Foreigners Applying for a Marriage at the Sharee'ah Court in Amman

[Zayd 0]

I am a US citizen and my wife is a Pakistani citizen. We will register religious marriage in Jordan. Any thoughts?

My wife and I were married in November 2007 at a religious service in London England. Our contract is in English, and our documents are in English. We plan to visit Amman in March to have the document legally registered in Jordan (where my family is) because we could not register the wedding legally in the UK. We will take our original marriage contract to the Sharee'ah court to do it. We had some questions before buying our plane tickets:

1) Can non-Jordanians marry in the Sharee'ah court?

2) Her father won't be coming to be the wali. Will the court object?

3) Will we be able to just file our original document or will we need to redo the contract?

4) If we can use our original document, does it need to be translated?

5) Are there any other documents we should bring?

6) Are there are other things we should be aware of?

Any help is appreciated. We botched making the contract once already in London so any help to make sure we get it right when we reapply for the CR-1 visa.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I am a US citizen and my wife is a Pakistani citizen. We will register religious marriage in Jordan. Any thoughts?

My wife and I were married in November 2007 at a religious service in London England. Our contract is in English, and our documents are in English. We plan to visit Amman in March to have the document legally registered in Jordan (where my family is) because we could not register the wedding legally in the UK. We will take our original marriage contract to the Sharee'ah court to do it. We had some questions before buying our plane tickets:

1) Can non-Jordanians marry in the Sharee'ah court?

2) Her father won't be coming to be the wali. Will the court object?

3) Will we be able to just file our original document or will we need to redo the contract?

4) If we can use our original document, does it need to be translated?

5) Are there any other documents we should bring?

6) Are there are other things we should be aware of?

Any help is appreciated. We botched making the contract once already in London so any help to make sure we get it right when we reapply for the CR-1 visa.

Welcome to VJ !

I do not have answers to all your questions, but a few:

1. Not sure.

2. Different judges have different ideas -- some are more provincial than others. If your wife is Muslim (and even possibly if she is not) the judge *may* want evidence that her family consents to the marriage. If you and your wife do not object to the idea, can you take a notarized letter of consent from her father ? This would be the easiest route.

3. Not sure

4. You will need all documents translated into Arabic for the Jordanian system.

5. You will need your passports, plus your birth certificates and divorce decrees (if applicable) -- all translated into Arabic. I think non-Jordanian spouses may also have to have a blood test for HIV or certain other medical conditions -- you can take care of this while in Jordan.

6. Not sure

Hopefully the Jordanian crew will be by shortly with more info !

-MK