Marriage at Ministry of Justice, Cairo on 14 Jan 2008

[Ngedwards]

Dear Paris Girl,

Your post was incredibly helpful and I was hoping to ask you for a little wisdom to use in my current situation. My fiance is from Luxor, we have a marriage contract but its not recognised out of egypt, just allows us to travel around egypt together as husband and wife and heps when asked by police if we are married.

We are now planning to actually get married in Cairo with my parents joinging us at the end of November.

My question is, do we need to give notice of intent to marry? In Australia you need to give 3 months notice in London it is 3 weeks.I have had 2 copies of my passport page notarised, as I am an Australian citizen living in London will i also need to get 2 copies of my ancestry visa notarised?

Also, do I need to book appointments for the embassy, ministry of foreign affairs and all other places we will need to go?

How long do you think the entire process will take? I will be in Cairo from the Sunday to the Thursday, do you think this will be enough time?

I have just come back from seeing Ahmed yesterday, we applied for the visitor visa with intent to marry within that 6 months but unfortunately we were refused. We called the british embassy to discuss it but they told us we had to fly to cairo to speak to them in person. When we arrived there the man at the window said there was no one to speak to about this and turned us away saying if we came back at 3pm he would return our original documents to us, sowe are a little disheartened by the whole thing.
Id appreciate any advice you can offer me?


Thank you so so so much,

Nicole

[Gege]

Dear Paris girl or anyone who knows,

Can you help me with the following:-

When you went to get stamps for the residency stamp and marriage certicate stamp how much did you pay for these??

Also I will have all my documents certified before I leave the UK, when you take copies there does my fiance need to get his certified???

Also how much did the MOJ charge you for the civil marriage??? Do you need a interpreter there as I have been told its all in arabic and mine is limited.

You then said after the marriage you got more stamps how much did you pay for these???

Sorry all the questions just wanted a idea on how much you paid so we are not ripped off, as every where I seem to go with him they try to charge him more when they see I am english and it always caused a argument, I don't want this on my wedding day, so if I can get this information before hand he will know.

Thanks in advance.

[Glyphdoctor]

The prices of all the stamps are written on the stamps themselves so you will know how much they cost.

[Robbo70]

Just thought I would update this a little while a few things have changed since it was written. It was still incredibly helpful and most of the details are the same.

You can no longer just go to the consulate office at the British Embassy. You need to go online to the consulate services page for Egypt, go to notorary services and make an appointment. On arriving, they took my paperwork, and within 20 minutes had my statutary declaration finished. I have no idea if this would have taken longer had I been married previously, but for me, it was a very quick turn around of papers.

The stamp in the office of foreign affairs is still 11LE. The family rights stamp from the post office is 50LE.

Now the fun bit. The security guy at the ministry of justice will want to check over all your papers and stamps before you can go through to start the process of the marriage. He will insist on a one month residency stamp. At the mogamma building, they will refuse you a one month residence stamp if you have a visa already in there that is valid for more than one month. ( mine is good until Nov 14) Back at the ministry of justice, security will still tell you its a deal breaker. Ask for a manager, as he will verify the one year visa is fine. This could save you a few trips between the MOJ and Mogamma and a tetchy husband

We got all the papers and stamps in one day. Day 2, we went back to the MOJ. I think Omar parted with around 600LE in backhanders to be seen within 10 minutes of arrival, and to have everything completed in about an hour. There were a few people there to collect papers who had not paid anything and had waited around 10 - 14 days. That should give you an idea of how long to be in cairo and how long before you book a return journey for paperwork.

Once armed with you papers, its back to the Foreign Affairs building for 2 stamps, 22LE, then over to Rameses St, to the Shalla lakari (excuse spelling) for a final stamp, 110LE I think.

The British embassy does not require you register it or require any further involvement. It is now recognised in the UK.

We stayed in Cairo for 4 days, but got everything done in 2 days. I would allow 3 to be on the safe side. It is one hell of a faff and unless you have to be married for the purpose of a visa then I really wouldn't bother.

[Glyphdoctor]

600LE??? Man, that is a huge amount. In 2000 when we got married I think my husband tipped the maazoon 20LE, and we came back the next morning and got the license immediately, no money exchanged.

When I went back a few months later to get the translation done, I was able to get them to speed it up...just by asking.

[Dusak]

Congratulations. You can't put a price on happiness. 14 years ago I could buy a pie and a pint and get change out of a £1.

[Robbo70]

600LE??? Man, that is a huge amount. In 2000 when we got married I think my husband tipped the maazoon 20LE, and we came back the next morning and got the license immediately, no money exchanged.

When I went back a few months later to get the translation done, I was able to get them to speed it up...just by asking.

Not living in Cairo means we had to pay up or travel back. Before going in, and handing any paperwork over, Omar had asked people waiting how long they had been there, how many times etc to guage the waiting period for not paying anything. A man from the west bank had been over 2 weeks, but I suspect being rude to the ladies who determine the wait had delayed his marriage. 2 weeks was around the norm. 1200LE for 2 of us to fly to cairo and back, or 600LE, spread over around 8 different people and 1 hour in the ministry of justice? No contest.

The translation was done in a day without asking them for it to hurry up or paying any extra.

[Robbo70]

Congratulations. You can't put a price on happiness. 14 years ago I could buy a pie and a pint and get change out of a £1.

thank you, and last week I had a coke and a meal for about the same in Luxor. Then I flew back to the UK to the realities of the price of pint here

[A-Four]

thank you, and last week I had a coke and a meal for about the same in Luxor.

Now, now Robbo, for God sake, you've almost gone and told them all of our secret place. Before you know it, the whole of the Luxor ex-pat riff raff will be there, and you, Omar, and my good self, will have to wait ages to get a table,....what?

Then, we have the problem of the proprietor of those, even more so, over-priced European run restaurants, telling us that this venue has no license and the food is s***, and there well known side kicks, on here, that when they visited our new place, they will state how many cockroaches they found in their soup.

I can see it now, this subject is going to run longer than The Mousetrap .

[Glyphdoctor]

Not living in Cairo means we had to pay up or travel back. Before going in, and handing any paperwork over, Omar had asked people waiting how long they had been there, how many times etc to guage the waiting period for not paying anything. A man from the west bank had been over 2 weeks, but I suspect being rude to the ladies who determine the wait had delayed his marriage. 2 weeks was around the norm.

I am pretty sure being from the West Bank had A LOT to do with it. In 2000, men from the West Bank already had a reputation in that office judging by a comment the maazoon made to us, and back then the number of marriages was far, far less than it has gotten over the years. They just need to look at your husband's id and your passport and they can learn a lot about YOUR ability to pay.

[carrie]

Thanks for your update Robbo, I doubt I will ever need the information but it is nice of you to share it for those who do.
Congratulations to you and Omar.

[Robbo70]

Not living in Cairo means we had to pay up or travel back. Before going in, and handing any paperwork over, Omar had asked people waiting how long they had been there, how many times etc to guage the waiting period for not paying anything. A man from the west bank had been over 2 weeks, but I suspect being rude to the ladies who determine the wait had delayed his marriage. 2 weeks was around the norm.

I am pretty sure being from the West Bank had A LOT to do with it. In 2000, men from the West Bank already had a reputation in that office judging by a comment the maazoon made to us, and back then the number of marriages was far, far less than it has gotten over the years. They just need to look at your husband's id and your passport and they can learn a lot about YOUR ability to pay.

You know what Glyph, for the sake of paying out 55 quid or staying in the dirty city of Cairo, it was money well spent. But interestingly, Omar and his cousin had asked people in there how the process went, how long, how much etc first thing, while my passport stayed with me in the hotel. Therefore my ability to pay was not the dealbreaker. If you look at the original poster here, she paid 400 back in 2008 to have it all done in 2 days. I considered 600 a bargain to have it done in an hour. The place was heaving, the paperwork on the desks was mountainous and I skipped through it all.

Just like that old game played round the pool in luxor when a tourist asks how much you pay for something..... the answer is what ever you are happy to pay. Im sure we could have bargained it down further from the 1600. they started at but Omar pointed out, he is from Todd, he doesn't own a bank and that was all he had. Some things in Egypt will never change, and the greed/supply and demand of some services will always have a price on them. BUT... I got a price I was happy to pay and paid it. I don't have to go back to the city any time soon. Job done