South African handwritten marriage certificate acceptable?

[FreshFromTheGrave]

Hi all,

I recently got married (yay!) in South Africa and we want to start applying for my Malaysian wife's UK spouse visa. On the day you get married you get an original handwritten marriage certificate that is fully legal in South Africa (this is the original marriage certificate).

My fellow South Africans will know what a massive time consuming pain it is to get ahold of the unabridged marriage certificates that would ideally be used for visa applications. Does anyone have any experience of applying for spouse visas with the original handwritten certificates? I would also supply the carbon copy of the marriage register from Home Affairs with the certificate.

My feeling is that this is probably fine but if I absolutely have to wait the 6 months+ it takes to get the unabridged certificate then I can do that even though I'd hate to wait that long before applying.

Thanks everyone!

[CR001]

You are overthinking.

There is no requirement to submit an unabridged marriage certificate for a spouse visa. It is required for a UK Ancestry visa though.

The handwritten one and/or the yellow printed abridged one from Home Affairs is sufficient.

[FreshFromTheGrave]

You are overthinking.

There is no requirement to submit an unabridged marriage certificate for a spouse visa. It is required for a UK Ancestry visa though.

The handwritten one and/or the yellow printed abridged one from Home Affairs is sufficient.

Thank you kindly! But yes, chronic overthinker when it comes to visa applications

[CR001]

You are overthinking.

There is no requirement to submit an unabridged marriage certificate for a spouse visa. It is required for a UK Ancestry visa though.

The handwritten one and/or the yellow printed abridged one from Home Affairs is sufficient.

Thank you kindly! But yes, chronic overthinker when it comes to visa applications

Understood

Feel free to ask any further questions you might have and we will aim to calm your 'overthinking'

[gry_va]

Hello,

I'm in a similar position. I want to apply for UK Dependent Visa for my partner.

We have applied for Unabridged marriage certificate but it is taking a lot time to get one

Could you please tell me if your visa Application was successful and in which country did you apply your visa Application.

Thank you

[gry_va]

Also, I'm a Tier 2 General Visa holder and none of us is either a citizen of UK or South Africa

[CR001]

Also, I'm a Tier 2 General Visa holder and none of us is either a citizen of UK or South Africa

So why post your question in a topic that is about a completely different visa category, ie spouse settlement visa???

You should post your questions in the tier 2 sub forum.

[gry_va]

Thanks, I have posted in the right section.

Here is the link, in case someone lands up here

uk-tier-2-employer-sponsored-visas/tier ... 73994.html

[Cjey1985]

Hi, unsure for your visa what you need, however for other UK processes such as kids citizenship etc we had to provide unabridged.

If you contact the person who officiated your marriage they should have a "runner" who for a couple of hundred rand can get your unabridged certificate done in 3 to 10 days.