Here at Getting Married In Turkey, we’ve created this comprehensive guide about the required documents from foreigners to register their marriage in Turkey. 

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.

Below we will provide answers to the most commonly asked questions we receive from couples about the required documents to get married in Turkey, and offer some direction on where to go if you need further help or advice. 

Documents You and Your Partner Must Have

Valid Passport and Entry Stamp

The only document required for everyone. non-residents must show a passport with valid visa translated into Turkish by a certified notary in Turkey

Original Birth Certificate

Your birth certificate is very necessary to prove your father and mother names as well as your place and date of birth. Translated into Turkish by a certified notary in Turkey or the Turkish embassy or consulate in your country

Single Status Certificate

A certificate proving your current Single Status from your country of origin. In all cases your single status certificate is a must. Monogamy is an essential principle of Turkish family law and anyone currently married may not be married in Turkey

Health Certificate

Issued following a medical examination at the State Medical Institution specified by the chosen registry office. Blood tests are taken to check for contagious diseases.

Photos

six passport-size photos are required for each partner.

Accommodation Document

Foreign couples not resident in Turkey must provide a letter of accommodation written by the hotel stating the duration of stay and departure date

Documents You and Your Partner Might Need

A Valid Visa

If one or both partners is required a Visa to enter Turkey.

A Residence Permit

If one or both partners live in a different country than where you are a citizen.

A Divorce Decree Or Death Certificate

If one or both partners has been married before.

 Deed Poll

If the birth name has been officially changed

Adoption Certificate

If adopted

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For you who wish to understand the above requirements in depth, Read on to learn more.

What Documents Do I Need to Marry 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 required documents 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.

Additional factors to consider regarding the documents required to get married in Turkey

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.

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!

Other Documents You May Need To Meet The Requirements For Marriage In Turkey

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 required to get married in Turkey 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.

The requirements to get a residence permit for any given country vary depending on the country in question, and depending on your own circumstances, some might have fewer barriers for you than others.

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.

Who needs a divorce decree or death certificate to get married in Turkey?

If you and/or your partner had a previous legal marriage

• If you or your partner have been legally married before – in any country – you will need to provide a divorce certificate or death certificate, proving in law that the marriage has been dissolved by divorce or death.
• If you or your partner have been married and divorced or widowed more than once, you only need to provide the most recent divorce or death certificate, not those for the prior marriage(s) too.
• If you’ve already been married to and divorced from the same person you’re planning to marry now, you will both need to provide a copy of your individual divorce certificates; you can’t just share the same one!

If you and/or your partner previously had a religious, but not legal, marriage

• If you or your partner were previously married to someone else in a union recognized by your religion but not by the law, you don’t need to provide a death or divorce certificate to get married in Turkey.
• If you and your partner are married to each other under a union recognized by your religion but not by the law, the good news is that you don’t have to divorce from that union to marry each other under Turkish law!

Does a death certificate or divorce certificate need to be verified or certified before submission?

If you do need to provide a death certificate or divorce certificate as part of the requirements to get married in Turkey, you may need to have the certificate legalized first.

Other Important Considerations

So, now you’ve got all of the documents you need; you can just post them off with your application, right?

Wrong! You’re almost there, but there are a few other considerations you need to bear in mind too, to ensure your application goes smoothly and you’re permitted to get married in Turkey without any problems. These are:

• Translation of your documents at local notary in Turkey.
• Legalization of your documents at your consulate then the at the local Turkish governor office
• 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.
• The validity period for your Certificate of Marital Status.

These four things will be covered within the following section:

Translation Of The Documents Required marriage 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.

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.

Getting Married In Turkey is very familiar with meeting the requirements when it comes to translation of documents.

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.

Legalization of Documents

Legalization of documents – known in some countries as authentication or notarization in Turkey – 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.

Some documents required to get married in Turkey that were issued by another country may have to 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 Getting Married In Turkey has years of experience with, so we can help make sure that this doesn’t happen to you!

What documents required to get married in Turkey need 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 Hague Convention country, you need to go through a slightly different process to get your documents legalized as part of your application to get married in Turkey.

What is required for this can vary, but Getting Married In Turkey is fully experienced in the legalization of documents from all over the world, and can guide you through the process from start to finish.

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.

Seeking Assistance with Marriage in Turkey

We can help in planning your civil marriage in Turkey; just send us a message at the end of this section.

We are available to assist you with the entire civil marriage registration process.

Ultimately, we can actually save you money by making sure you get things right the first time, and don’t suffer from the financial (and emotional) impact of avoidable delays or application rejections.

We are simply committed and highly experienced professionals with a proven track record of thousands of successful marriage applications made with our support and guidance.

Our goal at Getting Married In Turkey is to provide excellent customer service with a personal touch, and to ensure that your plans to get your marriage in Turkey registered without stress, delays, or any other avoidable problems.

if you’re ready to begin your application supported by experienced professionals, contact us to get started today:

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