Getting married in South Africa

For you to get married in his country you need to apply at any normal Home Affairs for the letter/certificate it takes between 3 and 6 weeks. Then you need to go to Consular Service in Pretoria they will apostle takes 2 days ( place a seal on the letter).

There are private people who can apostle but I'm not sure if this would be acceptable. We have just done this for a friend getting married in Netherlands

If he gets married to you here he needs to have a valid permit even tourist visa is fine and he will need the same type of letter from his country. Its often called a letter of non impediment to marry.

Hi you need to go to home Affairs in South Africa  and get your unabridged  birth certificate unless you  have it already.  You will also need to  get a letter of non impediment from home affairs  aswell. The unabridged birth certificate needs to be notarized before it gets apostle stamped. Once you  have these documents  when you are in romania you go to the south African embassy and then they will issue a letter that allows you to get married in romania. Once you get this letter . All documents need to translated and  notarized by a notary in romania. Once all the documentation is legalised  you then go to the townhall to register  for your wedding.  If you are currently  in romania best go to the townhall and get your fianice to ask for all the requirements to be get married to a foreigner.  Follow everything  step by step . Best advice  from me is to have everything in order. it will save you  lots of stress and unnecessary running  around. And alow yourself enough  time  ( 6 to 8 weeks) to get your documents in South Africa before getting you visa for romania.

Hi all

I trust you will be able to help. I have followed some of the advice on previous blogs. All documents required for marriage have been submitted (ID's, Letter of impediment, valid visa etc). This was on the 24th of Aug 2015. Was informed by HA that they would call with a date of interview. No call came and at follow-up was rudely informed to wait until they complete their investigation. Can someone advice on whether this was their exprience and how long they waited before getting a date for an interview?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone. My parnter and i are planning to marry in SA and we are both foriegners and on our holiday,so is it possible that we can set an appointment this week and marry the following week? Please help.

If you are lucky to get the date AND have complete set of all documents... Otherwise I wouldn't count on it. Better to organise everything via hotel or a wedding planner, they take care of everything and their fees are not that high if you want a private wedding. They will tell you exactly what documents you need.

Hi me and my boyfriend want to get married by home affairs  am south african and he is fobut we stay in Cape Town how is he is bangali how is he get the impediment if he is here can anybody assist me how else

Hi bigpickle88,

I just read your post about getting married in sa and I am in the exact same situation you where.
I am a British citizen and want to marry my partner in September 2017, please can you give me all the info you have and would you allow me to pick your brains further if need be, is a darn minefield and home  affairs have been great so far but I still have questions and concerns.

Thanks hunny

Hello


I'm a British citizen and my partner (Indian citizen)are gay couple and  are planning to get married in Cape Town, South Africa. The Home Affairs Office of South Africa requires a certificate of no impediment from foreign nationals.

I already have a decree absolute from my previous partner so I do not need to provide a certificate of no impediment but my partner being a single Indian Citizen has to provide a certificate of no impediment.

We have enquired in India about this and the country doesn't issue  a certificate of no impediment to its citizens. As I checked online on various websites, I got to know of the Sworn Affidavit which can be accepted instead by the Home Affairs Department of South Africa.

If you could please help me with a correct procedure for this as early as possible, it would be great help for both of us.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Shaun

Hello!
My fiancé and I have our hearts set on getting married in South Africa. This would be a destination wedding, but really meaningful as I was born in South Africa. We live in London together.
I am getting very conflicting information about the mechanics and hoops to jump through in order to have a legal ceremony outside of the magistrate court.
Have any foreigners done this recently and are able to explain how they approached it?
Appreciate any and all help
Thank you!
X

Hello Armand

Congrats on your wedding and hope all is well on your side.

I have a question relating to marriage at home affairs.

I would like to get married at home affairs to my wife who is a Mauritian and i am south African.

We have went into home affairs and received a appointment date.

We were told to get a letter of proof from the Mauritian embassy stating that she is not married even though she has a signed letter from Mauritius of non - impediment.

Do you perhaps know how we should approach this.

Ps: i am from Cape Town.

Thanking you in advance

Hi, Please visit the Mauritian Embassy in South Africa with the certificate of no impediment and ask them what you need to do for them to confirm that it is a valid document from Mauritius. Only after that can you take it to Home Affairs in SA. The thing is, governments only communicate with each other through their Foreign Affairs Departments and their consulates. So the SA government (Home Affairs) can only accept the Cert. of no impediment if the embassy has given a green light.

Thank you Burnerd! i will certainly keep you informed.

Hi,

I am in the same position as you were. Could you tell me about what you had to do to get married in South Africa and then get a spousal visa?

Thanks,
Akshata

nsingh wrote:

hey everyone!
I am an Indian citizen. Me and my fiance are planning to get married in march in SA. He is a South African citizen and i wish to settle there with him. I will be on a visitor's visa and i am required to present a "letter of no impediment" which is something the indian government doesn't issue. Can you please tell me where must I get that?
And do we have to notify the home affairs in SA one month before we get married? is that mandatory?
what is the waiting period for the marriage certificate since I will have to come back to India after the expiry of my tourist visa, to apply for the spousal visa. 
looking forward to hearing from you.

Hi,
I am in the same position. Could you please tell me how you obtained your letter of no impediment from India and marriage certificate in SA and then your spousal visa?
Thanks.
Akshata

Hi  everyone! I'm hoping for a positive reply please or anything I can go on...my boyfriend is an asylum seeker and we really want to get married (I'm South African) however Home Affairs are giving us the run-around as they've told us we can't....so we in limbo....can they even do that?

Michelle - all your documents have to be in order (i.e. your fiancee has to stay legally in South Africa and provide certificate of no impediment. If he is asylum seeker his status needs to be confirmed by Home Affairs (otherwise his stay here is not legal). This is normal process and it's not only South Africa that requires that. If Home Affairs told you that you can't get married, probably your documents are not in order - in any case, they should tell you exactly what you require.

Thanks your posts has helped a lot.

Hi

How do you find a marriage officer to do that for you?

Hi all

How long is the process of getting a spousal permit after getting married to a foreigner in South Africa to thos who have do it. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Just had a friend obtain hers. She had to go back to Egypt to apply which she did in the beginning of November and wait there for her permit; it came through 2 weeks ago so roughly 10 weeks wait.

Did she pay for it? So you don't apply for it here since its permit for you to stay here in South Africa.

I understand cost was minimal.

You can no longer change your visa type from inside SA especially family and spousal permits you must return to your country of origin. I helped her with the paperwork and we tried via a consultant to do it here and was not able to.

I am interested in learning more about this topic.

Hi Hi there. I also need some assistance in this regard. I intend on marrying a Dominican woman in April. She will be here in SA for 6 weeks from the end of March. She is bringing along her Letter of no Impediment(incl. English Translation). I just want to get married so she can have a marriage certificate to go back home with and use to apply for a spousal visa at her embassy.
I want to make the appointment for the interview at Home Affairs and also get married there at the same time. How do I do this? Do I need to fill out the BI-31 form? Please assist
Can you connect me with this marriage officer?

Hi. Can you connect me with your marriage officer?

Please advise if when making the appointment for the marraige interview does your foreign partner need to be present or can hejoin when you get the interview date?

I am a south african woman traditionally married to a nigerian man. He is an asylum seeker holder and last year December we went to home affairs to submitt our documents to be legally married. We were told to wait for an appointment for interview it might take 3 months. It's been six months now and have called home affairs to hear about the outcome of our application but we were told it may take longer because he is using asylum.

Has anyone here got married to someone using an asylum and how long did you wait for an interview?

Hi there

Are you prepared to help me with a similar issue I am now having ?

I would really appreciate your help!

Hi all, I am South African. My fiancee is not. He is already a permanent resident with a south African ID document.  Does he still need the non-impedement letter?