Getting married in the UAE is fine if you and your partner are both expats. There’s no law prohibiting marriage among expats. As long as you meet the requirements of the country, you can easily proceed with the formal ceremony in order to announce your legal binding with your partner.
Also Read: How to Sponsor your Family in UAE (Residence Visa for Spouse, Children, and Parents)
Whether you and your significant other have the same nationalities or you both came from different countries, the same procedure of marriage applies. Read on to know more about the process of marrying your loved one in the UAE.
What are the requirements needed to get married?
Actually, the requirements depend on the nationality of the bride and groom. Here we summarized the common documents requested by the authority when filing for marriage.
Requirements for brides
- The original and photocopy of passport
- The original and photocopy of the UAE visa
- The original and photocopy of Emirates ID
- Passport-sized pictures
- Birth certificate issued by the home country
- Affidavit of consent, which should be attested by the UAE embassy and the local department of foreign affairs in the home country of the bride.
- Affidavit of consent in legal Arabic translation, which should be attested by the UAE Ministry of Justice and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Certificate of No Marriage/CENOMAR, which should be attested by the UAE embassy and the local department of foreign affairs in the home country of the bride.
- Certificate of No Marriage/CENOMAR in legal Arabic translation, which should be attested by the UAE Ministry of Justice and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Pre-marital medical certificate
Requirements for grooms
- The original and photocopy of passport
- The original and photocopy of the UAE visa
- The original and photocopy of Emirates ID
- Passport-sized pictures
- Pre-martial medical certificate
Note that these requirements are based on an example wherein the bride is a Filipina, Roman Catholic and the groom is an Egyptian, Muslim. These may be subject to change depending on what your country can issue to you to legally support your marriage.
A step-by-step guide to getting married in the UAE
1. File a request to get your original birth certificate and CENOMAR from your home country.
This step-by-step guide basically covers how you can request for your legal documents before you undergo a civil marriage in the UAE. As for the first step, you need to ask a family member of yours to get an original copy of your birth certificate and CENOMAR from your home country.
After getting them, you need to deliver both documents to the UAE embassy and local department of foreign affairs in your home country to get them attested. This process usually takes 1-2 weeks. Make sure to ask your relative to follow up and monitor the attestation.
2. Prepare the affidavit of consent if the bride’s father can’t be physically present during the wedding.
In the UAE court, no matter what your age is, your father needs to be physically present during a civil wedding. If it’s not possible, then you should provide an affidavit of consent containing the following details:
- The bride’s father’s full name and passport number
- The bride’s full name and passport number
- The bride’s father’s statement that his daughter has never been married or is available to marry.
- The groom’s full name and passport’s number
- The Wali’s full name and passport number. Note that the Wali serves as a legal guardian in the absence of the bride’s father.
If the bride’s father is dead already, the bride needs to provide the death certificate as well.
While preparing the affidavit of consent, make sure to have it notarized by your lawyer.
3. Get your notarized affidavit of consent attested in a regional trial court.
This is the next step once your notarized affidavit of consent is ready. Your lawyer can assist your father to make a personal appearance before the Regional Trial Court. After that, you will receive a certificate of authority for a notarial act as evidence of attestation. It will be attached to the affidavit of consent.
4. Get your affidavit of consent and CENOMAR attested by the local department of foreign affairs and the UAE Embassy in your home country.
Again, you can ask your family member to do this for you if you are currently in the UAE. You need to bring your documents first to your local department of foreign affairs, then to the UAE embassy in your home country. You can avail of full document attestation services if the couriers in your home country offer that. Usually, a full document attestation service is the full package already, up until the documents are delivered to you in the UAE. Don’t forget to ask your courier about this.
5. Get legal Arabic translation of your CENOMAR and affidavit of consent and have them authenticated.
Arabic is the language in the UAE, thus, you need to translate your marriage documents and have it authenticated by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The fees for translation vary and this should be done by a court-authorized translator.
Once translated, go to the nearest MOFA Attestation Center and pay AED 160 per document.
6. Get your pre-marital medical test and have it authenticated.
The purpose of this pre-marital medical test is to ensure that the health of the couple is in good condition. It also helps them assess if they are good to have children. To get your pre-marital medical test, you need to go to one of the accredited health centers in the emirate where you are getting married. Just bring your original and photocopy of Emirates ID and 2 passport-sized pictures.
The rates for pre-marital medical tests vary. If you will get it from Al Waqtaa Healthcare Center, the fees are AED 434 for brides and AED 382 for grooms.
Blood pressure checks, height, and weight measurements, and blood extraction are usually done during the medical exam. After all the tests are done, you will have to wait for 3 days to claim it.
Once you have the medical tests, you can now bring them to any court in the UAE so the UAE Ministry of Justice can attest it. The fee per document is AED 50.
7/ Book your schedule with the UAE courts.
The final step is to book your schedule with the UAE courts. You must have a definite date so you can call the Courts and make an appointment with a Mazoun—someone who organizes Sharia Weddings.
You will be given an option to get married inside the court and choose a schedule between 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM or outside the court between 2:00 PM to 9:00 PM. You will be responsible for the venue if you opted for the latter.
The marriage fees are AED 300 for ceremonies done inside the court and AED 500 for ceremonies outside the court.
Final Thoughts
The process may sound complicated but if you will follow what’s written on this blog, you won’t have to go through so much stress. When you are in the final step, don’t forget to bring all the requirements you have.
Make sure to complete every requirement including the authentication and attestation. Marriage is a sacred ceremony and here in the UAE, it’s not that expensive to do it.
