This article clarifies all you need to know about the authentication of single status certificate in Nigeria. Depending on your gender and country of residence, immigration authorities may require you to authenticate your bachelorhood certificate or spinsterhood certificate in order to be eligible to marry a citizen or any other resident of that country.
Single Status Certificate Explained
For Nigerians residing abroad (or intending to travel abroad) who plan to get married in their foreign country of residence, one of the most important documents you many need to provide is known as the single status certificate.
The single status certificate basically proves that you are currently single and not legally married to someone else in your home country of Nigeria.
As you may know, bigamy is a serious offence in most countries, so you can only be permitted to get married to a citizen of that country if you can prove that you are not legally married to another person back home in Nigeria.
This is the essence of the single status certificate, as it indicates to the immigration and marriage registration authorities of your country of residence that you are legally single in Nigeria and can thus be allowed to marry their citizen or any other resident of that country.
For a man, the single status certificate to be obtained is generally called bachelorhood certificate. This provides evidence that you are a bachelor back home in Nigeria, and can therefore be allowed to marry a wife in your foreign country of residence.
For a woman, the single status certificate in this case is typically known as spinsterhood certificate. This proves that you are unmarried or have no legal husband in Nigeria, and can be permitted to legally marry a husband in your country of residence abroad.
Process to Obtain a Single Status Certificate in Nigeria
The procedure for obtaining a spinsterhood or bachelorhood certificate in Nigeria involves both a High Court and a Local Government council authority, and these two steps are summarized as follows:
- Applicants must start the process by deposing to a Sworn Affidavit of Bachelorhood or Affidavit of Spinsterhood as the case may be at a High Court in Nigeria.
- The Sworn Affidavit should subsequently be submitted to a Local Government Area Council along with an application to obtain the single status certificate. The Local Government Area council would then perform necessary validations and subsequently issue the single status certificate, typically in the form of a letter of bachelorhood or letter of spinsterhood.
There is an important point to note about this process if you’re a Nigerian resident abroad: It is not compulsory that you must swear to the affidavit of single by yourself at the High Court. In fact, doing so may raise suspicion by the immigration authorities of your country of residence, especially if all evidence shows that you were not physically present in Nigeria on the date the Sworn Affidavit was issued by the High Court.
Therefore, it is often more acceptable for one’s parent (Father or Mother) to serve as the deponent of the affidavit of single status in the High Court (see sample affidavit below). The parent would essentially declare under oath that as your father or mother, they affirm that from when you were born till date, you have never been married and that as such, you are free to marry anyone of your choice.
Also, when submitting the affidavit of single status to the Local Government Area council, you may be required to provide back up documents such as national Identity card or your international passport, birth certificate, proof of change of name if applicable, and evidence of place of residence.
However, obtaining both the affidavit of single status and the single status certificate is not enough. You still need to carry out a procedure known variously as attestation, apostille, legalization or authentication of single status certificate at Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja before the spinsterhood or bachelorhood certificate can be accepted abroad.
For example, for Nigerians living in the Netherlands, both the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (known as IND) and the Registrar of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (known as ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand) would require you to submit only affidavit of single status and single status certificate that has been duly authenticated by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This requirement is the same for most immigration and marriage registrar authorities of countries across Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East.
Procedure for Authentication of Single Status Certificate
The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja is the only authority empowered by law to authenticate documents meant to be used abroad. Thus, after obtaining the affidavit of single status and the letter of bachelorhood / spinsterhood, you must submit these documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for authentication or apostille, depending on the applicable nomenclature preferred by the immigration authorities of your country of residence.
When submitting the single status affidavit and certificate, you would be required to pay the official authentication fees charged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria at designated banks and then follow the Ministry’s instructions as to when the process might be completed and when you should return to collect the documents.
This process is not exactly straightforward, as it ordinarily entails the Ministry of Foreign Affairs verifying and confirming that the affidavit is genuine, and that the bachelorhood or spinsterhood certificate was validly issued by the said Local Government Area council.
Antarch Consulting can help you navigate the difficulties of the entire process, by providing expert guidance on obtaining the single status certificate and authenticating it at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To discuss your requirements and what assistance you might need us to render, kindly CONTACT US.
