Getting married in the Democratic Republic of Congo

If you were never married before, you need a
• Acte de naissance (by the civil registry office)
• certificat de naissance (by the midwife)
• attestation de célibataire
• attestation de résidence
• copy of your passeport (authenticated) OR certificat de nationalité (if congolese)

If you are divorced, you have to ad:
• the last acte de mariage with a note concerning the annulation/divorce by the court
• jugement de divorce WITH signification AND certifcat de non appel

If you are widowed, you may ad:
• acte de décès of your late wife/husband

If you/your spouse was not registred after birth, to obtain a acte de naissance, you have to follow the following rules:
• go to the Tribunal de grande instance, respnsable for the place of birth
• ask for a Jugement supplétif à un acte de naissance
• this has to be published by the civil registry office or the Cour d'appel (the sources are not clear)
• after three or four weeks (depending source) you optain a Certificat de non appel
• with both, the civil registry officer of the place of birth can write a acte de naissance, based on the Jugement and the Certificat (and not on the declaration of the parents, may be you have to explain gim; he has to write on the back of the Acte de naissance by his own)
• The three papers forms the Acte de naissance

Please note:
If one of you two is congolese: There is a difference between Acte de naissance (what you need) and Certificat de naissance. Awoid Attestation de naissance.

Thanks for your contribution Kongo!

Harmonie.

That was really helpful.....

If a Congolese national is marrying a foreigner in Congo, are there any minimum time periods one has to spend in the country before doing the Civil Wedding?

Can it be done within 24 hours of submitting the documents listed above?

Hi! I am an American wanting to know more about getting married in the DRC. Any advice is surely welcomed!
So my fiance currently lives in South Africa but is a Congolese citizen. We are planning on getting married in the DRC within the next year. I have so many questions, but I'll try to keep it simple and start with one! If anyone has any answers or advice to any of my questions, PLEASE feel free to reply (thank you in advance)!

- In general, what are the usual customs during a Congolese marriage? (The process, expectations of the bride and of the groom, families, etc.) (Will anything be different since I am not Congolese and how?)

Hello from Canada and Happy New Year,

I have no help for you in terms of a Congolese wedding, tho it must be quite interesting to consider.  Beyond that, I write to make sure you are well aware of what you are heading into in relation to FATCA and FBAR for you and your beloved.  Will you be moving to the US?  Will you be giving up your US citizenship?  If not, see below the letter that I am sending to lots of US expats and consider some of these issues from your and your finacee's perspective before the wedding.....  Good luck in your new adventures.   

Hi -
I just very recently discovered Expatblog and came across your listing; gosh, at this time of year with ice on the creek and the need for double woolies, it sure would be different to be in a place like Africa.  While I have no plans at the moment to visit there, much less move,  I am writing as a fellow US Expat (to Canada) in search of some information RE US Persons.

My main purpose in contacting folks via the Expatblog has been to make sure that they are well aware of FATCA.  I sell no product or service; I am not a cross-border accountant or lawyer.  Rather, since last spring when I first found out about this multi-tentacaled US law that has been forced upon every other country in the world via threats of economic sanctions, and is complicating the lives of "US Persons" living abroad, I've been making a continued effort to contact other US expats to make sure they are at least aware of this issue (it was so deeply hidden in the US HIRE ACT in 2010 and the press has done only a limited job of accurately explaining/communicating this information).

As part of my own learning, I have become an avid reader of the Isaacbrock blog-site (Isaacbrocksociety.ca); this is a 3-year running Canadian open blog site which has, as its motto, "Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad" and the main focus of this very active site has been FATCA (including outstanding presentations to the US Congress, the Canadian Parliament and even a Human Rights Complaint to the UN).  At that site there have been many many posters from all over the world, but none that I have yet seen from Africa other than one or two from South Africa.  We know from news reports that, due to FATCA, some banks in various countries have, with little notice, closed their accounts with anyone with US taint, but little else is known of their experience and situation.

One further effort in Canada in relation to US Persons and FATCA, a group off-shooting from Isaacbrocksociety has (as of mid-2014) mounted a Canadian federal court constitutional challenge against FATCA and the Canadian Government for signing the IGA.  Our Canadian IGA, signed at the end of June 2014, created legalized 2nd class citizenship for all US Persons in Canada (born in the US - including Accidental Americans - or still holding a not-officially-renounced green-card, child of someone born in the US, spouse of a "US person", business partner of such a person, etc - - I think there are about as many in Canada as there are in Mexico, around 1 million).  This clearly contravenes the long-established Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which disallows discrimination based on nationality or parentage) plus numerous other federal laws which stem from this long-standing legal basis.  While there are rumors of Republicans Overseas bringing a Constitutional challenge inside the US against FATCA (being in contravention of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights), my understanding is that the Canadian constitutional challenge is the ONLY currently active litigation IN THE WORLD.

You can find more about this historic effort at  http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/      If successful (and our constitutional lawyers and other involved experts have assured us that the IGA is on the wrong side of the law, and the government was warned about likely constitutional challenge before the bill came up for a vote), then perhaps other countries, too, may look more closely at whether it is possible to reconsider and stand up to the US and say "NO" to this world-wide FATCA extortion and NSA-type information dragnet.

It would be so helpful to us in Canada to know more about the experiences and concerns of US expats in other countries, particularly those where FATCA IGAs may still be under negotiation (or have been held off or side-stepped entirely) despite the 2015 mandate for 30% withholding taxes to financial institutions.  Perhaps you or another US expat you know there would be interested in checking out (and checking in with) the Isaacbrocksociety.ca website and posting now and then?  Feel free to share this information of what is being done in Canada with other US expats there or elsewhere.

I hope I have not overwhelmed you with this inquiry and that you will send at least a brief reply with comments/ideas and/or questions if you have any about any of this. 

Again, Happy New Year from the cold white north   
LLGM

Hi Kongo.

Thanks you for your detailed response. What would be required for a marriage between two persons of the same nationality in the DRC.

Will the process be the same as you explained and what is required in the citizen's country to legalize the marriage abroad?

Thanks