For Nigerians abroad or those intending to travel abroad, it may at some point become necessary to authenticate a divorce certificate prior to presenting same to the immigration authorities of the country in question. This is to demonstrate that you are free of any encumbrances standing in your way to legally remarry someone else in that country. This article explains the procedure and all that needs to be known about the authentication of divorce certificate in Nigeria, specially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is the body statutorily empowered to perform this function.
To begin with, individuals who are statutorily married in Nigeria can obviously not be permitted to marry again in the event that they relocate to a different country abroad. In order to clear the coast for them to marry again, they first need to divorce their current spouse and present proof that such a divorce has been lawfully carried out. This proof is evidently the divorce certificate or divorce decree issued by a competent court in Nigeria.
However, presenting the divorce certificate as it is to a foreign immigration or consular authority would hardly be enough, because the foreign authority does not have any way to verify the authenticity or validity of the divorce certificate, having been supposedly issued by a court in a different country (Nigeria). More so because of the high incidence of immigrants using forged or fake divorce certificates to marry abroad while still retaining a lawful marriage in Nigeria. This is where the concept of authentication (also known as apostille, or attestation, or legalization) comes in.
In order for the divorce certificate or divorce decree to be admissible or acceptable as legit by the authorities of the country where you intend to remarry, it must first be authenticated – or attested or apostilled – by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. This means that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will append its seal and designated official signatures on the divorce certificate to essentially legalize and validate it, thus making it admissible by foreign immigration authorities. It is only after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has authenticated the divorce certificate that it can be accepted abroad, thus clearing the road to enable remarriage if that is your objective.
To be clear, authentication of divorce certificate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ordinarily a slow, lengthy and painstaking process. After submitting your divorce certificate at the Ministry and making the official authentication fees payment, the long waiting game begins. The Ministry would officially need to first ascertain the validity of the initial marriage itself from the registry where the marriage was conducted, after which the Ministry will then need to verify the divorce proceedings and decree from the specific court that issued it. In true bureaucratic fashion, this process can take months and would certainly frustrate even the most patient applicants.
This is where Antarch Consulting can intervene. Using our in-depth understanding of the bureaucratic processes and bottlenecks associated with the document authentication procedure, we can save you the stress and delay and work to ensure timely authentication of divorce certificate and other documents. Our reliable end to end service means you don’t need to be physically present in Abuja, as you only need to send the document to us via courier and then we take things from there. This is helpful for Nigerians living abroad or outside Abuja who would ordinarily incur very costly expenses if they were to carry out this procedure by themselves.
Contact us to discuss how we can help you authenticate divorce certificate or other documents for use abroad.
