There is a particular quietness to the messages we get from couples marrying again. People apologise for their own history, as though it might be a problem. It is not a problem here, and the administrative difference is genuinely one piece of paper.
What Seychelles asks you for
The Seychelles half is the same for everyone. Two foreign nationals need a valid passport and an apostilled birth certificate each, plus an apostilled divorce certificate if either has been married before or a death certificate if widowed. The banns run for eleven days. The government fee is SCR 3,000 on Mahe, Praslin or La Digue. Two witnesses must be present and we provide them. The certificate is issued within twenty four hours of the ceremony.
The one extra document, by situation
| Your situation | What you add | Apostille |
|---|---|---|
| Divorced | Divorce certificate or Decree Absolute | Yes |
| Widowed | Death certificate of your former spouse | Yes |
| Name changed since birth | Deed poll or change of name certificate | Yes |
| Divorced and changed name back | Both of the above | Yes, on each |
The timing trap nobody mentions
Every one of those documents needs its own apostille, and each apostille is its own queue in your own country. Two people who have each been married before can easily be waiting on four separate apostilles rather than two, and they do not run in parallel unless you start them in parallel.
Several countries also treat documents as stale after six months. Czech couples in particular have to watch this, because the certificate must not be older than six months on the wedding day while the registry has thirty days to release documents. Order late and the window closes from both ends.
If a document is lost, or from a country you no longer live in
This is the most common real obstacle, and it is solvable. A decree absolute can be reordered from the court that issued it, and a death certificate from the register office of the district where it was registered. Both then need the apostille.
Where the divorce happened in a country that is not a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, the document must instead be authenticated by that country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tell us the country early and we will tell you which of the two routes applies.
Children from a previous marriage
They are welcome and nothing about them complicates the paperwork. Seychelles asks nothing about them for the marriage itself. Practically, the only thing worth planning is the hour of the ceremony, because late afternoon is kinder to small children than midday sun, and that happens to be the best light anyway.