Legal Wedding In Turkey: All You Need To Know

Hosting a luxury destination wedding in Turkey is a dream for many couples and it requires people to comply by the legal wedding requirements in Turkey. Turkey boasts of beautiful sites, beaches, mountains, resorts, and wonderful cities- all of these sites are often preferred by couples.

As per the Turkish Marriage Legislation and regulations, a Turkish national and a foreigner or two foreigners with different nationalities can get married in the country. Further, two foreigners from the same nationality can marry in Turkey either in the offices of their own Country’s Embassy or in the Turkish Marriage Offices run by local municipalities. Civil weddings are only recognised by the state. Therefore, please be aware that religious weddings are not enough.

Legal weddings in Turkey must be only recognised as such, when conducted by Turkish authorities and regulated as per the Tukey Civil Code. (Info via: Allaboutturkey)

As per the government of Turkey, conditions for a legal wedding in Turkey are as follows:

1. Capacity To Marry: Minimum age requirements to get married in Turkey is 18. Moreover, mental illness can be a bar to marriage as a person is required to be of sound mental capacity to make fair judgements/decisions to get married.
2. Absence of consanguinity: Marriage between close relatives is prohibited.
3. Already existing marriage: Couples already married cannot enter into a marriage with anyone else. This is due to the fact that monogamy is  one of the fundamental requirements Turkish family law.
4. Waiting period: Married women whose marriage has been dissolved cannot marry before the expiration of three hundred days from the date of dissolution.
5. Sickness/Illness: Certain medical conditions can prove to be obstacles to getting married in Turkey.

To be legally recognized in Turkey you need the following:

1- Petition of the marriage. To start an action the groom and bride must file a petition of the marriage.
2- Passport, Identification card, birth certificate (to be translated in Turkish by the embassy or notary in Turkey)
3- Health certificate (issued only by a state medical institution in Turkey- reports by private clinics not accepted)

Furthermore, A medical examination is required in order to marry. Turkish Bureau of Marriages determine designated medial clinics for the examination. Each marriage bureau will use different clinics for these tests. You will also need to contact the marriage bureau of your choice for the addresses of these clinics. A report of medical examination includes applicant’s blood type and results of blood tests for HIV, Hepatitis B & C, and Syphilis and indicates that the applicant has no contagious diseases.

4- 4 to 6 pictures of the bride and groom.

5- Certificate of Capacity to Marry. (Single, divorce, widow or widowed.) Then, this has to be issued by relevant authorities of your country and to be translated in Turkish (by embassy/consulate). Lastly, notarize it for validity.

Also,each Mayoral District has a marriage bureau. Learn which district your residence falls and pick up a “Marriage Declaration” form (Evlenme Beyannamesi), from the Marriage Bureau.

6- Hotel to issue accommodation data: duration of stay and departure date might come in handy.

(Info credits: Turkish govt website)

To read more about hosting luxury a destination wedding in Turkey, click here.

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