Getting married in Turkey is a dream for many couples. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the required documents for foreign couples. We tried to simplifies the legal process by providing a clear breakdown of required documents for marriage in Turkey.
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We offer expert support to ensure a smooth and legally recognized marriage registration process. We help foreign couples navigate the legal requirements for a stress-free wedding.
What Are the Required Documents to Marry in Turkey?
Answering this question will help you as foreign couples understand how the whole process works, and help you to avoid making any errors that could compromise the whole process of your marriage registration in Turkey.
Let’s start with the basics for marriage registration in Turkey.
Requirements for Marriage Registration In Turkey can vary depending on where you come from and how soon you’re planning to marry, but as a general rule, all couples will need to supply the following documents for both partners:
- A valid passport and entry stamp.
- A divorce decree or death certificate if one or both partners has been married before.
- Original birth certificates for you and your partner.
- A certificate proving your current single status from your country.
- Health report
- 6 Passport size photos
As you can see from the above list, the requirements for getting married in Turkey are not as exhaustive or challenging as those for many other countries!
However, as is the case with anything involving legal paperwork, there are a number of additional considerations you need to take into account too.
For instance, depending on your nationality, there might be special documents required from the marriage office that need to be obtained from your consulate in Istanbul or Ankara.
You may also need to provide your original documents, undertake legalization of certain documents from your consulate in in Turkey, change the existing document format, and consider the validity period for your Certificate of Marital Status.
The Documents Everyone Needs to Submit in Turkey
In this section we will explain in detail about these required documents. Here we go:
A Valid Passport
If you want to enter or remain in Turkey and get married here, both you and your partner will need a valid passport.
As part of the documents requirements for Getting Married In Turkey, your passports must be valid for at least six months longer than the length of your stay.
If your passport has a shorter time remaining before it expires that your Certificate of Marital Status has, you might be asked to provide a new passport.
An Original Birth Certificate
A birth certificate is a formal document that verifies and documents the birth of a child, and this is one document that even adults need to prove their identity or place and date of birth occasionally.
That said, all people might need to supply their own birth certificate to get married in Turkey.
A “Single Status” Certificate
A Single Status Certificate or is known by various different names depending on the country issuing it; Certificate of No Impediment/ Certificate of Capacity to Marry/ Certificate of Celibacy/ Affidavit of Eligibility to Marry. Known by different names in different English-speaking countries, this document certifies that a person is legally free to be married. in Turkey, it’s called a “Bekarlık Belgesi” (Single Status Certificate); in the UK it is a Certificate of No Impediment, and in Germany, it is called a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung.
The certificate itself confirms to the relevant Turkish authorities that the holder meets all of the requirements to be able to legally marry.
The certificate needs to show your name, date and place of birth, current address, citizenship, and of course, marital status!
Additional Documents You May Be Asked to Provide
Requirements for Marriage Registration In Turkey can vary, and we can offer help and advice for your own personal circumstances.
Some couples will need to provide additional documents for marriage registration in Turkey.
Here’s some guidance on the additional documents you may be asked to provide:
A Residence Permit
Residence permits may be permanent or temporary, and some people may need a residence permit to get married in Turkey.
This might be a residence permit for Turkey itself, or for a different country from which residents are also allowed to enter Turkey.
A divorce certificate or death certificate
If either you or your partner have ever been married before, that previous marriage must be legally over before you can get married in Turkey.
This means you’ll need to supply either a divorce certificate (also sometimes known as a divorce decree) or a death certificate to prove that the prior marriage has finished and that you’re free to marry again.
Getting this right is really important, and being unable to provide a divorce or death certificate can stop you from getting married entirely!
We’ve handled and resolved a wide range of issues with death and divorce certificates from all over the world, and we’ll help you to get things right the first time.
Important Paperwork Considerations
To ensure a smooth application process and a problem-free marriage in Turkey, consider the following important points:
- Legalization of your documents at your consulate then the at the local Turkish governor office
- Translation of your documents into Turkish language at the local notary in Turkey.
- The format that your documents are presented in your country might be requested to be replaced by an accepted form by the marriage office issued by your consulate.
These three important points will be covered within the following section:
Legalization of Documents
Legalization of documents – known in some countries as authentication or notarization in Turkey – it is the process of certifying and verifying that an important document is legal and genuine, so that it can be properly recognized and used for its intended purpose.
All documents that were issued by another country must be legalized before they can be submitted in support of your marriage application.
One of the most common – and yet, easy to avoid – reasons for applications to being delayed or rejected is because of missing legalizations or attestation by your consulate in Turkey.
This is something that we have years of experience with, so we can help make sure that this doesn’t happen to you!
Documents Required to Be legalized
Generally, Single status certificates and birth certificates or capacity to get married or an affidavit of marriage all these for example need to be legalized, although this does depend on where they were originally issued and where you come from..
Apostille Legalizations for people from Hague Convention countries
If the country where your document was issued is a Hague Convention Country, you might be asked for an Apostille Legalization.
This is basically a universal legalization certificate that can be used across all Hague Convention countries to verify a document’s validity, without the need to have the document legalized separately in the country requesting it.
Legalizations for People from Non-Hague Convention Countries
If the country that issued your documents is not a member of the Hague Convention, the legalization process for your marriage application in Turkey will differ slightly.
Requirements vary, but we have extensive experience legalizing documents from around the world and can guide you through the entire process.
Translation Of The Required Documents in Turkey
Unfortunately, you can’t necessarily just submit your documents in their original language; you need to have them professionally translated into Turkish language first, depending on what language was used to begin with.
The Turkish Government only accepts documents written in Turkish language and authorized by the local public notary office.
if your documents are in any other language, you will need to get them professionally translated into Turkish language and notarized before they can be submitted.
In the meantime, any time-sensitive documents that have a fixed validity period might be running out of time, and so this is something you will want to avoid.
We are very familiar with meeting the requirements when it comes to translation of documents.
What is The Format of Marriage Documents in Turkey?
All documents are in paper format, the Turkish Office Marriage is not accepting documents in digital format.
All of the documents required to get married in Turkey need to be submitted as hard copies. You must hand in original legalized printed documents as part of your application.
This is another common stumbling block for many people who aren’t familiar with the exact legal requirements for getting married in Turkey, and one that can cause long delays in processing your application.
Our service includes checking all of your documents in full to ensure that they’re all valid and presented in exactly the right format, so that your application is processed properly the first time without delay.
Start Your Application with Confidence
Let us help you plan your civil marriage in Turkey. We save you money and stress by ensuring everything is done right the first time, avoiding costly delays and rejections.
Our services include organizing your documents according to the Turkish Marriage Registration Offices’ requirements.