PoandBoo

Hi everyone,

I could really do some some helpful advise. Me and my husband are both UK born muslims. We went back to UK last week to get married. We had only the muslim marriage ceremony (with certificate) and not the civil ceremony as we did not have enough days to go through the process of first giving intention to marry then waiting the required time before actually having the ceremony.

Now we are both back in Dubai and I would like to get onto his visa. The marriage certificate needs to be attested I believe but how will I get this done? I highly doubt that FCO and UK embassy will legalise a muslim marriage certificate?

Any suggestions?

norsk

you are not legally married with just the religious wedding certificate. i believe you will need to get it done properly (ie registry office), but whether you can do it at the embassy in AD/Dubai or need to go back to the UK is a good question. why don't you ring up the embassy and ask them?

Oyibopeppeh

Since you are both British citizens, you were aware that only an officially recognised wedding certificate is acceptable, so why didn't you plan for the obvious?

Sorry-O

There are no short cuts here, neither the FCO or British Embassy will attest a document which is not recognised as valid. Go back and do it again.

PoandBoo

yes thats correct but we werent aware that the marriage certificate would need attestation therefore we assumed (our fault) that a muslim marriage certificate would be accepted here without a problem.

Spugsy

Then you assumed wrongly.

Ramadan Kareem.

seven seas

Try to get married here- legally.

hoofie2002

There is one possibility. My wife and I were married in Jamaica and were told later on in the UK that if we wished we could have the marriage officially registered in the UK [not quite sure what that meant but it was 11 years ago!]. I'm not familiar with the paperwork aspect of a Muslim marriage in the UK - did you receive some paperwork ?

It might be worth digging around a bit more. Also go and speak to the Consulate, they might be able to point you in the right direction. As a UK citizen they are there [in theory anyway although it doesn't always appear that way] to help you.

I would presume the other option is get a quick Muslim marriage in Dubai just to make sure you don't get any hassle from the authorities.

Good luck anyway

norsk

Getting a marriage certificate from abroad registered in the UK is fine and everyone who gets married outside of the UK is apparently advised to do so, but not sure what it gets you. In a similar way you can register your child who was born abroad officially in the UK (at a cost of over 100 quid), but it is totally vague what the benefits are if any at all. However I digress...

A muslim wedding in the UK cannot be registered. It is not a legal contract and is performed by people who are not officially recognised. In effect the certificate you receive is worth nothing more than if the two people promised to be together for life in their kitchen with the cat present and wrote something down on kitchen towel...I'm afraid if you thought this was sufficient to be recognised as married legally you are a bit dim. Sorry I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Like I said before you can try to contact the embassy and ask if they can perform a civil ceremony at their premises. I believe this can be done, at least I know the Norwegian embassies and consulates do this for their citizens.

Alternatively look into what was mentioned about getting married religiously here, but be aware that again this will not be legally valid in the UK so for tax purposes etc you will still be considered single.

Bahtatboy

My wife and I were "traditionally" married in my in-laws front room in Japan with my Minolta 9000 as our witness (they didn't have a cat). But legally that meant nothing. So the next step was to get legally married, which involved a bit of paperwork at the local government office, which got us a Japanese marriage certificate. That got attested (or similar) and translated at the UK Embassy.

The UK Embassy here in UAE should be able to advise if a) you could get married here under UAE law and then have the resultant paperwork attested or whatever in order for it to be recognised in the UK, or b) you could get married at the UK Embassy.

But surely it would be simpler to get hitched properly back in UK.

Good luck, congratulations on your semi-marriage, and Ramadan Kareem

Spugsy

How many times you been married to the same person??

Jim Smith

The UK Embassy here in UAE should be able to advise if a) you could get married here under UAE law and then have the resultant paperwork attested or whatever in order for it to be recognised in the UK, or b) you could get married at the UK Embassy.

But surely it would be simpler to get hitched properly back in UK.



Think there are two problems there. First I don't believe British Embassy do weddings any more and haven't for some years.
Second to get married in UAE you have to be residents?

Blue Cat

rdeleonph

Ramadan Kareem