Mixed Marriage Process in Morocco

Hi Ray91

Please can you tell me where you have to get thr documents verified from?

I'm going in 2 weeks and didn't know about this. I'm worried now. What did they say 'legalised' or 'verified'? And did they say where from?

Please can you tell me asap where I can get this done from?

Thanks

JoJo

Hi, go onto www.fco.gov.uk/legalisation

Thank you. 

I can't believe this. I wasn't aware of this. So which documents do we need to get legalised?

Pls let me know asap?

I think once you post the documents you get them done within days.
All the documents you'll be taking with you.
Can I ask which documents you have?

I have these documents:

Birth certificate
ACRO certificate
3 months payslips
Passport

I still need to get:
Letter from employer (will sort this monday)
6 passport sized pics (need to get these)

I havent got the no impediment because we have to get that from British embassy in Rabat.

I'm now worried about legalisation. What if my original documents dont come back in time?

Are you 100% sure we need them legalised through the fco.gov? Summerlees on her wrote that  she got her documents legalised/certified by a solicitor

A lady at the registry office told me and it can also be done separately with a solicitor.
On that website it has the exact details, I myself only found this out a few days ago. Have a good read on the website also there is a number you can contact.
Do you have to take work documents because I'm a carer for my mum and don't have them documents. X

Do u mean the fco website? 

I didnt think it was a requirement to have them legalised by fco in uk.

I might get a solicitor to certify a copy of my passport and copy of my birth certificate. But I dont think thats needed. I'm just not sure what to do.

I am going to get a letter from work.

If you are paid to be a carer for your mum maybe you could get a letter from DWP or whoever deals with your carer payment

hello!
can you please tell me how much time it takes to get  capacity to marry certificate?
me and my fiance plan to marry. i am a bit confused and scared because he cant stay long time here in morocco because of his work.
i have read in some forums that it takes 1 or 2 months to get it
he cant stay that long. he cant come back soon.
please tell me how long it took you to get it

Hi there,
With all document, any British subject can have the capacity of the marriage certificate from British consulate Rabat within hours [ need to book an appointment before for capacity of marriage certificate] .


I have mine last Aug then you need to verify by Moroccan home ministry official.

Regards

Hi Mludi

Congratulations on getting married.

Please can you tell us how long the whole process took you?

And once you and your fiance recieved permission to marry, how long were you given to get married? Was there a time limit that your permission was valid for?

Thanks in advance

Wow guys there’s so much misinformation being given out on this thread I just had to jump in and clarify a few things 🤦‍♀️
I got married in Morocco on the 14th November this year so let me explain a few details and shed some light on the procedure.

As a UK National these are the documents u need and where u get them from, all must be originals or certified copies and I will explain next to each one.

(NB: Please understand what constitutes as a ‘certified copy’ because I myself misunderstood this and it caused me massive stress trying to get it signed by a teacher/lawyer/dentist 🤦‍♀️
***Certifying a document. Certify a document as a true copy of the original by getting it signed and dated by a professional person, like a solicitor. When you apply for something like a bank account or mortgage, you may be asked to provide documents that are certified as true copies of the original.
Who can certify a document
To certify documents, ask a professional person or someone well-respected in your community (‘of good standing’) like a:

bank or building society official
councillor
minister of religion
dentist
chartered accountant
solicitor or notary
teacher or lecturer

The person you ask shouldn’t be:
related to you
living at the same address
in a relationship with you

PLEASE NOTE THE WORD ‘LIKE’, basically to certify a document it just needs to be signed by an upstanding member of the community that knows you but is not blood or marital relation to yourself/fiancé ***)

So in my personal experience, me and my husband had two weeks to get the whole process done from start to finish, and to be honest, when I say 2weeks, that’s the total amount of time I had in the country. When it came down to it we actually had 8 working days 🙈🌪🤣. This was due to us deciding to book Friday flights, (sat&sun nothing gets done obvs and unbeknownst to us, the Monday was a national holiday in Morocco, couldn’t have written it more of a farse at that point I swear!🤦‍♀️).

As a UK National these are absolutely essential, original documents required:

***UK POLICE RECORD CERTIFICATE *** - must be dated within 30 days
—-The certificate MUST be from NARC (not to be confused with DBS or any other organisation) and takes 10 WORKING DAYS from application to receipt. PLEASE PLEASE be aware the 10 working days DO NOT INCLUDE the day you submit the application AND the day it is sent out, it is 10 days processing time.
Fee is £40 to receive within 10 working days (actually 12 working days if u count the day u submit and the day they post out), or £80 guaranteed receipt within 2 working days (4 working days) ) I think  £6 for per certificate ordered at the same time but I only needed one.

*** FULL UK BIRTH CERTIFICATE ***
—-Must be FULL BURTH CERTIFICATE . Can be obtained from the council office under which ur birth was registered BUT must be ordered at least 3 days in advance of pick up, do not go by what is stated on the gov website like I did and think u can walk in with all your details and they will just print one off for you to walk out with, you can’t because it needs to be signed by a registrar. I think it’s £19 for one and £10 for any subsequent ones ordered at the same time. It’s worth getting two because I needed them.

***STATEMENT IF RELIGION***
(Certified)
As a non-practicing Christian I just found this absolutely dumbfounding to be honest. I’ve never practiced or been part of a church or anything like that but as u will know if u have done ur research it is illegal to marry a person of Atheist belief under Islamic law. So I wrote a statement myself declaring I am of Christian faith and wish to keep my religion. It was all fine and in the end I didn’t even need it but I would suggest rather than write it urself and have translated, get your fiancée to write in Arabic and u just sign it, saves u money that’s needlessly spent.

*** CERTIFICATE OF NON-IMPEDIMENT/AFFIDAVIT ***
                      AND
***CERTIFIED COPY OF PASSPORT/CERTIFICATE OF NATIONALITY ***
—-DO NOT listen to anyone else that tells you to get this from anywho or any place before u leave the UK, exactly what u need is obtained from the British Embassy in Rabat. You need to book an appointment to go there in person, they only have public appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays and in peak times it can be 4 weeks in advance so book this first. U need to take your passport, ur fiancées ID Card/Passport and the fee (the exact amount as they don’t have facilities to give change) in Moroccan Dirham along to your appointment. It’s a taxi ride away from anywhere else u need to be and u will have to wait 2hours for ur documents. My advice is book the earliest slot and be prepared to sit and wait for a couple of hours, don’t make the mistake we did and leave the embassy to go find a coffee shop or something for breakfast because there is NOTHING around lol.

***STATEMENT OF INCOME***
Exactly as it sounds. 3 months payslips should be fine and maybe a letter from your employer or job contract. Mine is slightly different and proved awkward in explanation as I’m a landlord and rental income from properties I own is my income which did not translate very well in the room with the judge. You will be expected to show this and possibly explain some detail as I did so be prepared.

DO NOT LEAVE THE UK WITHOUT THESE DOCUMENTS there is no way you will be married without them. I kid you not guys, I had a 6am flight and was so massively obsessed about the documents that I arrived at the airport without my suitcase, only realised I’d not put it in the car when I got to the airport car park 🤣🙈🤦‍♀️ Not even joking, I flew to Morocco in the clothes I was wearing and that was it, not even a change of underwear ffs lol. The moral of my story being that u can buy clothes and ‘stuff’, u can not get official documentation after leaving the UK. And the best part is I didn’t even care because I was going to marry my amazing man, my absolute soulmate and it’s all part of our story.

I sent all my documents ahead to be translated a week before, reputable translators will do this for u if you pay BUT they will only sign off and hand over the translated documents once they have seen the originals.

So...we did everything we needed to do in Rabat in a day, just like this...
***British Embassy, appointment at 10am, 12pm walk out with Certificate of non-impediment and Certificate of Nationality
***Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get both Certificates stamped, you take a ticket and sit and wait but u have to buy stamps as payment just ask and they will direct you where to buy
***Ministry of Justice to get ur Moroccan Criminal records check, they give u a ticket and u return after 3pm to collect. Cost is 30DH again payment is in stamps.
***Translators to give them all originals and any others that need doing, all translations must be in Arabic NOT French

Once u have all that ur done there and need to go to wherever u are getting married to do the rest. You will need a medical test, check with the town because we needed a medical including blood tests as that’s the legal requirement where we got married but in most places u can get away with a ‘Certificate of Good Health’ which is nothing more than telling a local doctor you are in good health and him signing u a piece of paper, minimal cost.

My advice is get a good Ladoul with good contacts and if u want it done quickly then be prepared to dish out backhanders like they are going out of fashion. It’s all about who and not what u know from this point on. My husband was amazing and dealt with all this without any thought or stress to me. It is a lot of to and fro, strong coffees and gritted teeth at this point but just smile and nod and complain never lol. 

We took everything to the Ladoul to check. Then went for the medical, blood tests then took the papers to the family court to submit the application, the following day sat all day waiting to be seen, which never happened. Then the weekend passed and Monday morning back at the court to see the judge who asked a couple of questions and passed the papers to be sent to the local police station. (We paid to speed up) waited all afternoon to be told the officer had been in a car accident (typical) then the next morning my husband saw the police and on my behalf gave all the answers to their questions and the papers were sent back to the court to be signed officially by the judge. At that point we were interviewed together by the judge who asked about my income and if we both wanted to marry, we had to have a translator present for me which we had to pay for of course. Then once they were signed off the papers were passed to the Ladoul and we could actually go and be married, YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! 🤩🤩🤩

I hope this info is helpful to those who were absolutely clueless like I was and if I’ve missed anything just post under here and I will help where I can.

Just remember, over all the stress and pressure this is YOUR STORY, let every problem that arises bring u closer and make u stronger and  if we can do it in 8 days it’s possible for anyone but BE ORGANISED and whatever you do, DONT FORGET UR DOCUMENTS, suitcase and all other belonging yes, documents and fiancé are necessities lol!! 🤣🙄🌪😎🤦‍♀️

Sorry Police Records  Check is ACRO not NARC too much visa info in my head getting mixed up with the marriage stuff 🌪🤦‍♀️🙈

Hi there,
When you have all the paper ready it take approx. three working days [our case we submit on Tues and had our registration and sign on Friday ].

I think all the paper is valid for two months from the date is been issued or signed by authorities.

Regards and best wishes
Salaam

Hi Nodandsmill4bb

Firstly congratulations on your marriage, may it be blessed with eternal happiness.

Secondly thank you soooo much for all the info.

I have a few questions aa I'm going soon God-willing.

1. If u take original docs, do u also need certified copies?

2. How much did everything cost roughly?

3. You said the ACRO needs to be in the last 30 days, I thought all documents had to be in last 3 months because of someone elses post. Please can you confirm whether all the other documents have to be in the last 30 days too?

4. When you finally got your permission to marry, how long was that permission valid for?

5. What documents did your fiance (moroccan national) need?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm worried as I will have 7 working days only. And if I have to return to UK I don't know if they will allow my fiance to collect the permission without me?

Also I'm assuming they keep hold of your original documents whilst you wait to be seen (which could be the following day so maybe it's best for me to submit certified copies instead of originals?)

Thanks again for the insight

Hi Mlidhi

Congrats on ur wedding mashaAllah. And so happy for u that you grt everything done in 3 days alhamdulillah.

Once u recieve permission to get married... how much time do they give u? Is there a time limit in which to get married?

Sorry I can't remember the time frame how long its valid for please check with any Moroccan Odal or official.

But I remember all paperwork is valid up to two months.

Regards

Okay thanks.

I will wait and see if nodandsmile4bb remembers

very helpful, thank you

Thanks for information as I m just starting

Salaams All

I just looked on the british embassy website in Rabat and there seems to be no appointment for the whole of 2018.

I called them and was told because Rabat are so busy, appointments for 2018 haven't been released yet so just have to keep checking daily. They will probably open up in the next few weeks.

Also, in case you don't know... the British embassy in Marrakech now issue the certificate of impediment. Have to make an appointment. This only started about 6 weeks ago.

They also have appointments for making certified copies of your passport... is that the certificate of nationaility? Does anyone know?

Hi Sa Watts,

See reply above by:

"Nodandsmile4bb"

07 December 2017 07:49:25

all the best in your marriage.

I am getting married soon there and have some concerns.

I believe i need a medical check up. what does that involve? Is there anything that can make the marriage get denied?

Also i was arrested once long time ago for driving with a suspended license that i did even know i had.

plz someone help me.

Hi Jojo, sorry for the late response I’ve been away so only just checked back in on here I will try and answer what uve asked hun. First of all, we did it in 8 working days so it’s definitely doable and from what I’ve read of your pistas you seem super organised so u have a good chance. First of all the Criminal records check is WITHIN A 3 MONTH period from date of issue, same as everything else, NOT 30 dayside I wrote above so please forgive me as I was jumping between forums answering questions and I got mixed up with the visa info I had just written before.

I took two birth certificate originals, you just pay for the second certificate u don’t have to pay the search fee twice so I would recommend that, u can also do that with ur criminal records check but I only needed one. By all means take certified copies of everything BUT see what I wrote above about certification, IT CAN BE SIGNED BY ANYONE WHO KNOWS YOU AD IS AN UPSTANDING MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY, don’t be paying for £30 for someone official like a solicitor to do it there’s no need, my best friend is a manager of a care Home and he did my religion statement, I didn’t have anything else done.

The total cost...in all honesty I have no idea, my husband paid the Ladoul, he was the biggest cost i know that but it’s worth paying for someone who is well connected especially if you ar tight on time. Be prepared to pay everyone something if u want strings pulling it’s just the way it is. My husb1d paid the police so I didn’t have to attend because I wasn’t very well and I know that backhander was €40 (euros), he also paid the security guard at the court to push it through quicker, then we had to have a translator in court for me who was also our witness so he was paid twice and I think he gave the translator who did the documents extra for her doing it quicker than normal.


This is the link to the website so u can check the documents for ur fiancée

http://www.service-public.ma/en/web/gue … edure=5521

I also saw a question about the medical somewhere, we had to have blood tests done becaus that was the law in Khouribga where we got married but that’s all it was and it was €40 each, I got told that they looking for STI’s and other diseases that can be passed on (because ur not legally allowed to sleep together until we’d), but how true that is I don’t know).

Basically you want to get ur fiancée to be making contacts in his town now, someone always knows someone who knows someone if u get what I mean? The more useful peop,e u have in your armoury the better to be honest.

Sorry I could answer more detail for u but my husband is diamond and just did what he did, and because he never wanted to worry me with stuff like costs he didn’t offer up the information and to be honest I was quite happy being oblivious.

It’s true, the process is often found to be stressful and time consuming and I’ve heard many peop,e find it frustrating, but just try and go with whatever happens and deal with it well. I always say that as long as no one dies every situation can be solved, if u don’t end up completing the process (but u will), then u will have to get back another time,and I know money and time and life at home is all a juggling act but that’s just the way it is. My husband always says this to me and I absolutely love it because it’s so true; THIS IS YOUR STORY, ENJOY IT, MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY SITUATION BECAUSE EVERY STORY IS DIFFERENT and all u can do is your best what will be will be. I was that obsessed with not forgot my documents that I forgot my bloody bag for God’s sake, I walked on the plane with my handbag containing the documents and the clothes I was wearing 🤣😫🤦‍♀️ But in the end, so what, it’s my story and at least I have a tale to tell ey?!

Good luck everyone I will keep everything crossed for u all the success!!

Jojojojojo2015 wrote:

Hi Nodandsmill4bb

Firstly congratulations on your marriage, may it be blessed with eternal happiness.

Secondly thank you soooo much for all the info.

I have a few questions aa I'm going soon God-willing.

1. If u take original docs, do u also need certified copies?

2. How much did everything cost roughly?

3. You said the ACRO needs to be in the last 30 days, I thought all documents had to be in last 3 months because of someone elses post. Please can you confirm whether all the other documents have to be in the last 30 days too?

4. When you finally got your permission to marry, how long was that permission valid for?

5. What documents did your fiance (moroccan national) need?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm worried as I will have 7 working days only. And if I have to return to UK I don't know if they will allow my fiance to collect the permission without me?

Also I'm assuming they keep hold of your original documents whilst you wait to be seen (which could be the following day so maybe it's best for me to submit certified copies instead of originals?)

Thanks again for the insight

Hello, I am planning to marry my Moroccan partner in April and I'm wondering about the certificate of religion and where I can get this from

Unless you are part of a church or something like that I don’t know where you would get it from Hun, I don’t follow the faith I was christened into, or any other for that matter. So I think the fact people call it a ‘Certificate’ of Religion is slightly confusing becaus it makes it sound like an official document u obtain from an organisation. It’s not. It’s more of a Religion ‘statement’ that you can write urself. If you write it in English u will have to have it translated but to be honest that’s a waste of time and money. Just get your fiancée to write it in Arabic and u sign it. This is what I wrote for mine which I didn’t even use in the end but it’s all you need to write 👇👇👇 Hope it helps hun 😇

Your Address
England, UK
Postcode

The date here

Dear Sir,

I wish to state that my religious orientation is that of the Church of England faith and confirm that I was christened as such at Calverley Parish Church in *** 1981

I intend  to keep my religious orientation.

Yours sincerely,

Your name here

Amazing thank you! My only
Problem is that I wasn't christened do you think this will matter? Also has anyone had a medical test In Marrakech, what does it involve?

nodandsmile 4bb

thanks so much nodand and congratulation wishing to you life full of happiness you did good thing to help many person here so if you dont mind I have a question who make me get too much stress I  am Morocaan and  my fiance is from yorkshire so we plan to married on march already we get affirmation of appointment in  embassy   rabat my question in moroccan court ask us to bring residence from uk and my fiancee told to we dont have any office where we can take this document
second question in moroccan court want COPY of  ID  card certified or copy of passeport certified so how can certified copy of passeport I read on ur post we can do it with lawyer ...please tell  me if they ask you to bring copy of ID card certified and  certificate od nationality can compensate copy of passeport certified other question did you translate  cerificate of affidavit and certificat of nationality  to arabic or french is acseptable
thanks  a lot waiting ur reply as is possible

Hello.
I finished all my papers in Marrakech about 2 weeks ago. It said I was supposed to provide i certificate of residence and religion but I never did then never asked for it. For the certified copy of the passport when you go to the embassy they give you a certificate of nationality this has your passport on there but other than that no I didn't get it certified. I would advise that if your fiancé isn't there more than 2 weeks to send all their papers to a translator one week before as this can take 5 days. When you go to the embassy you will get the affidavit and certificate of nationality which will cost you 1000dhs there must be translated into Arabic. These must be certified by the ministry of foreign affairs in Rabat. The only two papers I had in French which they allowed was my criminal record by the ministry of justice and my pregnancy certificate everything else was in Arabic. If you have any more questions feel free to inbox me

I wish you all the best and I hope this information helped

this is so educational ; hhhh

nodandsmile 4bb

thanks so much its kind from you to help me  its was useful  hoping the best for you

Need some advice

Hi All,

In terms of the police check... does it have to be a ACRO police certificate? The reason why I ask is because I had already paid and received a DBS certificate and not long sent it off to be apostille via the legalisation department (UK public official) I was unaware of a ACRO. I would be grateful if someone could please help advise?

Is there anyone who can help?

Yes it has to be a acro police certificate. DBS won't be accpeted

Oh no... more money to fork out lol

Do you know what the opening times for the ministry of justice in Rabat?

Also when I go to the British embassy in Rabat handing over my 3 certificates, which version do I give (English or the translated Arabic version) whereby they give me 2 certificates in return?

the ministry in justice in rabat open at 8. 30 minutes

Thank you very much samira 👍🏽