By country

Marrying here, and making it count at home

The islands are the easy part. Your own country is the part nobody warns you about.

The paperwork Seychelles asks for is the same whoever you are. What changes, enormously, is what your own government wants afterwards. These guides are written per country, from the real rules, with the timelines that actually apply.

Marrying here, and making it count at home

Nothing on this page is about Seychelles being difficult, because it is not.

Marrying here as two foreigners takes two documents and eleven days. The reason these guides exist is the other end of the journey. France can take six months before you even fly. Spain can take a year afterwards. Italy quietly registers you under a property regime you did not choose. None of that is on a wedding brochure, and all of it is knowable in advance.

What is identical for everyone

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.

If a supplier tells you something different about any of that, ask them which government document they are reading. All of it comes from the Civil Status Office and every guide here links to the original.

What changes by country

Three things, and they are the reason these pages are separate rather than one long list.

CountryThe step at homeRealistic timing
United KingdomNothing to registerNone
GermanyEhefaehigkeitszeugnis first, then name declarationWeeks
FranceCCAM from the Embassy in Mauritius, then NantesUp to 6 months before
ItalyTrascrizione via the Embassy in Nairobi2 to 4 months
SpainRegistro Civil, apostille and sworn translationCan exceed a year
CzechiaThe special registry in BrnoSeveral weeks
PolandUmiejscowienie at the USCWeeks
NetherlandsMunicipal registration, compulsory for residentsWeeks
BelgiumLegalisation, sworn translation, then recognitionWeeks to months
UAE and the GulfMFA, UAE Embassy, then MOFA10 to 14 working days
IndiaVia the Indian Embassy, apostille and authenticationVaries

The one instruction that applies to all of you

Do not fly home the morning after the wedding. Before you leave, the certificate needs the apostille from the Seychelles Supreme Court, and a Letter of Authentication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where your country asks for one. Chasing an apostille afterwards from the other side of the world is the single most avoidable misery in this whole process.

Find your country

Guests seated on the sand for a ceremony under a floral archFrom the United Kingdom

Marrying in Seychelles from the UK

The easiest case in this whole section. Nothing to register at home, and one open question about the CNI.

7 min read Bride and groom on a green garden path in dappled lightFor Indian couples

A Hindu wedding in Seychelles

The civil marriage has to come first. Everything else, the mandap, the pandit and the multi-day functions, follows from that one rule.

9 min read A registrar conducting the ceremony at a table on the grassThe legal minimum

The legal-only wedding

For couples who want the registration and nothing else, and resent being sold a function they never asked for.

6 min read The couple at a decorated table on a lawn above the seaA second marriage

Marrying again, divorced or widowed

One extra apostilled document, and a great deal less fuss than people fear.

6 min read A couple on a small cove beach framed by palms and graniteFrom Spain

Marrying in Seychelles from Spain

Registration is compulsory and the Registro Civil Central can take more than a year. Start it the week you land.

7 min read A couple close together on a small beach between granite headlandsFrom Czechia

Marrying in Seychelles from Czechia

Everything funnels through one office in Brno, and your documents expire after six months.

7 min read The bride and groom on the sand with a wooded islet behindFrom Poland

Marrying in Seychelles from Poland

Umiejscowienie at the USC, a sworn translator, and one surprise about the language of your own ceremony.

6 min read A couple on the sand in front of white drapes and greeneryFrom the Netherlands and Belgium

Marrying from the Netherlands or Belgium

Dutch couples are being told two different things. Belgium has the strictest chain we found anywhere.

7 min read A toast under a draped four post canopy on the beachFor UAE and Gulf residents

Attesting the certificate in the UAE

Four steps, in one order, and the marriage is usable for a spouse visa. Get the order wrong and you start again.

7 min read
Sources

Where these facts come from

  1. Getting Married Division of Civil Status, the document lists.
  2. Marriage Registrar FAQ Division of Civil Status, the official fee schedule.
  3. Standard Operating Procedure for Civil Marriages Involving Two Foreigners Department of Immigration and Civil Status, 1 April 2025.

If your country is not here yet, send us your two nationalities and we will tell you exactly what it asks for, free and with no obligation.

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