posted
Has anyone else got married at ministry of Justice in Cairo? What an experience!!! Wasn't sure if I got married or arrested.
Posts: 26 | From: uk | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I know a girl who did this recently and I think she would agree with you 100%. She said at one point she thought her husband was going to hit someone and he is normally really quiet and calm.
What happened to you?
------------------ Jane Akshar UK Co-owner of www.flatsinluxor.co.uk Appartments and Tours in Luxor
posted
I was waiting in the waiting room for us to be called up and I could see all the women coming out looking so unhappy. I made a comment to my husband saying what's wrong with them, they should be so happy on getting married. Then it was our turn to go. The official who was to marry us, just shouted the whole thing at us like he was very angry with us, then he grabbed my hands and took my fingerprints and we left the room. That's when I wasn't sure if I had been married or they had just arrested me. My husband seemed quite oblivious to the treatment and to be honest I found it amusing.
Posts: 26 | From: uk | Registered: Sep 2003
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what kind of papers did you need???? Is this marriage recognized as legal in your country??
Thanks Azizah
quote:Originally posted by Gem35: Has anyone else got married at ministry of Justice in Cairo? What an experience!!! Wasn't sure if I got married or arrested.
posted
Really that's how it happened, I have an american friend in Alex and she said she had a much better experience too.
Posts: 26 | From: uk | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
azizah I had to have my passport, divorce paper cos I've been married previously, birth certificate (both of these had to be legalised first) and a permission paper from my embassy. I think that's all.
Posts: 26 | From: uk | Registered: Sep 2003
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i'm getting married in july, and i got a bit nervous about your story...
anyway.
you said that you needed your passport, and a certificate of your divorce. is this the same as certificate of noninpediment - stating that one is free to marry?
birth certificate is also needed, what about some paper stating your religion?
and doctor's certificate? not needed?
and him - what papers do the egyptians need? certificate of noninpediment and birth certificate - is that all?
sorry - what is the permission paper from your embassy?
i was told that i might need a certificate of custom - explaining how the laws are in my country. you didn't need that?
would you please tell me what exactly what you did, how long it lasted etc. how about the translations? were your papers in english? what do you mean by legalisation? where did you have that done? how about the translation of the marriage certificate which must be in arabic - where did you have that translated - to register it in your country?
you said that the official just shouted the whole thing. was it in arabic? was there someone to translate it for you? or do you understand arabic?
how about the witnesses? did you have two males/your friends there, or do they have witnesses/officials there?
i still have 2.5 months.. but i don't want to go to cairo in vain, because i don't have all the necessary papers.
i tried to send an e-mail to the ministry of justice - i wonder if they reply..
The procedure is more or less the same for all nationalities, but to be on the safe side you should check with your own embassy in Cairo to see if there are any special reuirements for you.
The Egyptian party will have to show his passport and ID card to the embassy. But you should ask him to check with the Ministry of Justice to be sure of their requirements.
posted
[thanks, when surfing in the net, i had found this british site, too.
i don't know if my country gives any divorce certificates. is that the same as certificate of noninpediment? if i'm free to marry, that's the most important thing, right? maybe it states that i'm divorced.. (cause i am)
passport and birth certificate for my fiancé is not enough for my country. maybe enough for the egyptian ministry of justice? in my country, one can be married to one person only, and i need a certificate that he is not married!
what nationality are you. I found now the information for my country, but it sounds quite complicated and I would also like to know from someone which experienced this whole procedure and can tell all about the waiting time. My embassy recommends to take a translater with because the marriage is held in arabic.
posted
You ought to allow 2-3 days for the procedure. It is quite complicated and you do need to check you have everything in advance and correctly translated. For example in UK you need to get your divorce certificate legalised by the foreign and commonweakth office BEFORE you come.
But and its a big but all the procedures are on your embassy website and it is the only place that has it exactly right for your nationality. Certainly not these forums. The British Embassy website also has recommended lawyers should you need any further advice and I am sure the other embassy's will have something like that as well.
------------------ Jane Akshar UK Co-owner of www.flatsinluxor.co.uk Appartments and Tours in Luxor
posted
We was there for about an hour but the 'marriage' lasted just minutes. It was all in arabic and I had to repeat words in arabic too. I know just a little at the moment so I had no idea what I was saying. We had the certificates translated after to English. I think the paper from my embassy stated that I was christian but I'm not sure. I think I didnt need my birth certificate even though I paid for it to be legalised. You also need 2 witnesses. My husband had to have a paper too saying he was free to marry.
Posts: 26 | From: uk | Registered: Sep 2003
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I am too going to egypt in June to get married to an egyptian I am from the UK. Does anyone know the opening times of the ministry of justice in Giza and the public notary office, Lazoughly square. We have an appt with the British Embassy on the 5th July and I am flying to Cairo on the 25th June and need to make sure all the necessary paperwork and registry marriage is completed before the 5th July. Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get the marriage certificate as we will need this for the interview,I want to work out the agenda for the embassy and then ministry of justice and then to have civil marriage in Notary office in time for interview on the 5th july.
Please can anyone help and explain the proces. I have looked at the website and seen all info. But would welcome experiences from others.
posted
Hi Marmani I am not sure of the opening times at the Ministry of Justice but I can tell you a bit about my experience when we got married in Cairo.Obviously though the Embassy is the best place to get info. If you can't get the info you need on the website you can always email them. They usually reply pretty quickly
On arrival in Cairo (on a sunday) I went directly to the Embassy and completed a form stating that I was not married and had never been married. This is known as a Statutory Declaration. After submitting the form a certificate is issued which usually takes 24 Hours.They took a copy of my passport but I think that was it. On the Monday I collected the Declaration and had a brief meeting with an Immigration officer who signed off the certificate but also gave me a 'chat' about the perils of marrying an egyptian . The same day we went to another government office to get the Declaration stamped.We then went to the Ministry of Justice to find out more about getting married and somehow we ended up getting married the same day. It was all a bit mad! You have to have two Egyptian male witnesses and you must have a translator either one of the witnesses can translate or you can pay for a Embassy approved translator (The British Embassy have a list on their website). The marriage takes place in Arabic and you will be required to repeat vows in Arabic. This takes about 5 minutes and is a bit of a non event! You may want to liase with an approved lawyer if there are any stipulatioms that you want added to the contract. We returned on the Thursday and collected the Arabic Marriage Certificate but it took a bit of palm greasing for them to turn it around so quickly. As you mentioned having an interview with the Embassy I take it you will also be applying for a UK Visa? Just for your info, they accept the Arabic Marriage cert as proof of marriage and they do not require it to be translated. Whether you decide to have it translated or not is up to you, your marriage is still recognised in the UK regardless. You may want to get it translated and then register it in the UK so that you can prove that you are married to say banks and Buiding societies etc. The other alternative to getting it translated is to have a civil marriage service in the UK in addition to the Egyptian marriage. I STILL have not had mine translated and registered in the UK so we still have difficulty proving that we are married. You would need to do this if you want to take on your husbands name.
the witnesses, were they your friends? or some officials from the ministry of justice?
you had to repeat something in arabic. didn't they translate it to you - you have to know what you are saying! how did you do - it is such a difficult language..
what's the interview with the immigration officer about??
posted
The witnesses were Male relatives of my husband and the Arabic was translated for me by a seperate translator.I had to repeat the vows in Arabic. There is not a great deal to say and they will tell you what to say slowly word by word. So don't worry about this.
When you mentioned the interview with did you mean the chat I had with the Immigration officer? Well, when I collected the Statutory declartion the immigration officer calls you from the waiting room and takes you to a seperate room, with glass seperating you where he signs the document in your presence. Once he has done this they usually talk about possible problems marrying an Egyptian. For example, they told me that they repeatedly have visits from Woman that have married Egyptians and it has turned out horribly. I was also told that theoretically if I married an Egyptian he could stop me leaving the country and if this happened there would be nothing they could do about it.They also told me marriage is no guarantee of a UK Visa for the Husband. Basically they try to scare you so that if you DO have any doubts or are rushing into it you may reconsider.
On to the name thing!! Well! I still have my maiden name and I know that in Egypt it is customary for the wife to keep her own name. My husband has about 7 names, the first being his own name, the second being his fathers, the third his grandfathers. Not sure about the other names - think they were just thrown in for good measure. Lets pretend my husbands name is... let me see.. Ahmed Ali Mohammed*. My husband hates having so many names so when we applied for his UK visa on the form we only put in the first two names (like an English style first name and surname). This name was then printed on his visa ie Ahmed Ali ( no other names to complicate matters) and this is the name that he uses in the UK on all job applications, with banks etc. In the UK he is referred to as Mr Ali by official people whereas in Egypt people call him Mr Ahmed??? Anyway, we intend to have children in the next couple of years and personally I do not like the idea of having a different name from my husband and children as in the UK it would look to people that we are not married just by looking at our names. I don't really want that. I am therefore thinking of changing my name in the UK so that we become Mr and Mrs Ali* . Confused? I bloody am!
* This name is made up by the way in case any of you have a husband with the same name and are thinking
Many thanks for you reply, it was really helpful. I need to get things moving if I need to get the marriage certificate in time. We have already submitted the application form in 3 weeks ago. So no problem there.
We are having problems with marrying in a church as my partner is a Coptic christian and recently returned back from Holland. He was not able to get the papers from the church in Holland to say he did not marry. Therefore, without this paper the father will not allow us to marry. We both want to marry in the church and really are in a dilemma. He is a chef and found it difficult to attend church therefore is not really known to the church there. However, they must have his name recorded if he was married. He says no way has he married in Holland and in his faith you only marry one time in the church. I have spoken to my father in the church in London who is going to call the father in amsterdam, but not sure how that will go. Worse coms worse we will have to marry in England after sorting out his visa here and then go back to holland to sort it out. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.
quote:Originally posted by Gem35: Has anyone else got married at ministry of Justice in Cairo? What an experience!!! Wasn't sure if I got married or arrested.
I had a faboulous experience getting married in Cairo!! Everyone was nice the two ladies and the guy that did all the stamping and the guy that's going bald in the back room to your right. They were ALL nice to me and my husband. The man with the white hair was shouting but when I started laughing...and then he just kind of looked at me and my husband said no...don't laugh he's serious...but it was funny maybe I was nervous I don't know but, then the guy that was yelling started laughing and he told me to turn the camcorder off. I didn't understand what was the deal with that because everyone else let us film inside but not the outside of the building..that was weird but other than that it was nice at the ministry of justice. That short guy with the glasses that sits in the first window at the Embassy was a butthead to my husband but extremely pleasant to me..mines went well.. but weren't there trillions of stamps and papers to sign????LOL Posts: 16 | From: america | Registered: Nov 2003
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Many thanks for you reply, it was really helpful. I need to get things moving if I need to get the marriage certificate in time. We have already submitted the application form in 3 weeks ago. So no problem there.
We are having problems with marrying in a church as my partner is a Coptic christian and recently returned back from Holland. He was not able to get the papers from the church in Holland to say he did not marry. Therefore, without this paper the father will not allow us to marry. We both want to marry in the church and really are in a dilemma. He is a chef and found it difficult to attend church therefore is not really known to the church there. However, they must have his name recorded if he was married. He says no way has he married in Holland and in his faith you only marry one time in the church. I have spoken to my father in the church in London who is going to call the father in amsterdam, but not sure how that will go. Worse coms worse we will have to marry in England after sorting out his visa here and then go back to holland to sort it out. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.
Many thanks
Since he's coptic as my husband is. You can get married in the church if he goes to his Godfather when he was baptised...the Godfather can sign for a paper that he has to get from the big church in Cairo..I'll ask my husband what's the name of the church.. But I know he can get the paper there take the paper to his Godfather and he will sign it as a statement saying he has never married this will be your husband's no objection paper. Take that to your father. It only took us about three days to get our wedding certificate translated but it took us a week to get our weddind certificate. I hope this helps.
Posts: 16 | From: america | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
there might be previous postings about this, but i couldn't find..
what does the egyptian law say about property? did anyone make a prenuptial agreement? how does this happen? with a lawyer?
does the egyptian law say that what the man owns is his, and everything that is in the woman's name is hers - in case of divorce? or is it half and half?
posted
He only needs his id card because everything about him is recorded on that including whether he is married already or not. You need loads of paper work because most European countries don't have a central register like this where you can check someones martial status.
All the other stuff can be easily included in your marriage contract so it doesn't matter what Islamic law says or doesn't say because your marriage contract has defined your situation I suggest you get advice from an independent Egyptian lawyer. Your embassy will give you details of one.
------------------ Jane Akshar UK Co-owner of www.flatsinluxor.co.uk Appartments and Tours in Luxor
posted
Just a quick point, yes it is possible to add almost any clauses to a marriage contract, however, you should bear in mind for it to be a legitimate contract Islamically all of the clauses should be in compliance with Islamic law and not conflict with it.
Posts: 4576 | From: Cairo | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote:Originally posted by newcomer: Just a quick point, yes it is possible to add almost any clauses to a marriage contract, however, you should bear in mind for it to be a legitimate contract Islamically all of the clauses should be in compliance with Islamic law and not conflict with it.
Good point.
Definately worth getting yourself a lawyer so you do it properly
------------------ Jane Akshar UK Co-owner of www.flatsinluxor.co.uk Appartments and Tours in Luxor
posted
my embassy is giving me a list of lawyers. the lawyer should know if anything is against islam!
what are things that should be mentioned there? in case of divorce, serious illness, death - what happens to the property. anything else? i can't believe that these things would be against islam. are they?
quote:Originally posted by Gem35: he grabbed my hands and took my fingerprints and we left the room.
sooo true i was the same and i got away wth saying the words in arabic (which if i remember rightly tranlsates to saying I ACCEPT YOU IN MARRIAGE) we got away with it cos they were rushing to get us out of there for closing and please anyone who is getting married make sure you have a stamp in your passport saying you have a residnce visa as this was why we gt married so late cos no one told us till we got to the minsirty of justice and then had to go accross town to get it done!!! what a day it was make sure you have something comfy on your feet put it that way Posts: 477 | From: lancashire england | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
There is no way husband can stop you leaving Egypt. A long time ago this was true but the law changed since then. You are free to leave anytime as long as your visa is in date. He can, however, stop you taking any of his children.
Posts: 160 | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Gem35: he grabbed my hands and took my fingerprints and we left the room.
sooo true i was the same and i got away wth saying the words in arabic (which if i remember rightly tranlsates to saying I ACCEPT YOU IN MARRIAGE) we got away with it cos they were rushing to get us out of there for closing and please anyone who is getting married make sure you have a stamp in your passport saying you have a residnce visa as this was why we gt married so late cos no one told us till we got to the minsirty of justice and then had to go accross town to get it done!!! what a day it was make sure you have something comfy on your feet put it that way
that happened to us too. We had to go to another building and only had like an hour to do this to get the residence stamp on the visa. Do you know how long that is good for 'cause I can't make out the date on mine. The website says a visitor's visa is good for 30 days I think but is this residence one different? Just trying to figure out if I'll need to purchase an additional one in July. Not a biggie but I want to be prepared.
Posts: 1808 | From: USA | Registered: Aug 2006
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To reuse a long visa you must get a reentry visa before you leave the country. If you have not got that then your long visa is no longer valid.
-------------------- Jane Akshar UK Co-owner of www.flatsinluxor.co.uk Appartments and Tours in Luxor Posts: 2791 | From: www.flatsinluxor.co.uk, Luxor, Egypt | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by shalik: hey is there a site that gives you directions and info on what is needed to get married in egypt?
Um this post is really old and at this time NO Americans can get legally married in Egypt.
Posts: 525 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2005
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hiya doodles when i got my residnce visa this was only for a month also cos it says on my marriage papers that i had residence till a month after i got it stamped
Posts: 477 | From: lancashire england | Registered: Aug 2006
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