Here on the blog, as well as on other fora, I see there’s been some confusion about the monetary cost of getting married in Moldova. Since I’m going through the process right now, I thought I’d drop a little knowledge on the subject.

Moldova

The total and complete cost of getting married in the Republic of Moldova is: 20 lei.

That comes out to about 4 RON, or about 1 Euro, or about a buck and some change (U.S. dollars). Yep. That is the total and complete cost, paid upfront when you file the paperwork.

Anything else, whether fancy dresses, rented dance halls, DJs, catered food, limousines, bouquets, tuxedos, floral arrangements, etc, is extra. That’s completely up to you, and obviously you can spend as much – or as little – as you like. But the government of Moldova greatly respects the institution of marriage (as long as it isn’t same-sex!) and so that, my friends, is the total and complete price: 20 Moldovan lei.

The paperwork is filed at the corresponding Stare Civila office that corresponds to the PERMANENT address on the Moldovan’s ID card (buletin). If both parties are Moldovan, and have different Stare Civila offices, you can pick whichever one you wish.

Foreigner

If you’re getting married in Moldova, one of the two parties has to be a citizen. Two foreigners can’t get married here.

If you’re an American citizen, you will need one additional piece of paper if you want to get married in a foreign country (any country, including RM). The price for that is: $50 (paid in American dollars). The embassy greatly prefers if you schedule an appointment to get this paper, so log onto your local embassy and the whole thing can be done online. It’ll ask you what service you want and the answer is “other notarial services”.

What you will need is your passport and 50 bucks. They will run a quick background check on you to make sure you don’t have any outstanding warrants. Then you will be asked to swear, under oath, that you are not currently married to anyone else. The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes depending on how sleepy the local embassy staff is.

Note: for the 50 smackers, you will get TWO pieces of paper. The first is in English, and the second translated into the local language (Romanian for RM). Be careful! Mine was translated wrong, and said I was not currently casatorita (feminine adjective). That caused a bit of trouble for me, but it all got smoothed out in the end.

Paperwork

To file for marriage in Moldova, you’ll need:

• Copy of Moldovan person’s ID (buletin)
• Original and copy of Moldovan person’s birth certificate
• Marriage application (get it at the office or download it online)
• Copy of foreign person’s passport – front page (name/photo)
• Copy of foreign person’s passport showing last entry into Moldova
• Copy of the embassy paper in local language showing never married, etc
• Original embassy paper showing never married, etc
• Receipt showing you’ve paid the 20 lei filing fee – paid at Banca de Economii

That’s it!

Note: if both parties are Moldovan, you’ll need an additional paper from a doctor showing that you’ve taken a blood test. This isn’t necessary if one person is a foreigner.

CASA DE PIATRA!