Bonjour,
Je souhaite me marier avec mon chéri ivoirien l'année prochaine. Il réside en Côte d'Ivoire et moi en France (je suis en England pendant un an là).
j'essaie de trouver des infos ici et là, mais je me sens assez perdue !
Peut-on me dire concrètement les démarches à effectuer ? Que faut-il faire et ne pas faire ? etc...
Je n'a pas confiance dans les administrations, surtout lorsque voit débarquer un couple comme le nôtre (les administrations ne font pas confiance aux couples franco-africains). Nous avons déjà assez souffert (mais on est plus fort que tout cela !), et je veux pas que des fichus lois racistes nous brisent le moral et la vie. Nous avons un droit : celui de nous marrier et de vivre ensemble !! quoi que dise le gouvernement actuel !
merci grandement à vous.
PS : si certains souhaitent partager leurs expériences, n'hésitez pas aussi ! ;)
La première chose que je te conseille, c'est d'avoir un état d'esprit un peu plus cool que celui que tu as maintenant, et de te dire que les fonctionnaires font leur travail, pas les lois. La personne que tu auras en face de toi a un travail a faire d'une certaine façon, et si elle ne le fait pas, elle aura des problèmes, et toi aussi.
Et la deuxième chose, c'est de comprendre qu'il y a de bonnes raisons à toutes les questions qu'on va te poser, qu'il y a effectivement de nombreuses arnaques au mariage, où le conjoint français est soi victime soit consentant, et que le but de l'administration n'est pas de t'empêcher de te marier mais de faire le tri entre les gens qui veulent vraiment se marier par amour et ceux qui le font pour les papiers.
Si tu arrives à te mettre cela dans la tête, les choses se passeront beaucoup mieux que si tu arrives remotnée à bloc, sûre d'avance qu'on va t'emmerder, et que tu ne dois pas faire confiance à la personne en face.
Cela dit, voilà comment les choses se passent :
1. Demande de capacité à mariage
C'est un dossier qui est déposé par vous deux au consulat de côte d'iVoire, avec tous les papiers d'état civil pour vous deux. La liste exacte dépend des pays, donc envoie un fax, un mail ou téléphone avant pour savoir ce qu'il faut pour ton fiancé. Pour toi ce sera carte d'identité, passeport, bulletin de salaire, justificatif de domicile, acte de naissance avec mentions marginales, et si tu as déjà été mariée et divorcée, les papiers nécessaires.
A cela se rajoute un questionnaire, que vous allez remplir tous les deux, sur place, (il est obligatoire de se présenter ensemble), qui porte sur les circonstances de votre rencontre, et sur votre projet de vie. Il s'accompagne d'un entretien, c'est le moment où le fonctionnaire va évaluer votre intention de se marier.
Les critères sont des choses simples, depuis combien de temps vous vous connaissez, comment est ce que vous vous êtes rencontrés, est ce que chacun connait la vie de l'autre (le nom des parents, etc...), quel est votre projet de vie, etc...
A l'issue de cet entretien, la publication des bans est faite au consulat de côte d'ivoire, et pour toi au consulat d'angleterre. Moi j'étais aussi à l'étranger, cela rallonge la procédure d'environ 2 semaines.
Si le consulat pense que tout est OK, et que les papiers sont complets, après la publication des bans, vous recevez la capacité à mariage
2. Le mariage en Côte d'IVoire
Là il faut que tu te renseignes pour les papiers nécessaires. Il est possible de faire un contrat de mariage au consulat de France, ce que je te conseille.
3. L'enregistrement du mariage.
Une fois mariés, vous revenez au consulat demander l'enregistrement du mariage sur l'état civil français. Avant c'était le moment où le consulat pouvait refuser. Maintenant, comme il peut refuser la capacité à mariage, il y a peu de chances que l'enregistrement soit réellement refusé. Néanmoins, si c'est le cas, le consulat informe Nantes qui demande une enquête de police. A l'issue de cette enquête, le mariage est enregistré, ou bien déféré au tribunal d'instance pour annulation. La décision d'accepter l'enregistrement ou pas doit être prise dans les 6mois.
ok merci a toi pour tous ces renseignements.
Par contre, je ne suis pas du même avis que toi. les choses ne sont pas aussi simples et beaucoup de couples rencontrent des problèmes. Pourtant, ils n'avaient rien à se reprocher concernant leur réelle intention de se marier. L'administration est loin de faire toujours son travail et les abus se font de plus en plus nombreux. C'est un fait, le gouvernement français actuel n'aime pas les "couples mixtes" (j'ai horreur de cette expression) et essaie de tout faire pour que le moins d'étrangers possibles entrent sur le territoire français, politique d'immigration oblige. c'est du n'importe quoi car les mariages blancs sont moins nombreux qu'on puisse le penser. je pourrai te filer la source si tu veux.
Je trouve tout simplement inadmissible les abus de certains fonctionnaires durant les entretiens. Certains couples se font carrément humiliés, voire même insultés. Tout simplement parce qu'ils pensent peut-être à un mariage blanc. On juge notre vie à notre place. Qui peut réellement juger nos sentiments ? Savent-ils le passé de certains couples ? Leurs galères personnelles, à cela s'ajoute l'humiliation et les moqueries.
"le but de l'administration n'est pas de t'empêcher de te marier mais de faire le tri entre les gens qui veulent vraiment se marier par amour et ceux qui le font pour les papiers. "
Je ne suis pas aussi confiante dans le gouvernement français pour penser cela. Là haut, ils vont nous aider en luttant contre les mariages blancs ? Allez, on va aider les petits blancs pour ne pas qu'ils se fassent .... par les petits noirs !! foutaise !!
Plutot un moyen pour sélection les immigrés !! Immigration choisie et non subie !
La première chose que je te conseille, c'est d'avoir un état d'esprit un peu plus cool que celui que tu as maintenant, et de te dire que les fonctionnaires font leur travail, pas les lois
Cela peut faire la différence.
Un des amis de mon mari avait un dossier difficile, à peu près comme le nôtre. Le ton est monté, alors que nous sommes restés calmes. J'ai eu mon enregistrement en 15 jours, et lui en 8 mois.
Après, que la propagande anti immigration soit abusive c'est un fait. Mais cela ne veut pas dire non plus que les abus n'existent pas non plus de l'autre coté, et je ne parle pas de "mariage blanc" c'est autre chose : dans un mariage blanc les deux sont d'accord pour faire un faux mariage pour les papiers, et la partie française se fait généralement payer. Il y a aussi tous les cas où la partie française croit réellement que son/sa chéri(e) est très amoureux, alors que ce sont les papiers qui l'intéressent. Que ce soit une minorité ne veut pas dire que ça n'existe pas.
kikou je fesais le tour des forums et suis tombee sur celui la il a attire mon attention 😉et + encore ton appel a l'aide sa tombe bien j'etais moi meme il y a quelques temp dans la meme situation que toi et grace a des gens mais aussi a notre amour nous sommes a present mariez cela depuis le 26 avril de cette annee alor voila si je peux t'aider mon msn betty.boop_88@hotmail.fr 😏il te faut savoir que le parcourt et long et non sans soucis mais l'amour triomphe tjrs 😄😄😄courage a toi bise
slt sistacarole!!
ou en est tu avec la procedure du mariage???
je suis actuellement ds la meme probleme que toi.moi je ne c pas comment faire pour la procedure.combien de temps ca prend etc...
aidez moi svpmerciiiiiiiii
Bonsoir, j'a consulté ta réponse sur le sujet mariage d'une française et d'un ivoirien. J'envisage également un mariage avec mon chéri ivoirien. J'ai donc demandé à la mairie de ma commune de naissance un extrait de naissance avec mention "en vue de mariage" comme me l'a indiqué mon chéri. J'ai reçu mon extrait de naissance mais sans mention "en vue de mariage". J'ai téléphoné à la mairie qui me dit que cette mention n'est pas utilisée et que je dois fournir un acte de décès de mon précédent époux car veuve donc mention marginale : épouse ...). Peux tu m'expliquer le déroulement de la procédure détaillée pour constituer le dossier ainsi que les démarches à effectuer et enfin l'aboutissement du mariage (temps écoulé entre le début de la procédure et la reconnaissance de mariage). Merci d'avance. Cathy.
Hi everyone, could someone help me out? I can’t find a solution because I need to get married in France with my partner, who is Cambodian. Her birth village refuses to provide a certificate of custom—they just won’t do it. I contacted the Cambodian embassy in France, and they told me that her village’s town hall should just give her a document stating they can’t issue it, signed and stamped. So, my partner went back and asked again in writing, but they still refused. At this point, I don’t know what to do, especially since my partner has to come to France in September to get married at the town hall, and they’re asking for the same thing. Can anyone help?
Best regards.
My husband and I have just gone through this stage of a Franco-Togolese marriage—he’s Togolese, and I’m French.
Given how complicated things can get with the administration, I thought I’d leave this post here. If you’d like advice or want to learn from our experience, don’t hesitate to ask...
Hi, it's Joyce—I’ve got a little issue. I’d like to know if you need a passport to start the CCAM process at the French Embassy in Yaoundé, or if it’s better to do it when registering the birth. Thanks!
Hello,
my Indian fiancé and I are getting married in France in a few weeks. Like many couples before us, we had extreme difficulties finding out the steps to follow in India to obtain the necessary documents for our marriage. We received no useful information from the Indian Embassy in Paris. It took us hours of research on traveler forums to gather scattered information and piece together the puzzle. I decided to summarize here the steps that allowed my fiancé to obtain the required papers, so other couples can struggle a little less than we did in the future.
I hope this post helps!
Context reminder: the list of documents required for a non-EU national to marry in France (see also www.service-public.fr):
Certificate of Custom: This is an explanation in French of the rules governing marriage eligibility in your country of origin. I read that some countries include proof that the applicant is indeed eligible. This is not the case for India.
Single-status certificate/marital capacity certificate. This is simply proof that you are eligible to marry under the laws of your country of origin.
Birth certificate.
All these documents must be less than 6 months old at the date of the banns publication.
The birth certificate and the single-status certificate must be apostilled. This procedure is linked to the international Hague Convention, of which both France and India are members. The apostille is a kind of stamp affixed to an official document by the authorities of the country where it was issued, giving it legal value in a third country.
How we obtained these documents:
The certificate of custom is very easy to obtain if you already live in France. You just need to go to the Indian Embassy in Paris with the required documents and pay the fees. We received it by mail the next day. The instructions on the Indian Embassy in Paris website are very clear (spring 2019). See also the VFS Global website (the company to which the embassy outsources consular activities).
Obtaining the single-status certificate was much more complicated. In France, a birth certificate is enough to prove whether you are married or not, as annotations are added for every major life event. In contrast, the Indian administration, although it can prove that someone is already married, is unable to prove that someone is still single. The only way to resolve this is to produce an affidavit. It took several trials and errors before we succeeded, as the administrators we dealt with generally did not know the procedure. Here’s what finally worked:
Prepare the affidavit on 100-rupee bond paper (first party: signatory; second party: Sub-Divisional Magistrate) at the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s office in your place of birth. See Model No. 1 below. It must be signed by you and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. For my fiancé, the latter only agreed to sign after presenting a certificate from the Tahsildar of his birth Taluk stating that he knew my fiancé was still single. If you don’t know the Tahsildar well, it might be useful to first request such a certificate from the "village accountant" before approaching the Tahsildar. We don’t know if the process would be the same in other districts than my fiancé’s.
Attestation at the Regional Commissioner’s (RC) office. The Ministry of External Affairs will only apostille documents that have been attested this way. In our case, we found clear information about the procedure on the Regional Commissioner’s website (required documents, cost, bond paper value). The RC asked us to justify why my fiancé needed a single-status certificate. Such certificates are usually requested by people wishing to join the army, in which case the RC receives a request letter. I asked the mayor of my village to sign such a letter (see Model No. 2, which I wrote myself). I come from a very small town, which was lucky here, as the mayor knows both of us personally and immediately agreed to do it. I have no idea if it would be as easy in a larger town. Once the document was submitted to the RC, it was sent back to the administrator who issued it for authentication. This back-and-forth should not take more than 25 days, but it may be useful to follow the progress of the procedure by calling or visiting the offices of both administrations regularly.
Send the attested documents to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for apostille. In 2019, the Indian MEA only accepts apostille requests through private operators, whose list is available on the MEA website.
The birth certificate, once obtained from the municipality of your place of birth, follows the same procedure as the single-status certificate: attestation by the Regional Commissioner, then apostille at the Ministry of External Affairs.
Note: The Indian Embassy in Paris offers to issue a birth certificate. We recommend NOT GOING THROUGH THEM. The procedure is expensive, and they simply copy the information available on your passport. We seriously doubt the validity of such a document for marriage.
A few tips:
Obtaining these documents in India will require a lot of time, patience, and creativity! For us, more than 4 months passed between the moment my fiancé signed his single-status certificate and the day we had it apostilled in hand. In the meantime, there were dozens of phone calls and visits to various local administrations, a lot of brainstorming, and money wasted on canceled flights due to the monsoon.
If you have contacts in the local administration, don’t hesitate to use them. Also, if possible, closely monitor the progress of the procedures by calling or visiting the offices regularly, as mistakes are very common.
I recommend only requesting the certificate of custom once you’re close to having the other documents in hand, as it’s expensive, its issuance is very quick (at least if you both live in France; otherwise, I don’t know), and it’s only valid for 6 months.
All the steps for the birth certificate and the single-status certificate must be done in person, which can be complicated if you already live outside India. Some companies offer to handle it for you if you’re willing to pay. My fiancé bypassed the problem by designating his brother as an "Authorised representative" (a step taken at the notary of his birth Taluk). Once the single-status certificate was established in person, my fiancé’s brother was able to take over and complete the rest of the steps on his behalf. Finally, we asked the service provider handling the apostille to send the documents to our address in France via DHL (we don’t trust the postal service, as we’ve had mail stuck at customs for several weeks before).
My fiancé first tried to establish his single-status certificate at the notary of his birth Taluk. It didn’t work because the Regional Commissioner categorically refused to attest it. Indeed, it is generally forbidden to make any modifications to a document signed by a notary.
Once the birth certificate and the single-status certificate arrive in France, you must have them translated by a sworn translator registered with the Court of Appeal in your area. You can find the list on your Court of Appeal’s website. There are no sworn translators for all Indian languages! So, check beforehand if one exists for the language in which your certificates will be issued, or ensure they are issued in English.
Model No. 1 - Single-status certificate, affidavit
I, (name of applicant), son of (name of father) and (name of mother), with permanent address (address in India), solemnly affirm and declare as follows:
1. That I am a citizen of India
2. That I was born in (place of birth) on the (date of birth)
3. That I am holding a valid Indian passport bearing the number (passport number) issued at (place of issue) and valid from (date of issue) to (date of expiry).
4. That I am unmarried (single) and have no living spouse at present either in India or abroad
5. That I am eligible to marry an Indian or a person of any other nationality according to law.
6. That I am of sound health and in mentally fit condition
7. I further state that whatever stated therein is correct to the best of my knowledge.
I am aware that suppression of facts or furnishing false/misleading information is punishable under Indian law, under section 193(2), 199, 200 of the Indian Penal Code.
Solemnly declared at (place of signature) on (date of signature).
(your signature) (the subdivisional magistrate’s signature)
Model No. 2 – Request letter from the French mayor to the Indian Regional Commissioner
Dear Sir/Madam,
(English version below)
I, the undersigned (Mayor’s name), Mayor of the Commune of xxx, department of xxx, France, certify as follows.
Firstly, that
Mr./Ms. (Name of the Indian future spouse), citizen of India, passport No. xxx, issued in xxx on xxx, valid until xxx, residing at (address), INDIA,
and
Ms./Mr. (Name of the French future spouse), citizen of France, passport No. xxx, residing at (address), FRANCE,
have requested that I solemnize their marriage in my Commune under French law.
Secondly,
that French law requires me to request from Mr./Ms. (Name of the Indian future spouse) a certificate attesting to their single status.
Issued for all legal purposes.
(Place, date, stamp, and signature of the mayor)
Note:
Prepared on the town hall’s letterhead, directly in both French AND English to avoid needing a translator.
Hi there, please could you tell me how to arrange a marriage interview at the embassy? My fiancé has already been interviewed. Thanks to anyone who can help me out!
hi everyone,
I’m new to this site. Here’s my issue: I just got married in Cameroon to my wife, and I’m waiting for our family record book. After that, I’m trying to figure out what I need to do to apply for her visa. But I’d like her to apply for visas for her children at the same time so they can come with her—is that possible?! Do we need to get passports for her children, or is just the visa application enough? They’re 8 and 15 years old. Thanks!
Otherwise, I’d have to apply for family reunification, but she’d have to stay in France for 18 months before she can apply for her children’s visas—that’s way too long!!!
If anyone can give me some advice or help with this complicated situation, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for your help.
Best regards,
Hi, the situation is complicated...
My son would like to marry his girlfriend (married to a Filipino in the Philippines but separated for 14 years), who is from the Philippines... but... what complicates things is that she lives in Switzerland illegally—her visa expired after a divorce from a Swiss national, and she received a deportation order in 2022 but never left.
Just to clarify, she’s been working in Switzerland for 10 years and pays Swiss taxes...
Recently, she reapplied for a work visa to request residency rights so she could marry my son, but they refused, and she’s already received an order to leave the country... What can we do? We don’t know who to turn to
I was interviewed at the town hall of my place of residence on March 7, 2025. My fiancée still hasn’t been interviewed by the consulate. The question is whether I need to schedule an appointment for her interview or wait for the consulate to call. Thanks for your reply
Hi everyone, I need some help, please. My partner wants to send our CCAM file to the embassy in Yaoundé from France. We’re wondering if, with the pandemic, the file will even arrive and how long it’ll take. Would it be better to send it directly to the address in Cameroon? We’d planned to drop it off in March but couldn’t, and my interview is next month (even though I know it’ll probably be postponed). I’d really like the file to be in their hands before my interview date. Please help—what should I do?
Please, I need your expert advice.
I’m Cameroonian, married to a Frenchman of Cameroonian origin.
My husband just received a message saying our marriage certificate has been properly transcribed and that copies will be sent to his local town hall via diplomatic pouch.
I’d like to know the details of what comes next so I can apply for my long-stay visa.
Also, I’m about to get a passport—can I use my ID that still has my maiden name, or do I have to get a new ID with my married name before applying for a passport?
Basically, will getting a passport with my maiden name now cause problems later in the process? I really don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting a new ID right now.
Our best friend, who is Moroccan/French, wants to marry an Algerian woman. They’ve already met, and the first steps have been taken.
It seems like getting married under these circumstances is really complicated—has anyone been in a similar situation and could share some advice on the administrative side or the steps to take?
