Hi all
I wanted to write this post to explain the process that I went through in order to get married in Morocco, being a foreigner, in 2026.
I am a British citizen and whilst previously the process involved going to the British embassy and the ministry of foreign affairs both located in Rabat this is not required anymore. All the documents can now be obtained while you are in the UK.
In this post I will address all the documents that will most likely be required for a foreigner in order to get married in Morocco and how a British national can obtain them.
The first thing I would always recommend very highly to anyone looking to get married in Morocco is to ask your fiance to visit The marriage court and to obtain a list of all the documents that the court will require from firstly your fiance in Morocco being a Moroccan citizen and secondly yourself being a foreigner in this case a British citizen. In Morocco there are marriage courts (Mahkama tul Usra) located in most of the major cities and within these courts you will find the office of marriage. Obtaining a list of documents required from this office is critical as this is the guideline that the Udool will also follow. The Udool is the registry official that will make your marriage contract and submit it to the court.
Most likely the documents that will be required all the following:
Certificate of capacity (no impediment certificate)
Birth certificate
Police report obtained by ACRO
Naturalisation certificate
Certificate of Shahada (certificate of Islamic faith)
Employment reference letter
Last 3 payslips
If divorced then final order
If widowed then death certificate
These documents will need to be dated no more than three months prior to the date that you plan to get married.
Some of these documents will require an apostle, this usually takes two weeks, it is £45 per document, the process is all on U.K. gov website. Some of these documents may require a solicitor or a notary body to sign or notarise the document before it can be sent for an apostle. The guideline for each of these documents are very clear on the UK gov website as to whether they require a solicitor or a notary body to sign or notarise the document.
If you are unable to obtain your birth certificate you can write an affidavit for yourself. You will have to get this notarised by a notary body before you can get an apostle.
Certificate of capacity.
This document is obtained within the UK from your local registry office, you must give 29 days notice. The process involves making an appointment, visiting the registry office and filling in all the details about yourself and your fiance, make sure the details you fill in like name, date of birth, address, etc are all accurate according to the national identity card of your fiance in Morocco. This service is currently £42. After you have visited the registry office you can go back 29 days later to obtain your certificate of capacity. The next step for this certificate is to obtain an apostle and can be sent for an apostle once you receive it from the registry office.
If you have been married before and your marital status is now divorced or widow, you will need to provide the final order, previously known as decree absolute or the death certificate. This document will also require an apostle and may require a solicitor or a notary body to sign or notarise it first.
Birth certificate
This document is obtained from your local registry office, be sure to obtain the full version of the birth certificate rather than the summary. This document will require an apostle however, it may require a solicitor or notary body to sign or notarise it first.
Police report
This document is requested online using the ACRO website, it is approximately £70 and takes about two weeks for delivery. This document will require an apostle and can be sent once you receive it without any solicitor or notary body.
Naturalisation certificate
This certificate can be obtained from the UK gov website and will require a solicitor or a notary body to sign or notarise it before you can send it for an apostle.
Certificate of Shahada
This certificate can only be obtained by the Udool in Morocco. Some courts in some of the cities in Morocco may not require this if you are a Muslim by birth however, some courts are more strict and may make this mandatory. Check with your local court if this document is required.
Employment reference letter and payslips
This will be obtained from your employer, the letter in most cases will not require an apostle however check this with the local court in the city that you decide to get married in Morocco first.
Once you have obtained all of these documents and they have got the apostle if required, they will all need translating into Arabic using one of the approved translators in Morocco. The full list of approved English translators in Morocco is available on the UK Gov website.
It is advisable that you arrange this before you travel to Morocco in order to save yourself multiple trips. You will be able to send all your English documents to the translator, the translator will translate them into Arabic, you can ask your fiance or anyone else that understands Arabic to proofread them in order to check for any mistakes. Once you land in Morocco, you can go to the translator and show them the original English documents with the apostles in order to obtain the Arabic translations. Once you have this in your hand, you will require three more things in order for your file to be complete. They are:
Criminal record from Morocco;
This is something you can request online in the UK and collect from one of the major cities or from the court, it is a free service and you will need to show your passport in order to collect it. Be sure to get this stamped after you have collected it. Request it about a week before you travel so it is ready for you to collect once you arrive in Morocco.
Medical check from a doctor;
This can be obtained quite easily as there are many clinics/doctors around, it can be obtained without an appointment and usually within 30 minutes. The cost of this can vary depending on the city however it could be anywhere between 200 to 500 dirham.
Photocopy of your passport, including the stamp showing your entry into Morocco
You now have a complete file, which will consist of your English documents with the Arabic translations. It is advisable to make five photocopies of this file before you start the proceedings of marriage. It is also advisable to have 8 to 12 passport size photos for both yourself and your fiance as you will require to provide these in various stages.
The process for marriage in Morocco from my own experience can be done between 2 to 3 weeks however it will require you to keep on top of things, chasing people, doing a lot of running around yourself to save time.
The first step required will be to open your case at the family court. You can ask an Udool to do this for you or you can go directly to the family court as explained above and asked to open your case. The court will take the original file, your English original documents and the original translations from the translators. The police require one photo copy, the Udool will also require one photo copy and the judge’s office will also require one photo copy.
Once you have submitted a nominal fee for your case to be opened, your case is now with the court awaiting for the judge(Qadi) to sign off in order for to proceed to the next step. If you are persistent and willing to plead with the court nicely, they can get the judge to sign of the case within one day once the judge has signed off the case it can now proceed to the next step which requires a police interview.
You will be given an envelope which you’re not allowed to open, to take to the local police station to arrange for an interview. If they are not too busy, the interview can be the same day or the next working day. Once you and your fiance has both had an interview, the police will then send a report back to the court if everything is successful. This can take anything between 3 to 5 working days. Unfortunately, at this stage you are not allowed or recommended to pester or pleaded with the police to speed up as this could look bad.
If there is any problem the police will contact you maybe for further information however if the police send the report back to the court then it is successful and your case can now progress.
The next step in the process is to obtain a permission from the judge in the court for marriage. This again will require the judge to review your file and the police report and can usually be done within one day however will require you to be persistent and pester the staff at the court in a polite manner. Be prepared to lurk around the corridors, wait outside the office or in your car.
Once this permission has been obtained, the only thing left now is for the Udool to make the contract of marriage between yourself and your fiance. Once the contract has been signed by all of the parties then it will be sent to the family court for it to be registered. This can take anything between 1 to 2 days however once again if you are lurking around the corridor and the offices and asking the stuff nicely, they can do it within a few hours.
Congratulations you are now married and your marriage is registered at the Moroccan court. The only step required is to obtain an apostle on this marriage certificate before it can be used for U.K. visa purposes. There are many shops, usually around the marriage court that can help you fill in the form for the apostle for a small fee.
Obtaining an apostle in Morocco is much easier than in UK, it can be done within one day and is a free service. Be sure to submit it before 12 for it to be ready to collect by 3pm. Once you have obtained an apostle on your certificate be sure to have it translated into English using an U.K. Gov approved translator.
The best advice I would give anyone looking to get married in Morocco is to build a good relationship and rapport with the family court marriage Office staff. Obtain the list of documents from them and at every stage don’t be afraid to communicate with them explaining where you are and what is the next step. Even before you land in Morocco you can send the Arabic translations of all your documents to your fiance who can print them and take them to the marriage office to be verified. Some of the courts in Morocco are a lot more strict compared to the others, so may require an apostle on more documents. However, some courts only require an apostle on the certificate of capacity.
All the best.
Disclaimer: The marriage courts are not all the same in Morocco so the above process could be different. You may require more or less of the documents. The steps of the marriage could also differ. The above guide is in no way a complete and inclusive process and is only intended to guide.