Getting Married in Seychelles After a Divorce: The One Extra Document

Half the couples we marry include someone who has been married before. It changes exactly one thing about the paperwork, and it is the one document couples leave until last. Here is what the registrar needs, how to get it stamped in your own country, and how long to allow.

Seychelles does not care that you were married before. It cares that you are free to marry now, and the way it satisfies itself on that point is a document. Under the Civil Status Act both parties must be free to marry, and the Civil Status Office lists divorce certificates and the death certificate of a former spouse among the documents a foreign couple submits with the notice of marriage. That is the whole of it. There is no interview about the previous marriage, no waiting period we have ever had to apply, and no difference in the ceremony, the certificate or the apostille.

What “final divorce decree” means

The registrar needs proof that the previous marriage is over, not that proceedings have started. In England and Wales that is the final order, formerly the decree absolute, not the conditional order. In the United States it is the final judgment of dissolution signed by the court. In Germany it is the Scheidungsurteil with the Rechtskraftvermerk, the note confirming it is legally binding. In Poland it is the wyrok with the stwierdzenie prawomocności. In France it is the jugement de divorce with a certificat de non appel, or the notarised divorce by mutual consent since 2017. Every country has its own name for the same thing, the piece of paper that says the marriage ended on a date and nobody can appeal it.

A religious divorce on its own is not enough. A get, a talaq or an annulment from a church court proves nothing to a civil registrar unless the civil marriage was also dissolved by a court. If your previous marriage was civil, the divorce has to be civil too. If it was religious only and never registered with the state, tell us, because in that case there may have been no civil marriage to dissolve, and the document list changes.

Getting the decree apostilled at home

The apostille goes on in the country that issued the decree, not in Seychelles, and it is done by that country’s designated competent authority under the Hague Convention. Court documents often go through a different office from birth certificates, which catches people out.

• United Kingdom. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Legalisation Office apostilles the final order. It is done online and by post, and a solicitor or notary may need to certify the copy first.
• United States. The Secretary of State of the state whose court issued the judgment. A certified copy from the court clerk goes to the state office, not to Washington.
• Germany. Court judgments are apostilled by the president of the Landgericht for the court that issued them, not by the Regierungspräsidium that handles civil status documents.
• Poland. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles court judgments after the court confirms finality.
• Hungary. Court documents are apostilled by the Ministry of Justice, civil status documents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• France. Since 2025 apostilles are issued by notaries through the Conseil supérieur du notariat, replacing the Cour d’appel service.
• Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria. The county governor, the FPS Foreign Affairs, the district court and the district court respectively.

Allow two to four weeks for the apostille in most countries, longer in summer. This is the reason we ask for the scan two weeks before you fly and the reason we say send it first. Your passport and birth certificate are already in a drawer. The decree may be in a lawyer’s filing cabinet in another city.

Translation

The Civil Status Office works in English and French. A decree in either language goes in as it is. Anything else needs a translation into English or French, and the practical standard is a sworn or certified translator in your own country, whose stamp your registry at home will also recognise later. Polish, Hungarian, German, Norwegian and Turkish decrees all need this step. The apostille itself does not need translating, because its ten fields are standardised under the Convention. Send us the original and the translation together as one scan, and keep both originals in your hand luggage for the trip.

Names that changed

This is the second most common delay. A bride who took her first husband’s surname, divorced, and now holds a passport in that name while her birth certificate carries her maiden name. The registrar needs to see the chain, and the decree usually provides it because it names both spouses as they were. If your documents show three different surnames, birth, married and current, tell us which one you want on your Seychelles certificate before we lodge the notice. The certificate is drawn from the notice, and a name changed after publication means a correction and a lost day.

The same applies to a partner who reverted to a maiden name after divorce and has not yet updated the passport. The passport name is the one that goes on the notice, because it is the one at the airport and the one on the visitor’s permit. Everything else is explained by the documents behind it.

If you are widowed

Bring the apostilled death certificate of your former spouse, translated if it is not in English or French. It replaces the divorce decree in the list and nothing else changes. Couples sometimes hesitate to send this document because it feels like bringing grief into a happy file. It is a registrar’s formality and it is treated as one.

When the timing is tight

One groom wrote to us six months before his March wedding and mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that he had been divorced. Six months is plenty. Another wrote three weeks before an October date, divorced for three years, with the decree in Germany and no apostille on it. Three weeks is not plenty, and this is what we said to him and would say to you. Send the passport and birth certificate now so the notice can be prepared. Order the apostille the same day, by the fastest route the issuing office offers. Tell us the moment it is in your hands. Our team knows the Civil Status Office well and has, in genuine cases, been able to proceed while a late document was still in transit, but that is a conversation, not a promise, and it works only for couples who told us early.

The complete list for a divorced or widowed partner

1. Valid passport, with at least six months left on it
2. Birth certificate, apostilled in your country
3. Final divorce decree, apostilled in the country of the court, or the apostilled death certificate of a former spouse
4. Sworn translation into English or French of any document in another language
5. Passport photograph
6. For some nationalities, a certificate of no impediment or a police character certificate less than six months old, which we confirm against your passport before you gather anything

Scans first, originals in your hand luggage. Our documents guide has the full list by nationality, and our guide to the certificate and apostille timeline explains what happens to the paper after the ceremony, which is identical whether or not either of you was married before.