently issued, apostilled AND translated into Spanish by a perito authorised by the BCS Tribunal Superior de Justicia; official ID plus passport for the foreign spouse; constancia de inexistencia de matrimonio (certificate of no existing marriage) issued in BCS, with those born elsewhere also needing one from their place of origin; CURP is listed. Everything in original plus copy.
Official fees
Foreigner–foreigner in office MX$1,348; foreigner–foreigner at your venue MX$4,049. Mexican–foreigner in office MX$810; at venue MX$4,049.
Where
The ceremony can be booked at any Oficialía in the state.

All rows above: Official registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx — checked 7 Sep 2026. The Los Cabos tourism board also publishes an English-language wedding guide that confirms the state-by-state framing: Official (tourism board) Los Cabos Wedding Guide (PDF).

Conflict 2 — the two documents foreigners cannot straightforwardly produce

CURP. The BCS requirement list includes a CURP with no foreigner carve-out. Most visiting tourists do not have a CURP. Nayarit's list has the same gap. Offices deal with this in practice, but the published lists do not say how — ask the specific office before you assume it is a formality.

Constancia de inexistencia de matrimonio. BCS wants a certificate of no existing marriage from your place of origin. As covered in section 4, the US federal government cannot attest to marital status and Canada does not issue non-impediment certificates at all. Ask the office in writing what substitute it accepts — typically a notarised single-status affidavit, apostilled and translated.

Jalisco — Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta is in Jalisco. The hotel corridor immediately north of the airport — Nuevo Vallarta, Punta Mita, Sayulita — is in Nayarit. Two states, two rule sets, roughly twenty minutes apart. Confirm which state your venue is physically in before you begin any paperwork; this is the single most common structural mistake in the Vallarta area.

Witnesses
4 total — two adults per spouse — with official ID copies for both the couple and the witnesses.
Medical certificate
Yes — and it must be issued by a public health institution; private hospitals are not accepted. It covers blood type and screening for contagious diseases; the state page names HIV/AIDS, syphilis, tuberculosis, and chronic or hereditary conditions constituting impediments.
Pre-marriage course
Both parties must complete the DIF civil pre-marital course (Curso Prematrimonial Civil). This is a real scheduling item, not a formality you can skip.
Property regime
Couples must file a convenio choosing a marital property regime — sociedad legal, sociedad conyugal, or separación de bienes.
Previously married
Certified copy of the divorce decree, nullity judgment, or the prior spouse's death certificate.
Foreigners
Documents proving legal presence in Mexico, plus a “Permiso de Gobernación” (federal SEGOB permission) — but see the conflict box immediately below before you act on this line.

All rows above: Official sgg.jalisco.gob.mx — Registro de matrimonio — checked 7 Sep 2026

Conflict 3 — Jalisco is the weakest section on this page, and we are not going to hide that

The official state page appears to be stale. It cites “FM3” — an immigration document abolished years ago — and a federal “Permiso de Gobernación” requirement that was restructured after Mexico's 2011 Migration Law. Current federal practice runs through INM, which publishes its own marriage-authorisation form for foreigner–Mexican marriages: Official inm.gob.mx — Autorización para contraer matrimonio (PDF).

And an industry source contradicts the state outright. A wedding-industry state-comparison table lists Jalisco as not requiring prenuptial exams, which directly contradicts the official Jalisco page above (Industry bodasboutique.com, boutiqueweddingsmexico.com).

What we do with that: we defer to the official source, and we tell you it may be in flux. Treat Jalisco's foreigner requirements as “confirm in person or via your planner” and do not rely on any single list — including this one. Ask the Puerto Vallarta municipal Registro Civil what it requires today.

Long-established Vallarta-local industry guidance, of unknown page age, states that blood tests are done locally at around US$100 per couple with results the same afternoon, and that witnesses must be 18 or over and may be Mexican or foreign. Treat the cost as indicative only. Industry banderasnews.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

Nayarit — Riviera Nayarit: Nuevo Vallarta, Punta Mita, Sayulita

Witnesses
2 witnesses (with ID copies) if you marry inside the Registro Civil office — but 4 if the ceremony is outside the office, which is to say at your venue. That is the destination-wedding case, so plan for four.
Blood test
Yes — pre-nuptial medical certificate and blood analysis issued by an official health authority (S.S.N. Centro de Salud).
Also required
Birth certificates, apostilled or legalised if foreign; certified CURP; official photo ID; divorce or death certificates if previously married; the DIF pre-marital talks certificate (pláticas prematrimoniales); a constancia de no deudor alimentario moroso — a certificate that you are not a delinquent child-support debtor, which most English-language guides omit entirely; and birth certificates of any children in common.
Official fees
MX$1,757 in office to MX$4,144 outside the office. Payable by bank transfer or at a convenience store; bank commissions are excluded from those figures.
Legal basis
Código Civil de Nayarit arts. 35–43, 135, 142–157, plus the state revenue law, as cited on the page itself.

All rows above: Official tramites.nayarit.gob.mx — ficha 192 — checked 7 Sep 2026. Riviera Nayarit's tourism board publishes an English summary for couples: Industry (DMO) rivieranayarit.com.

The two requirements that ambush North American couples in Nayarit

The constancia de no deudor alimentario moroso and the DIF pre-marital talks are both real, both published on the state's own portal, and both routinely missing from English-language checklists. Neither is difficult. Both take calendar time you will not have budgeted if you found your checklist on a resort's website.

6. Four states side by side

Quintana Roo Baja California Sur Jalisco (PV) Nayarit
Witnesses 4 (2 per spouse) 4 (2 per spouse, not parents) 4 (2 per spouse) 2 in office / 4 at venue
Blood test in Mexico Yes — 15-day validity Yes — 15-day validity Yes — public institution only Yes, plus DIF course
Document lead time ~1 wk labs; 20-business-day trámite (Playa del Carmen) Docs 10 days before; by appointment Verify locally — page is stale Appointment set after docs accepted
Official fee range ~MX$4,000–7,625 MX$1,348–4,049 (foreigner) Verify locally MX$1,757–4,144
Quirk that catches people Passport must be perito-translated (Playa del Carmen) Perito must be BCS-court-authorised DIF course; property-regime convenio; SEGOB/INM permit history No-child-support-debt certificate; DIF talks

All figures as of September 2026 — verify before booking. Sources for every cell are given in full in section 5 above.

7. The 15-day blood-test trap

This is the scheduling failure that ruins otherwise well-planned legal weddings, and it is entirely a consequence of two rules that were written independently of each other.

  1. The medical certificate must be issued in Mexico. Quintana Roo requires the pre-marital medical certificate and lab work locally; BCS requires Análisis pre-Nupciales from a Centro de Salud; Jalisco requires a public health institution specifically; Nayarit requires an official health authority. You cannot arrive with your own doctor's letter.
  2. The result expires in about fifteen days, and BCS states explicitly that it must still be current on the wedding day.

Official cozumel.gob.mx; registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx; sgg.jalisco.gob.mx; tramites.nayarit.gob.mx — all checked 7 Sep 2026

Now put those next to the paperwork deadlines from the same offices. BCS wants complete documentation submitted 10 days before the appointment. Playa del Carmen lists a 20-business-day resolution time for the trámite. Cozumel wants payments and lab results about a week before the wedding.

What this actually means for your trip

Your document packet and your blood test cannot be prepared at the same time. The packet has to be in the office weeks ahead; the labs cannot be drawn until you land, and cannot be drawn too early or they expire before the ceremony.

So the sequence is: apostilled and translated documents go in first, from home, weeks out. Then you fly in early enough for the labs to be drawn, processed and filed — while still leaving the result valid on the wedding day. In Quintana Roo the planning figure for that in-country window is 3–4 business days; in BCS it is governed by the 10-day submission rule and appointment availability.

If a resort coordinator tells you to “just come three days early and we'll handle it,” ask them specifically which day the labs are drawn and which day the packet was filed. Those are two different answers.

Conflict 4 — fifteen days, but fifteen of which kind?

Cozumel's page words the validity as “15 días hábiles” — 15 business days. The BCS state page states validity of 15 days without specifying, alongside the separate requirement that the analysis be current on the wedding day.

Fifteen business days is roughly three calendar weeks; fifteen calendar days is two. That is a week of difference in a window where a week matters. We are not going to smooth this over by picking one. When you call the office, ask in these words: “¿La vigencia de los análisis prenupciales es de 15 días naturales o 15 días hábiles?” — and plan against the shorter answer.

8. Apostille and certified translation

What needs an apostille

  • Birth certificates — always, for both spouses, if you are going the legal-in-Mexico route. BCS additionally requires the birth certificate to be recently issued; industry guidance is that most states want one issued within about six months. Official registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx; Industry bodasboutique.com — checked 7 Sep 2026
  • Divorce decrees and prior-spouse death certificates — if applicable, apostilled and translated. Industry helloislamujeres.com; Official tramites.nayarit.gob.mx (lists foreign documents as requiring apostille or legalisation generally) — checked 7 Sep 2026
  • Single-status / non-impediment paperwork where the office demands it — with the Canadian caveat from section 4. Official international.canada.ca — checked 7 Sep 2026

Mexico is a Hague Apostille Convention member. The apostille is issued by the authority of the place where the document was issued — your US state's Secretary of State, or in Canada, Global Affairs Canada or the competent provincial authority. Not by Mexico, and not by your local notary.

Industry certtranslate.com, citing Official gob.mx/sre — apostilla de documentos and the HCCH competent-authority list — checked 7 Sep 2026

Lead times and costs

United States

Fees and speed vary by state — check your Secretary of State, because this is the number that decides your timeline. As a worked example, California charges $20 per apostille, by mail through Sacramento or same-day in person at the Sacramento and Los Angeles counters. Third-party rush services run roughly US$150–200+ per document — one Florida birth-certificate apostille service advertises $190.

Official sos.ca.gov — request an apostille and its current processing times; Industry myfloridaapostille.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

Canada

Global Affairs Canada processes authentications in the order received. At the time of checking, GAC was working on requests received about 25 business days earlier, plus 5–10 business days of mail each way, with no expedited service offered. Provinces that issue their own apostilles — Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan — may be considerably faster.

Official international.canada.ca — document authentication — checked 7 Sep 2026

Canadian couples: start apostilles three or more months out

There is no rush option at the federal level. If your wedding is inside four months and you are going legal in Mexico with GAC-authenticated documents, that timeline is the thing to solve this week — before venues, before flights.

Practical budget window: $20–$50 per document DIY (fee plus certified copy plus shipping), or roughly $150–$200 per document through a service. The full document pack for two people commonly lands somewhere between US$100 and US$400 if you do it yourself.

Industry — derived from the official fee schedules and service pricing cited immediately above; verify for your own state. Checked 7 Sep 2026

The perito traductor trap

Translations for a Mexican Registro Civil generally must be done by a perito traductor — an expert translator authorised in Mexico — and in BCS specifically, one authorised by the BCS Tribunal Superior de Justicia. A US “certified translation,” meaning a translator's certificate of accuracy, is not automatically acceptable. Couples discover this after paying for the wrong translation.

Official registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx; Industry certtranslate.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

The apostille itself also has to be translated — it is part of the packet, not a cover sheet you can leave in English.

Industry certtranslate.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

Cost anchors: US-side certified translation runs about US$25–$55 per certificate — one established agency charges a flat $54 for a marriage certificate, another quotes “from $24.95 per page.” Perito rates inside Mexico vary by state and language pair; your planner or the Registro Civil itself keeps a list of authorised peritos.

Industry sespanish.com; certtranslate.com — checked 7 Sep 2026

The order to do it in

  1. Order fresh certified copies of both birth certificates.
  2. Apostille them in the issuing state or province.
  3. Have the perito translation done — often arranged in Mexico, so the perito is locally authorised.
  4. Deliver the packet to the Registro Civil by its deadline: 10 days before the appointment in BCS, about a week ahead for labs in Cozumel.

Sequence assembled from the official sources cited throughout this section — checked 7 Sep 2026

Realistic total lead time

6–12 weeks for the full apostille-plus-translation chain if you are American — faster in states with same-day counters. 3–4+ months for Canadians going through Global Affairs Canada.

Industry — computed from the official processing figures cited above. Checked 7 Sep 2026

9. Document checklists

A. Symbolic ceremony in Mexico, legal marriage at home

  • Passports valid for the trip
  • Your home-country marriage licence, obtained before or after the trip at your local courthouse
  • Nothing else — no apostille, no translation, no blood test, no witnesses requirement, no Registro Civil filing

Industry blog.destinationweddings.com (“Symbolic … Documents: Passport only”); pattern endorsed by Official travel.state.gov — checked 7 Sep 2026

B. Legal civil marriage in Mexico — the core packet

Confirm every line with your municipality; this is the union of what the four state sources publish, not a substitute for their own current lists.

  • Completed marriage application form from the Registro Civil office
  • Valid passports for both spouses
  • Proof of legal entry and stay in Mexico (FMM or entry record)
  • Birth certificates — recently issued, apostilled, then perito-translated into Spanish
  • Passport translation by a certified perito where the office requires it (published requirement in Playa del Carmen)
  • Pre-marital medical certificate and blood analysis, done in Mexico, at a public health facility where the state specifies one
  • Four witnesses with photo ID — two per spouse; in BCS they may not be the couple's parents; in Nayarit two suffice only if you marry inside the office
  • Payment of the official municipal or state fee, with the venue premium if the judge travels to you

Official playadelcarmen.gob.mx; cozumel.gob.mx; registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx; tramites.nayarit.gob.mx — checked 7 Sep 2026

C. Add these if they apply to you

  • Previously married: apostilled and translated divorce decree, nullity judgment, or prior spouse's death certificate
  • Office asks for proof you're free to marry: notarised single-status affidavit, apostilled and translated (US); GAC “statement in lieu” or a provincial marriage search record (Canada)
  • Marrying in BCS: constancia de inexistencia de matrimonio, and ask the office what it accepts from foreigners in place of one issued in BCS
  • Marrying in Jalisco: DIF pre-marital course completion, and the convenio selecting a marital property regime
  • Marrying in Nayarit: DIF pláticas prematrimoniales certificate, and the constancia de no deudor alimentario moroso
  • Children in common: their birth certificates (Nayarit lists this explicitly)
  • CURP: listed by BCS and Nayarit — ask the office how it handles foreigners who do not have one

Official registrocivil.bcs.gob.mx; sgg.jalisco.gob.mx; tramites.nayarit.gob.mx; international.canada.ca; travel.state.gov — checked 7 Sep 2026

10. Where our sources conflict, and what else we could not verify

Everything on this page was assembled from the sources listed in section 11. These are the places where those sources disagreed, were incomplete, or could not be read at all. We would rather publish this list than let the page read more confidently than the evidence supports.

  1. Jalisco's official page contradicts an industry comparison table on whether prenuptial exams are required, and cites an immigration form abolished years ago. Resolution: defer to whatever the Puerto Vallarta municipal Registro Civil says today. (Conflict 3 above.)
  2. Quintana Roo's 3–4 business day in-country waiting period is industry guidance, not statute. No official QR text stating an exact day count was found. (Conflict 1 above.)
  3. 15 days “hábiles” vs 15 days plain — Cozumel says business days, BCS does not specify. (Conflict 4 above.)
  4. CURP for foreigners appears on BCS and Nayarit requirement lists with no foreigner carve-out, and most visitors have no CURP. Offices resolve this in practice; the published lists do not explain how. (Conflict 2 above.)
  5. The ~US$100 per couple blood-test cost for Puerto Vallarta comes from a long-standing local page of unknown date. Indicative range only.
  6. The SRE / Consulmex page on foreigners marrying in Mexico was bot-walled during research. Our note on it came from a search snippet rather than a full-page read, so we have not built any requirement on it.
  7. The US Embassy Mexico marriage page returned a technical error at the time of checking; we cited travel.state.gov instead, which is the same government's authoritative source on the question.
  8. All MXN fee figures are 2026 published schedules and change with each state's annual Ley de Ingresos. UMA-indexed fees, such as Playa del Carmen's, reset every February when the UMA changes.

11. Every source, listed

Government and official sources first, then industry sources. All checked 7 September 2026.

Official — government

Industry

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